[ { "id": "anycubic", "name": "Anycubic", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Anycubic runs two firmware families and they are not equally open. The K3/GoKlipper family (Kobra 3, Kobra 3 V2, Kobra 3 Max, Kobra S1, Kobra S1 Max) is Klipper-derived, and on 2025-10-15 and 2025-10-30 Anycubic published GPL-3.0 source for the Klipper MCU firmware, its Golang klippy port ('Klipper-go'), the Linux kernel and U-Boot at github.com/ANYCUBIC-3D, naming exactly Kobra 3, Kobra 3 V2, Kobra 3 Max and Kobra S1. The community Rinkhals custom firmware installs on all five of those machines (README dated 2026-09-01). The newer K4 family (Kobra X, and by naming the Kobra 4) moved to a C++ Klipper port whose SWU update packages are gated by RSA signature verification, and Rinkhals states plainly that the Kobra X is 'Not supported ... blocked by SWU RSA signature verification'. Anycubic has published no firmware source for Kobra X, Kobra 4, Kobra S1 Max or Kobra 3 Max V2. Anycubic Slicer Next is an OrcaSlicer derivative and its source was published under AGPL-3.0 on 2026-01-30. No account is required in order to print: the Kobra S1 LAN guide documents adding a printer over the local network 'without an account', but turning LAN mode on disconnects the cloud, disables the phone app's remote control and disables AI spaghetti detection, and only Anycubic Slicer Next can drive the LAN connection. Filament is RFID-preferential rather than locked: third-party spools work but must be identified by hand.", "notes": "Two storefronts. store.anycubic.com is the global store and banners US buyers over to us.anycubic3d.com, the dedicated US store; on 2026-09-06 the US store was cheaper on most machines (Kobra X $279 versus $299, Kobra S1 Max $599 versus $699, Kobra S1 Max Combo $799 versus $899). Every price in this file is the US store's. All of them were captured during Anycubic's '11th Anniversary' sale, so price_is_promo is true almost everywhere and the compare-at list prices are recorded in msrp_usd. Free express shipping to mainland USA from a US warehouse on printers and accessories with no minimum: 1 business day processing plus 3-8 business days transit. Warranty is the store-wide '1-Year Warranty For 3D Printers' badge with a 14-day no-reason return and a 30-day after-sales guarantee; no separate refurbished warranty term is published on the refurbished listing. Support is routed through a web help form and a support center rather than a US phone line, so 'US-based staff' could not be confirmed - the US-warehouse-plus-parts rating rests on the shipping policy and on the depth of the spare-parts catalog. Spare parts are sold individually and cheaply (printhead assemblies $49.99-$90, hotends and nozzles $11-$15.99, extruders $19.99-$23.99, ACE 2 Pro sub-assemblies $16.99-$25.99), and documentation lives at wiki.anycubic.com. DELIBERATE OMISSION: the Kobra 3 Max V2 and Kobra 3 Max V2 Combo are NOT in this file. Their US store page is badged 'Early Bird / Pre-sale' and Anycubic's own shipping page for the series gives a US-warehouse estimated shipping date of September 10-20, i.e. after the 2026-09-06 run date, so they cannot be bought and delivered today and the study's INCLUDE_PREORDER rule excludes them outright. For the record the pre-sale prices were $429 bare, $569 with one ACE 2 Pro and $788 with two; the Phase 0 census had listed the Combo at $429, which was the bare machine's price.", "source_ids": [ "src-anycubic-us-store-pj", "src-anycubic-us-all-pj", "src-anycubic-us-all-pj2", "src-anycubic-us-shipping-policy", "src-anycubic-us-contact", "src-anycubic-github", "src-rinkhals-community", "src-anycubic-wiki-ks1-lan", "src-anycubic-refurb-kobra-s1-combo", "src-anycubic-kobra-3-max-v2", "src-anycubic-kobra-3-max-v2-shipping" ], "unverified": [ "us_support_staffing_detail", "refurbished_warranty_term" ], "_file": "anycubic.json" }, { "id": "bambu", "name": "Bambu Lab", "hq_country": null, "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 24, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "State as of 2026-09-06, and every clause here is dated because Bambu's policy has moved twice in eighteen months. (1) Firmware is proprietary and closed; Bambu Studio, the slicer, is open source under AGPL on GitHub, but a GitHub issue opened 2025-02-28 alleges the authorization/authentication code added in Bambu Studio 1.10.02.76 was never published, and that issue was still being cited in Bambu's own forum in May 2026. (2) In January 2025 Bambu began rolling out a printer-control authorization mechanism, X series first, then P and A series: binding, firmware updates from other software, remote video, printer control, and STARTING A PRINT from any software other than Bambu Studio now require authorization in both cloud mode and ordinary LAN mode, and third-party slicers are expected to route through Bambu's 'Bambu Connect' middleware. MQTT status pushes (which is what community Home Assistant integrations consume) and printing from card storage were explicitly exempted. (3) After community pushback Bambu added Developer Mode, which can only run under LAN Only, cannot connect to Bambu Cloud, and restores unauthenticated MQTT, FTP and live-stream access so unmodified third-party software works; Bambu stated on its forum in May 2026 that Developer Mode is available but unsupported. (4) On 2026-05-08 Bambu published a forum announcement confirming it had asked GitHub to remove an 'OrcaSlicer-BambuLab' fork that injected falsified client identity metadata to reach Bambu's private cloud, while stating it fully respects the AGPL and has no