RE:
The Prusa app is spyware to me, so I'm not touching it. Not even with an eleven foot pole. If the Prusa app becomes semi-mandatory, then I'll happily sell all my Prusa printers and say bye bye to Prusa. How is it useful if you just outright refuse to use the Prusa app?
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
The Prusa app is spyware to me, so I'm not touching it. Not even with an eleven foot pole. If the Prusa app becomes semi-mandatory, then I'll happily sell all my Prusa printers and say bye bye to Prusa. How is it useful if you just outright refuse to use the Prusa app?
There will be NFC readers directly on the printers, integrated in the spool holders. They already gave a sneak peek in some short video.
So I don't think you will need to use the app at all. There certainly should be local functionality within the printer (detecting the filament type). And hopefully there will be some synchronization of information between the printer and PrusaSlicer as well, via PrusaConnect. That's assuming they still have a developer who knows his way around PrusaConnect -- I don't think much has happened at all on that front for at least a year.
RE:
The Prusa app is spyware to me, so I'm not touching it. Not even with an eleven foot pole. If the Prusa app becomes semi-mandatory, then I'll happily sell all my Prusa printers and say bye bye to Prusa. How is it useful if you just outright refuse to use the Prusa app?
There will be NFC readers directly on the printers, integrated in the spool holders. They already gave a sneak peek in some short video.
So I don't think you will need to use the app at all. There certainly should be local functionality within the printer (detecting the filament type). And hopefully there will be some synchronization of information between the printer and PrusaSlicer as well, via PrusaConnect. That's assuming they still have a developer who knows his way around PrusaConnect -- I don't think much has happened at all on that front for at least a year.
I appreciate you mentioning those options. What goes for the app goes for the cloud as well. It's not my cloud, so I'm not feeding it my data. Maybe there is some benefit with PrusaSlicer, but the way that PrusaSlicer is heading on the privacy front, with a lot of tracking and caching and logging about your prints built in without a good way to manage it, PrusaSlicer is becoming less and less appealing with every release.
Basically I don't see any benefits and I couldn't care less about NFC. I see it as a privacy and security risk and a cost burden.
The Prusa ecosystem was great with the MK3S, but it has gone downhill since.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I hadn't really considered the total scope of the data sharing that the printers might be up to. I have the printers on a separate subnet and VLAN, but I think I'll have to review the actual network traffic for these printers, because I'm basically at the point where Prusa is on the black list in terms of privacy.
And please don't get me wrong. I'm not berating or attacking you here. It's just that you are mentioning all the areas of what Prusa has been doing wrong in the areas I care about... 😡
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
No concerns from me. I will be happier when they integrate it into printers.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
Sorry, I got the Prusa terminology mixed up. I meant PrusaLink, not PrusaConnect. That local communication option exists, and I hope that Prusa will continue to maintain it and add the exchange of NFC filament data to it.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
To me using the app is silly (not about privacy, for this use case I don't care) but the whole point of RFID tagging is automatically telling the printer +/- syncing with prusaslicer what is loaded. If I have to pull out my phone and NFC scan the spool, I might as well select the filament type off the menu like we do now. I want to throw the spool on the spool holder and it registers (obviously works better with the dry boxes since then the spool is directly connected to a specific tool number via the PTFE). If I had to scan the spool with the app, and then tell it what tool that goes with, well that's basically no different than now. And not like I can't select PETG off a menu as quickly as their app could.
No concerns from me. I will be happier when they integrate it into printers.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
To me using the app is silly (not about privacy, for this use case I don't care) but the whole point of RFID tagging is automatically telling the printer +/- syncing with prusaslicer what is loaded. If I have to pull out my phone and NFC scan the spool, I might as well select the filament type off the menu like we do now. I want to throw the spool on the spool holder and it registers (obviously works better with the dry boxes since then the spool is directly connected to a specific tool number via the PTFE). If I had to scan the spool with the app, and then tell it what tool that goes with, well that's basically no different than now. And not like I can't select PETG off a menu as quickly as their app could.
