this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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Sounds like a load of nonsense. They'd have to somehow get this code into your slicer.
2d printers already print yellow dots which contain information about the printer for tracking purposes.
The question isn't whether a manufacturer would play ball (or be compelled to) it's whether it's possible to do in a way where the information persists and doesn't compromise the functionality of the print.
I think it's bad, to be clear. I just think it's not unreasonable to imagine manufacturers including that capability from the factory.
Which manufacturers are you talking about? The ones making the electronics without firmware? The open source firmware which anyone can install or modify? The open source web interface that anyone can install or modify? The open source slicers where anyone can use any slicer they wish to (and also are used to generate gcode used on multiple different machines)?
There is simply no point in this chain where something like this would be enforceable
Can you share which electronics don't have firmware? I'm using a BambuLabs machine that certainly does. Any machine that's supposed to work right out of the box would.
I understand you to be saying it's possible to 3D print with an open source stack, which is good it's at least possible vs most 2d printing. But that's a very different thing than imagining a scenario where most 3d printers come from a store with this sort of fingerprinting enabled.
Just search for 3d printer board. As just one example the SKR range of boards from Bigtreetech com without firmware.
Most consumer printers these days come with open source firmware on them. For example the Ender series, or all creality printers, all Prusa printers, etc.
Bambulabs is just one of the very few examples that run a closed source firmware.
I see what you're saying, thanks. They come with firmware, but it's open source. What I'm saying is it's not hard to imagine a scenario where governments say "for public safety, we now require every manufacturer to modify their firmware to include this fingerprinting" And even in that scenario individuals could still probably manage to install clean versions. But it becomes much more of a nuisance and the most common arrangement would be people deciding it's not worth the hassle.