objection to OrcaSlicer or other legitimate forks; the community response in that thread was hostile and cited the AGPL source-completeness issue above. (5) Filament is not locked: Bambu RFID auto-configures Bambu spools and any other brand is set up manually. (6) Support lifecycle is published and generous: when the X1 series reached end of life on 2026-03-31, Bambu committed to feature updates to 2027-05-31, security patches to 2029-05-31 and spare parts to 2031-03-31.", "notes": "US store ships from a US warehouse within 1-3 business days, free shipping on printers and AMS units to the 48 contiguous states, 30-day returns (extended from 14 days on 2026-08-14), 30-day price protection, and a 2-year warranty badge on every product page including the officially refurbished ones. Bambu sells individual spare parts through a dedicated US spare-parts collection (40+ line items on 2026-09-06, including mainboards, heatbed units, extruder parts and panels), which is why spare_parts_sold_individually is true and documentation_quality is 'full' - wiki.bambulab.com carries per-model manuals, maintenance procedures, FAQ pages and the LAN/Developer Mode guides cited throughout this file. hq_country is left null: no first-party 'About Us' page could be retrieved (bambulab.com/en/about-us returned HTTP 403 through the fetch channel on 2026-09-06) and the brief forbids filling it from memory. us_support is recorded as 'US warehouse + parts' on the strength of the shipping policy and the spare-parts catalog; no independent measurement of support RESPONSIVENESS was found, so do not read this field as a service-quality claim. Two current US models are deliberately absent from the printers list as over-stretch: the H2C, whose cheapest variant is $2,199 ($2,336.44 with Massachusetts tax), and the H2D, which IS captured as a census row but has no configuration because its cheapest variant ($1,549 bare, $1,645.81 all-in) already exceeds the $1,600 stretch ceiling before any AMS. The X1, X1 Carbon and X1E are absent because Bambu discontinued them on 2026-03-31 - see known issue ki-bambu-x1-series-eol.", "source_ids": [ "src-bambu-shipping-policy", "src-bambu-spare-parts", "src-bambu-p2s-store", "src-bambu-refurb-p1s-store", "src-bambu-wiki-third-party", "src-bambu-wiki-dev-mode", "src-bambu-forum-cloud-statement", "src-bambu-blog-x1-eol" ], "unverified": [ "hq_country" ], "_file": "bambu.json" }, { "id": "creality", "name": "Creality", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "partial", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Creality ships 'Creality OS', a Creality fork of Klipper, on the K1/K2/Hi/SPARKX lines, and publicly advertises root access and an expert mode on its own K2-series and Hi product pages (both retrieved 2026-09-06). Sources for the K2-series Klipper fork are published at github.com/CrealityOfficial/K2_Series_Klipper (repository live 2026-09-06); a community participant records that the K2 sources were released on 2025-12-19, while another argues in the same thread that the repository is an 'alibi' publication built on a three-year-old code base without build scripts. Tom's Hardware reports (2025-01-29 for the K2 Plus, 2025-12-08 for the K2 Pro) that Creality Cloud is optional, that files can be sent over LAN or USB, and that the full Fluidd web UI is reachable at http://:4408. Tom's Hardware also noted on 2025-09-07 that the Hi's source had not been released at that date. There is no evidence of filament locking, firmware signing or account-gated printing on any Creality machine as of 2026-09-06. One community report (dated 2026-01-04) describes firmware 1.1.4.8 as unusable with a recommended downgrade to 1.1.3.13, so firmware quality, not firmware freedom, is the live risk here.", "notes": "US entity: store.creality.com, phone +01 833 513 5012, store@creality.com / cs@creality.com, US returns address in Baytown, TX (return policy retrieved 2026-09-06). Spare parts and consumables (hotends, extruder assemblies, PEI plates, ceramic heater blocks, nozzle kits, PTFE kits, individual screws) are listed as buyable accessories on the US product pages, which is why spare_parts_sold_individually is true. documentation_quality is set to 'partial' rather than 'full' deliberately: wiki.creality.com exists and returns per-product pages (the CFS page and a CFS-nano i7 assembly guide were both confirmed to exist on 2026-09-06) and the SPARKX i7 FAQ blog is genuinely detailed, but the wiki body is JavaScript-rendered and could not be captured, so its depth was NOT verified. us_support is recorded as 'US warehouse + parts' on the structural facts (US warehouse, US phone, parts catalog); the responsiveness of that support is a separate matter and is captured as known issue ki-creality-support-quality. Every printer price below is a store list price and a store sale price captured side by side on 2026-09-06; price_is_promo is true wherever a struck-through list price is shown. Ender / CR line, as observed on 2026-09-06: the US store's 3D-printers collection lists only the Ender-5 Max ($749, list $849) and the Ender-3 V3 SE ($199, list $219) from that family; Ender-3 V3 KE, Ender-3 V3 Plus, Ender-3 V4, CR-10 SE and K1 SE appear in creality.com's global navigation but not on the US store collection page. Per the assignment these were not chased and no records were created for them; none of them has a CFS/CFS-C path listed on any Creality page I fetched. Also observed but out of scope: creality.com's site banner on 2026-09-06 promotes a 'Meet the K3' flagship and a 'New' Ender-3 V4, neither of which is on the US store's 