These are valid points. Prusa presented a "component" without giving you a way to use it .. or even an indication on how or in what printer model can or will be used. And yes at least i saw a small increase in price. I usually buy from Prusa PETG when the color matters since i like their "pastel" bundle. April 2025 (yes i know is a year back) my invoice says 22.68 without VAT while now is 24.99. Is a very small difference and if this not due to NFC but other reasons i apologize. But the fact remains that , unless there is a blog post i didnt see, the openprinttag is rather useless. At least on my XL or mk3s. And honestly im not sure if it is going to even be implemented on my XL. And no i dont want to buy Prusa's dry boxes. Yes lets be honest here i dont have to use it but its offered so why are we complaining? I guess is the fact that again Prusa advertises stuff that are incomplete and without an indication of when are they going to be completed. Is like it runs after someone and shouts to stop the others before they reach the finish line. And finally this will actually make sense if is adopted by more companies than Prusa. For normal use i buy other brands of filament with equal quality but far lesser price. Im not sure that ill start paying x1.5 Prusabecause now it has an NFC tag... which again i may not be able to use even with their own filaments.
RE:
What goes for the app goes for the cloud as well. It's not my cloud, so I'm not feeding it my data.
I forgot to mention: Prusa actually advertises "no cloud needed" as an advantage of the OpenPrintTag. So there's hope... See https://openprinttag.org/ , right on the start page:
Offline by Design
Every tag carries all the data within itself. Your printer doesn't need to be connected to Wi-Fi or any cloud service to recognize a spool. Everything works locally, always.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
I am not having that issue at all. I just select the filament I want. I would find it more convenient if it did it for me.
To me using the app is silly (not about privacy, for this use case I don't care) but the whole point of RFID tagging is automatically telling the printer +/- syncing with prusaslicer what is loaded. If I have to pull out my phone and NFC scan the spool, I might as well select the filament type off the menu like we do now. I want to throw the spool on the spool holder and it registers (obviously works better with the dry boxes since then the spool is directly connected to a specific tool number via the PTFE). If I had to scan the spool with the app, and then tell it what tool that goes with, well that's basically no different than now. And not like I can't select PETG off a menu as quickly as their app could.
No concerns from me. I will be happier when they integrate it into printers.
--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE:
I asked Tommy to grab an update on this and will discuss it tonight on the hangout session on the discord server https://discord.gg/KqdZJnpz8 tonight (May 4th) at 19:00 CET time and then once that is done I will post the update here on it tomorrow
Shane (AKA FromPrusa)
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
To me this will only work if the printer can actually have all the different materials. I've been printing in 3D Fuel's PCTG and of course that means every print I send causes an "attention" state requiring you to manually accept that PCTG is not PETG... The tag would only work if it had every material.
I am not having that issue at all. I just select the filament I want. I would find it more convenient if it did it for me.
To me using the app is silly (not about privacy, for this use case I don't care) but the whole point of RFID tagging is automatically telling the printer +/- syncing with prusaslicer what is loaded. If I have to pull out my phone and NFC scan the spool, I might as well select the filament type off the menu like we do now. I want to throw the spool on the spool holder and it registers (obviously works better with the dry boxes since then the spool is directly connected to a specific tool number via the PTFE). If I had to scan the spool with the app, and then tell it what tool that goes with, well that's basically no different than now. And not like I can't select PETG off a menu as quickly as their app could.
No concerns from me. I will be happier when they integrate it into printers.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
To me this will only work if the printer can actually have all the different materials. I've been printing in 3D Fuel's PCTG and of course that means every print I send causes an "attention" state requiring you to manually accept that PCTG is not PETG... The tag would only work if it had every material.
You can set a custom material in the printer menu when loading filament (scroll all the way down) , if you type in "PCTG" it prints without additional confirmation