3D-printer collection page.", "source_ids": [ "src-creality-store-collection", "src-creality-return-policy", "src-creality-k2-series-specs", "src-creality-hi-specs", "src-creality-github-k2", "src-github-k2-source-discussion", "src-toms-k2plus", "src-toms-k2pro", "src-toms-hi", "src-creality-store-i7autofill" ], "unverified": [], "_file": "creality.json" }, { "id": "elegoo", "name": "Elegoo", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Elegoo publishes its FDM printer firmware source on GitHub under GPL-3.0: elegooofficial/CentauriCarbon (repo created 2025-09-26) and elegooofficial/CentauriCarbon2 (created 2026-03-11). Those releases followed public pressure from groups seeking transparency about the firmware; All3DP reported on 2025-10-03 that the released code 'appears to validate concerns that the firmware is a heavily modified version of Klipper'. No retrievable source dates the start of that campaign, so no start date is claimed here (All3DP serves only the headline and standfirst to non-browser clients; that is all that could be captured on 2026-09-06). ElegooSlicer is published under AGPL-3.0 and was last pushed 2026-09-03. Elegoo also publishes its filament RFID tag data structure (ELEGOO-RFID-Tag-Guide). No firmware signing, filament lock-out or account-to-print requirement was found on the Centauri line as of 2026-09-06; printers ship with an explicit LAN-Only toggle and USB printing always works. The cloud service itself is unreliable - see ki-elegoo-cc2-cloud-connectivity. No source repository exists for the Centauri 2 released 2026-06-24.", "notes": "The US operation is a real one: us.elegoo.com ships domestically in 3-7 business days from a US warehouse, free over $50, and sells individual spare parts down to motherboards ($49.99), extruder control boards, touchscreens, nozzle kits and extruder gears. Support is ticket / e-mail / AI-chat with a wiki (wiki.elegoo.com) that carries a page per error code. Responsiveness is mixed in owner reports: a 2026-08-16 Amazon reviewer had a camera and cable replaced quickly and rated support five stars, while a 2026-08-19 reviewer described weeks-long parts waits and an unresponsive Las Vegas repair center. Elegoo's 'Certified Pre-Owned' listings ($259-$419) are explicitly NOT refurbished, carry no warranty and cannot be returned - excluded from this study as used-market stock (ki-elegoo-preowned-no-warranty).", "source_ids": [ "src-elegoo-shipping-policy", "src-elegoo-warranty-policy", "src-elegoo-accessories-json", "src-github-elegoo-cc-firmware", "src-github-elegoo-cc2-firmware", "src-github-elegoo-slicer", "src-github-elegoo-rfid", "src-all3dp-elegoo-gpl", "src-prnewswire-cc2c-launch", "src-elegoo-preowned-cc2c", "src-amazon-cc2c-reviews" ], "unverified": [], "_file": "elegoo.json" }, { "id": "flashforge", "name": "Flashforge", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "partial", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Flashforge ships modified Klipper on its current FDM machines and publishes no source for the newest ones. Community modders confirmed Klipper under the Creator 5 Pro and gained root in approximately July 2026; Flashforge support declined a direct GPLv3 source request for that machine in the same month. The older Adventurer 5M / 5M Pro have a mature unofficial open path - three separate projects (xblax Klipper Mod, Forge-X / DrA1ex-ff5m, Z-Mod / ghzserg-zmod, READMEs retrieved 2026-09-06) give patched Klipper, Moonraker, Mainsail/Fluidd and SSH root - which risks the warranty. Z-Mod additionally names the AD5X, Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro among its supported machines (2026-09-06). The required slicer, Flash Studio, is a Flashforge fork of OrcaSlicer, and OrcaSlicer itself is listed as compatible. Printing from a USB drive needs no account; LAN printing from the desktop slicer works without the cloud, but the printer exposes no browser UI at its IP address (Tom's Hardware, 2026-07-13) and the Flash Studio mobile app requires a Flashforge account and printer binding (Flashforge, 2026-09-06). No filament RFID lock-in or third-party-filament restriction was found as of 2026-09-06; Flashforge's own filament profiles are, however, the only ones tuned for low purge on the Creator 5.", "notes": "Warranty: 12-month limited warranty on 3D printers, 3-month on FFF extruder parts, running from the outbound date (or the invoice date if a clear invoice is supplied); build plates, filament, tools and accessories are excluded (Flashforge Warranty and Returns Policy, retrieved 2026-09-06). REFURBISHED UNITS GET 3 MONTHS, not 12 - see ki-flashforge-refurb-warranty-shorter. Returns: printers only, 30 days from delivery, original packaging, customer pays return shipping unless the fault is a quality issue. Support is email-only (customer@flashforge.com / support@flashforge.com) with stated hours of 09:00-17:00 US Central and a 12-hour average response; no US phone line was found, so 'US warehouse + parts' here means US/local-warehouse stock and an individually-priced spare-parts catalog (nozzles, extruders, screens, fans, build plates, HEPA filters, cables all listed), not US-based support staff. Spare-parts depth is genuinely good and is one of the brand's real strengths. Documentation is 'partial': Flashforge runs a public wiki (support.flashforge.com) and a Download Center, both linked from every store page (retrieved 2026-09-06), but no service manual or exploded parts diagram was located for the Creator 5 series during this pass. AUDIT NOTE 2026-09-06: an earlier version of this file attributed a 'documentation was thin' finding to Tom's Hardware (2026-07-13); that review does not say that and the attribution has been removed. What Tom's Hardware does say is that 'the slicer profiles need work' and that the purge setting is 'buried pretty deep in the slicer'. One commercial habit worth knowing: Flashforge lists a 'sale' price against a higher 'regular' price on effectively every printer and then advertises a further automatic discount at checkout ($100 on the Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro, $50 on the AD5X, as of 2026-09-06). Treat the regular price as fiction and the sale price as the real one.", "source_ids": [ "src-ff-warranty", "src-ff-shipping", "src-ff-products-json", "src-ff-ad5x", "src-ff-ad5m-refurb", "src-reddit-c5p-klipper", "src-github-ad5m-klipper-mod", "src-toms-creator5", "src-ff-flash-studio", "src-ff-creator5", "src-github-zmod", "src-github-forgex", "src-orcaslicer-ff-profiles" ], "unverified": [ "us_phone_support", "refurbished_warranty_months_for_ad5x" ], "_file": "flashforge.json" }, { "id": "imports", "name": "InfiMech / FlyingBear", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "email-only", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "partial", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 both machines in scope run Klipper and both vendors leave the Klipper configuration files open to the owner - the Hoffman Engineering review (2026-08-24) edits config to enable SCREW_TILT_ADJUST and hooks the printer into a third-party print-logging service, and the ChuchaTV3D Ghost 7 walkthrough (2026-05-31) says the same. Control is over the LAN through a browser (Fluidd) plus an SD card slot; no account, cloud service or filament authentication was found on either machine on 2026-09-06, and both reviewers printed third-party filament without restriction. Firmware and manuals are NOT published as a versioned download page or a source repository: InfiMech's 'Download Center' (retrieved 2026-09-06) is four Google Drive folder links (TX, EX, Orca, InfiMech-Orca), and FlyingBear's site has per-model download centers for Reborn 2/3, Ghost 5/6, S1, Aone, Aone 2, Shine 2, LaserX and Laserman but NONE for the Ghost 7. One restrictive clause exists: InfiMech's warranty page (retrieved 2026-09-06) says 'Issues caused by refresh other Firmware with no warranty', i.e. flashing your own firmware voids the warranty. No firmware-signing, cloud-mandate or filament-lock policy change was found for either brand in this pass (2026-09-06).", "notes": "SINGLE BRAND RECORD FOR TWO NAMEPLATES, ON PURPOSE. InfiMech and FlyingBear are almost certainly the same operation, and the file would be misleading if it pretended otherwise. Evidence, all retrieved 2026-09-06: (1) both About pages print the identical trading entity and address - 'Company Name: TELOS TRADING LIMITED, 134 Corfield St, London, England, E2 0DS'; (2) InfiMech's spare-part listings for the EX sit on FlyingBear URL handles (e.g. 'flying-bear-3d-printer-ghost7-model-5015-cooling-blower-fan-parts' titled 'InfiMech EX ... Cooling Blower Fan Parts'), and FlyingBear's store sells parts titled 'InfiMech EX'; (3) the two upstream OrcaSlicer vendor profiles describe the same machine - 'FlyingBear Ghost7 0.4 nozzle' and 'InfiMech EX 0.4 nozzle' match on printable area, height, max speed, max acceleration, nozzle type and fan config; (4) two independent Reddit commenters (2026-07) and one editorial outlet (Domechy, 2026-07-27) say InfiMech is a FlyingBear sub-brand. The InfiMech EX and the FlyingBear Ghost 7 are recorded as separate printers because they are sold as separate SKUs at different prices with different shipping, but treat them as one machine when reasoning about reliability. SUPPORT REALITY: email only (jojo@ / support@ on each domain), stated hours Monday-Friday 09:00-18:00 GMT+8, which is roughly 21:00-06:00 US Eastern; a +86 phone number; a UK-registered shell as the merchant of record; no US-based staff and no US repair depot found. Owner reports on response time contradict each other - see ki-imports-support-response-variable. Spare parts are a genuine strength: both stores sell hotends, extruder modules, gears, belts, bearings, thermistors, fans, touchscreens and PEI plates individually and cheaply. EXCLUDED FROM THIS FILE: the InfiMech MX / MX Pro toolchangers. They are a Kickstarter campaign fronted by a $5 refundable reservation on InfiMech's own store, with no campaign date as of 2026-07-27 (Domechy) - INCLUDE_PREORDER excludes them outright.", "source_ids": [ "src-infimech-about", "src-fb-about", "src-infimech-contact", "src-infimech-aftersales", "src-fb-warranty", "src-infimech-products-json", "src-fb-products-json", "src-orca-infimech-profile", "src-orca-flyingbear-profile", "src-reddit-infimech-owners", "src-domechy-infimech", "src-infimech-download-center", "src-fb-download-center" ], "_file": "imports.json" }, { "id": "kits", "name": "Whole-printer kit vendors", "hq_country": "Portugal (Rat Rig) and China (Formbot / Jinhua Xinke 3D Technology Co., Ltd., Jinhua, Zhejiang)", "us_support": "email-only", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "partial", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 there is nothing here of the kind that makes headlines elsewhere, and that is the whole point of this category. Every machine in this file runs Klipper. Rat Rig ships RatOS 2.1 (Rat-OS/RatOS, GPL-3.0, last pushed 2026-06-27 per the GitHub API on 2026-09-06); Formbot ships stock Klipper on a BTT Manta M8P V2.0 with a CB1 for the Voron kit, and Klipper on the Troodon. None of them has a vendor cloud, a required account, a firmware-signing scheme, or filament RFID or authentication, as of 2026-09-06. Print jobs go over the local network to Moonraker; the browser UI (Mainsail or Fluidd) is served by the printer itself; OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer can upload straight to it. There is no mechanism by which either vendor could later restrict third-party slicers or filament, because the firmware is GPL and the configuration files live on the buyer's own single-board computer - an unwanted change is declined by simply not applying an update. The corresponding risk is the exact inverse of the Bambu Lab firmware-authorization story: not that the vendor changes the rules, but that nobody is responsible for making the machine work in the first place. See known issue ki-kit-no-assembly-warranty.", "source_ids": [ "src-ratos-github", "src-ratrig-warranty", "src-ratrig-vcore41-us", "src-formbot-information", "src-formbot-voron24", "src-formbot-troodon350", "src-voron2-github-api", "src-vorondesign-home", "src-3dpos-troodon", "src-fabreeko-ldo-voron-kits", "src-west3d-boxturtle-ldo", "src-armoredturtle-bt-vendors" ], "unverified": [], "notes": "THIS RECORD COVERS TWO COMPANIES AND ONE COMMUNITY PROJECT, because the Phase 1 schema allows exactly one brand object per file and the assignment unit is 'whole-printer kit vendors'. Read every brand-level field with that in mind. hq_country names both companies. us_support is 'email-only' because neither has a US support entity - Rat Rig answers from Portugal Monday to Friday through a contact form, Formbot answers from Zhejiang by e-mail, Skype and Discord - even though Formbot does offer a United States ships-from warehouse option on its products, which is a logistics fact rather than a support one. warranty_months is 12 because both point there from different directions: Rat Rig publishes an explicit 1-year parts-only warranty for customers outside the EU, and the only warranty figure found anywhere for Formbot is a US reseller's 'One Year' listing, since Formbot publishes no warranty page of its own. Neither warrants an assembled kit's performance. documentation_quality is 'partial' as a blended judgment. Rat Rig's is genuinely full - a public wiki, a Dozuki step-by-step guide with community comments, a public Google Sheets bill of materials, Autodesk CAD for all nine size and kinematics combinations, and panel DXFs on GitHub. VORON's own assembly manual is excellent. Formbot's kit-specific documentation is the weak link and its buyers say so - see ki-formbot-voron24-docs-config-gap. spare_parts_sold_individually is true for both: Rat Rig's 219-product catalog is mostly individual parts down to single brackets and 2.04 USD splitter PCBs, and Formbot maintains per-model spare-parts collections. The VORON 2.4 itself has no manufacturer at all - it is a community design published by VORON Design under GPL-3.0 - which is precisely why a Box Turtle counts as its first-party multi-color path. AUDIT 2026-09-06: that reasoning applies to the VORON kit ONLY. It was previously extended to the two Formbot Troodons, which are Formbot-built pre-assembled machines with a manufacturer, and that has been reversed: both Troodon configurations are now bare printers with no_multimaterial_path true. The full reasoning is in the notes on addon formbot-boxturtle-afc-kit. COVERAGE - OTHER VORON KIT VENDORS, CHECKED ON AUDIT 2026-09-06. The coverage census names LDO, Siboor and Fysetc alongside Formbot and plans a cfg-voron-trident-ldo-ercf 'if a US reseller price is captured'. None of them appeared anywhere in this file, with no exclusion reason, so the check was run. LDO does not sell direct; its Voron kits are sold by US resellers. Fabreeko on 2026-09-06 lists the LDO Voron 2.4 R2 Rev D+ kit at 1299.99 USD for 300 mm and 1399.99 USD for 350 mm, and the LDO Voron Trident R2 kit at 1199.99 USD for Rev D 250 mm (every 250 mm variant unavailable) and 1274.99 USD for Rev D+ 300 mm; both listings carry preorder wording - 'Preorder Info: Estimated arrival mid to late September' and 'Preorder expected to ship by mid to late September'. A vetted US vendor (West3D) sells the Box Turtle AFC kit at 299.99 USD. The cheapest currently-available LDO Voron 2.4 or Trident plus a Box Turtle is therefore 1274.99 + 299.99 = 1574.98 USD pre-tax = 1673.42 USD all-in, over the 1600 USD stretch ceiling before printed parts, and the listings are pre-orders, which INCLUDE_PREORDER excludes outright. Two loose ends are left for Phase 2 rather than guessed at here: West3D also lists an LDO Voron V0.2-S1 Complete Kit at 614.99 USD, in stock, which with a 299.99 USD Box Turtle would be 914.98 USD pre-tax / 972.16 USD all-in and inside the budget - a 120 mm cube machine that the coverage census never named and that no record in this repo covers; and Fysetc's products.json page 1 still shows parts only, while Siboor's own site was unreachable in Phase 0 and was not re-attempted. Sources: src-fabreeko-ldo-voron-kits, src-west3d-boxturtle-ldo.", "_file": "kits.json" }, { "id": "phrozen", "name": "Phrozen", "hq_country": "Taiwan", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "partial", "firmware_policy_summary": "State as of 2026-09-06. The Arco runs Klipper, and Phrozen publishes the source: github.com/phrozen3d hosts an official Klipper fork (GPL-3.0, last updated 2026-05-28), a Moonraker fork described as 'customized for ARCO FDM 3D printers' (GPL-3.0, last updated 2025-09-10), the Phrozen_ARCO repository (AGPL-3.0, 2026-05-28) and PhrozenOrca, their Orca Slicer fork (AGPL-3.0, last updated 2026-09-03). Firmware ships as USB zip images or over the air; the newest Arco build offered on 2026-09-06 is V1.9.9, released 2026-04-22, and the upgrade path is staged - anything below V1.7.7 must go through V1.7.7 first, and Phrozen warns that installing the wrong image 'may render the printer unusable'. From V1.7.7 the local Klipper web backend moved to port 8808. No account requirement, no filament RFID or DRM, no firmware signing gate and no cloud dependency for local printing were found in any source. The one policy change of the period is software, not lock-in: Phrozen discontinued its own PIXUP FDM Slicer ('No longer supported. Please use Phrozen Orca Instead', software page retrieved 2026-09-06) in favor of the open Orca fork - see ki-phrozen-pixup-discontinued.", "notes": "Phrozen Technology (PHROZEN TECH CO., LTD.), Hsinchu, Taiwan. Historically a resin/MSLA company - the Sonic Mini, Mighty and Mega lines - and the Arco is its first and, as of 2026-09-06, only FDM printer; the entire rest of the US catalog is resin printers, scanners and consumables. us_support is recorded as 'US warehouse + parts' on this evidence: Amazon holds and fulfils US inventory of both the Arco and the Arco+Chroma bundle from an Amazon fulfilment center (T1, 2026-09-06), and the Phrozen US store lists twelve individual ARCO spare parts - hotend module, extruder motor, X/Y belt set, PEI plate, PTFE tubes, cutters, nozzle socks and wipers, heat-pipe modules - most of them in stock. Two caveats a reader should hold: Amazon stock was only three units of each SKU, and where the Phrozen US store itself ships from is not stated anywhere, only that it takes about a week and reaches the mainland US only. Support runs through a Zendesk help center and support@phrozen3d.com; one owner reports reaching support by telephone, and was told to post an eMMC chip back to be reflashed. documentation_quality is 'partial': there is a real English user manual (v1.3.5), PentaShield and Chroma Kit installation guides, a dedicated Arco help-center category with troubleshooting articles, and published firmware release notes - which is more than many brands offer. Against that, both independent reviewers called the printed instructions weak and parts of the on-screen setup unexplained, the vendor's own Chroma Kit troubleshooting article was rated helpful by 6 of 42 readers, product pages still advertise a discontinued slicer, and the English manual PDF has no extractable text layer.", "source_ids": [ "src-phrozen-us-productsjson", "src-phrozen-us-arco", "src-phrozen-github", "src-phrozen-hc-firmware", "src-phrozen-software-page", "src-phrozen-manual-index", "src-amazon-arco", "src-amazon-arco-chroma-bundle", "src-phrozen-hc-chroma-troubleshoot", "src-fauxhammer-arco-review", "src-vogman-arco-review", "src-reddit-any-arco-users" ], "unverified": [], "_file": "phrozen.json" }, { "id": "prusa", "name": "Prusa Research", "hq_country": "Czech Republic", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Prusa remains the openness benchmark and nothing in this study contradicted that. Printer firmware (Prusa Buddy, covering MINI/MK4/XL/CORE One) is public on GitHub and actively developed - last push 2026-08-28 - and the MMU3 firmware is a second public repo; the March 2026 MMU3 speed update shipped as an ordinary GitHub release of printer firmware 6.5.3 and MMU3 firmware 3.0.4. Prusa's CORE One+ page states plainly: 'CAD files are published. Firmware source code is on GitHub. You can inspect, modify, or compile your own version. No locked bootloaders, no cloud dependency.' PrusaSlicer is open source, OrcaSlicer carries stock Prusa profiles and can upload straight to PrusaLink or Prusa Connect, and printing needs no account at all - USB drive out of the box, or PrusaLink's local web UI and local API over the LAN with a password read off the printer. Prusa Connect (cloud) is optional and only for control from outside the LAN. No filament RFID lock-in, no firmware-signing restriction and no announced policy change was found as of 2026-09-06.", "notes": "Money and logistics, which are the things most likely to be got wrong here. (1) Every e-shop order still ships from the Czech Republic (Prusa KB, retrieved 2026-09-06), despite Prusa's new Delaware factory. (2) US checkout runs through Global-e as Merchant of Record, and for the USA 'import duties and taxes are included directly in the product prices... you'll always see the final prices. Only local taxes (such as sales tax) may be added at checkout.' The 15% US tariff in force since 2025-08-07 is therefore already inside the sticker price. (3) The prices a JavaScript-free scrape reads off prusa3d.com ($1,202.78, $925, $740, $591.66, $508.33) are the CSS-HIDDEN pre-Global-e base values - the page ships a rule '[data-ge-price] { visibility: hidden; }' and Global-e's script swaps in the real number. The real US prices are 8% higher and end in 9: $1,299, $999, $799, $639, $549. Every price in this file is the Global-e figure, cross-checked against each page's own product JSON-LD. (4) Shipping is charged separately and Prusa publishes no rate card; the site's live cart message offers free shipping if an assembled CORE One or MK4S is in the basket. (5) US warranty is 12 months, not the 24 months EU consumers get - the KB puts the USA in 'the rest of the world'. (6) US support: 24/7 English live chat plus e-mail (3-business-day reply) from Prague, backed by Printed Solid in Delaware, which is Prusa's own subsidiary and the official US repair center holding Prusa's tools and spare parts - hence 'US warehouse + parts'. Printed Solid also sells the machines, but consistently dearer than ordering direct (CORE One+ Gen 2 $1,449 vs $1,299; MMU3 Enclosed $499 vs $399). (7) Spare parts are sold individually down to single plastic parts at $4.99, and documentation is the best in the category: step-by-step assembly manuals, a deep knowledge base and published CAD.", "source_ids": [ "src-prusa-help-shipping", "src-prusa-help-vat-customs", "src-prusa-help-globale", "src-prusa-help-warranty", "src-prusa-help-support", "src-prusa-help-printedsolid", "src-prusa-github-buddy", "src-printedsolid-products", "src-prusa-coreone-product", "src-prusa-gtc", "src-orcaslicer-prusa-profiles", "src-ha-prusalink" ], "unverified": [], "_file": "prusa.json" }, { "id": "qidi", "name": "QIDI Tech", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 QIDI ships Klipper on every current model, with Moonraker and the Fluidd web UI, and documents SSH login (user 'mks', password 'makerbase') on its own wiki. QIDI publishes GPL/AGPL source for its Klipper fork, its Moonraker fork, QIDI Studio and several per-model firmware packages on github.com/QIDITECH. There is no account requirement for LAN or USB printing, no filament lock-out, and the QIDI Link cloud client can be disabled. Two caveats, both current at 2026-09-06: (1) per-model source publication lags shipped firmware - the newest published QIDI_PLUS4 release is Plus4_v1.7.1 (2025-08-06) while one Plus4 owner reports the machine offering a 1.8.2 update on-device in 2026 (r/3Dprinting, 2026-07-03; a single report, not a survey), QIDI_MAX4 has no tagged release at all, and there is no QIDI_PLUS5 or QIDI_Q2C repository; (2) the Klipper modules that drive the QIDI Box have not been located in any published repository, a point raised by an OrcaSlicer contributor on 2026-01-01.", "notes": "hq_country is a T5 inference: QIDI's own US shipping policy (retrieved 2026-09-06) calls China 'our main warehouse' and describes the US sites as 'local warehouses'. No corporate-address page was located, so the inference is flagged rather than asserted from a registration document. us_support is set to 'US warehouse + parts' on two T1 facts: QIDI states it keeps local US warehouses for 3D printers, and its US store sells individual spare parts (motors, driver boards, screens, extruders, hotends, hubs) for every current model. Support itself is email/ticket based through @qd3dprinter.com addresses; QIDI's own GitHub README states a 12-hour target response. No independent measurement of support responsiveness was found, so no claim is made about it. documentation_quality 'full' rests on wiki.qidi3d.com carrying per-model manuals, troubleshooting and maintenance procedures, plus downloadable per-model TDS sheets and public firmware repositories.", "source_ids": [ "src-qidi-us-shipping", "src-qidi-us-warranty", "src-qidi-us-products-json", "src-qidi-github-q2", "src-qidi-github-plus4-releases", "src-qidi-github-org", "src-qidi-wiki-q2-fluidd", "src-orca-issue-11671" ], "unverified": [], "_file": "qidi.json" }, { "id": "snapmaker", "name": "Snapmaker", "hq_country": "China", "us_support": "US warehouse + parts", "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": "full", "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06 Snapmaker's stated policy on the U1 is partial openness. On 2026-04-02 Snapmaker published its modifications to Klipper, Moonraker and Fluidd as GPL-3.0 repositories (github.com/Snapmaker/u1-klipper, u1-moonraker, u1-fluidd), saying it had changed roughly 20% of Klipper and over 15% of Moonraker; the Klipper and Moonraker repos were last pushed to on 2026-08-25 (GitHub API, re-checked 2026-09-06; 2026-09-02 is only the repo-metadata timestamp), so they still track the shipping product. In the same announcement Snapmaker stated that certain advanced capabilities (intelligent flow-rate auto-calibration, defect detection) are 'independently developed modules' that are NOT derived from those projects and are therefore not published, and on 2026-04-01 a Snapmaker staff member said there is no plan to merge the work into upstream Klipper. The complete shipping firmware image (Linux kernel, touchscreen app, updater) is not published either; a community member asked for it on 2026-04-02 and got no commitment. No account is required to print: the printer has an official LAN Mode and accepts G-code from a USB flash drive. Snapmaker has not, as of 2026-09-06, introduced firmware signing, filament locking or a cloud requirement of the kind Bambu Lab shipped in 2025; its own filament carries RFID for convenience only and third-party filament works (independently confirmed by PCMag on 2026-06-10 using Cookiecad PLA/TPU/ABS).", "notes": "Shenzhen Snapmaker Technologies Co., Ltd. (developer name on both the Google Play and Apple App Store listings, retrieved 2026-09-06). US operation runs a dedicated US storefront (us.snapmaker.com) fulfilling from a US warehouse with 1-2 business day dispatch and 2-7 business day delivery to the 48 states, AK and HI; free shipping over $89. Warranty is 12 months on machines and modules, excluding limited-warranty items and consumables; a paid extension ('Snapmaker Care for U1', $99) adds 12 months. Spare parts are unusually well stocked for a consumer brand: on 2026-09-06 the US store listed individual U1 main control board ($89.99), heated bed ($84.99), extruder unit ($33.99), extruder motor ($18.99), toolhead PCB ($23.99), touchscreen ($18.99), camera kit ($17.99), belts, fans, thermistors and wipers. Documentation is a full public wiki (wiki.snapmaker.com) plus a Discourse support forum where Snapmaker staff post. Support responsiveness is the weak spot - see ki-snapmaker-support-inconsistent.", "source_ids": [ "src-snapmaker-u1-store", "src-snapmaker-us-products-json", "src-snapmaker-forum-firmware-github", "src-snapmaker-wiki-orca-qsg", "src-snapmaker-playstore", "src-apple-appstore-lookup", "src-pcmag-u1-review" ], "_file": "snapmaker.json" }, { "id": "ultimaker", "name": "UltiMaker", "hq_country": null, "us_support": null, "warranty_months": 12, "spare_parts_sold_individually": true, "documentation_quality": null, "firmware_policy_summary": "As of 2026-09-06: UltiMaker's SLICER stack is genuinely open source and actively maintained - Cura is LGPL-3.0 and CuraEngine is AGPL-3.0, both with commits inside the week of 2026-09-06 (github.com/orgs/Ultimaker, retrieved 2026-09-06). PRINTER FIRMWARE is a different matter: the only firmware repositories visible in UltiMaker's GitHub org on 2026-09-06 are Ultimaker-2-era Marlin forks (UltimakerMarlin, GPL-3.0, last pushed 2021-04-07; UM2.1-Firmware, GPL-3.0, last pushed 2021-09-07). No source repository for S-series or MakerBot Sketch firmware was found there on 2026-09-06, so firmware openness is recorded as unverified rather than assumed either way. The MakerBot Sketch's documented print file format is the proprietary .makerbot and its bundled software is the cloud-based MakerBot CloudPrint (makerbot.com spec page, retrieved 2026-09-06). No filament-authentication, firmware-signing or cloud-mandate policy CHANGE was found for either machine during this pass (2026-09-06); absence of a found change is not evidence that none occurred.", "notes": "UltiMaker sells direct at store.ultimaker.com (Magento) as well as through resellers such as MatterHackers and Newegg; the coverage audit's note that 'ultimaker.com shows no prices' is true of the marketing site but NOT of the store subdomain, which publishes schema.org Offer prices and a working Add to Cart. Direct-store prices were used as T1 in this file and cross-checked against MatterHackers. The MakerBot brand footer reads (c) 2011-2025 MakerBot Industries, LLC (makerbot.com, retrieved 2026-09-06), a US entity; UltiMaker's own HQ country was not established from any page fetched in this pass, so hq_country is null rather than assumed. warranty_months=12 is the S3's stated included warranty ('Includes one year of free warranty', MatterHackers, retrieved 2026-09-06) and paid UltiMakerCare extensions are sold on top ($799 for 1 year on the S3); the Sketch's warranty term was not established and may differ. spare_parts_sold_individually=true is evidenced by individually priced Print Core AA ($169), Print Core BB ($169), glass print bed ($55) and silicone nozzle covers ($35-$55) on MatterHackers, retrieved 2026-09-06. us_support and documentation_quality are left null: a support knowledge base exists at support.makerbot.com / support.ultimaker.com and a US reseller page exists, but no page establishing US staffing levels or overall doc completeness was fetched in this pass.", "source_ids": [ "src-um-store-s3", "src-um-store-sketch-basic", "src-um-store-shipping", "src-mh-s3", "src-makerbot-sketch-standard", "src-um-github" ], "unverified": [ "hq_country", "us_support", "documentation_quality" ], "_file": "ultimaker.json" }, { "id": "unranked-misc", "name": "Various (unranked, no first-party multi-color path)", "hq_country": null, "us_support": null, "warranty_months": null, "spare_parts_sold_individually": null, "documentation_quality": null, "firmware_policy_summary": null, "notes": "This is a HOLDING PEN, not a real manufacturer. It groups printers from many different brands (Sovol, Elegoo, LulzBot/FAME 3D, Peopoly, LDO/Positron3D, Geeetech, Longer, FLSUN, Entina, AOSEED, Toybox, SUNLU/Kidoodle, Robo 3D, BIQU/BigTreeTech) that share one thing: no first-party multi-color path as of 2026-09-06. They are captured here only so the tool's unranked section shows them instead of silently omitting them; they are never scored. The real manufacturer name is the first word(s) of each printer's model string. This is a lightweight pass: only id, brand_id, model, status, prices+sources, motion_system, build_volume_mm, enclosure, firmware and source_ids were attempted. Every other field is null and listed in that printer's unverified array. Known-issue research was explicitly out of scope. AUDIT PASS 2026-09-06 changed the roster: Prusa MINI+ and Creality Ender-3 V3 SE were REMOVED from this file because they duplicate richer rows in prusa.json and creality.json (the duplicate ids failed validate.py's cross-file guard G1, and this file's MINI+ price of $508.33 was Prusa's ex-VAT figure, not the $549.00 US checkout price in the page's own JSON-LD offer). Kidoodle MiniBox A1 lost its price and its configuration because the figure recorded was an Amazon USED-condition offer. Seven models flagged 'unranked' by the coverage census but missing from every Phase 1 file were added: Longer LK10 Plus, FLSUN V400 Max, FLSUN SR, FLSUN V400, AOSEED X-Maker Joy, Robo E4 and BIQU Hurakan. (Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro was also missing and was added here during the audit, then withdrawn when a concurrent pass added it to elegoo.json at the same $259.99 \u2014 elegoo.json owns that row.) STILL MISSING, deliberately, for want of unambiguous evidence: Comgrow T300/T500 (listed on Sovol's store under product_type 'Refurbished Printers', so new-unit condition is unclear), MakerBot Sketch Sprint (no price published), and Longer's discontinued sold-out legacy line (LK4, LK4 X, LK4 Pro, LK1, Cube 2).", "source_ids": [ "src-sovol-pj" ], "unverified": [ "hq_country", "us_support", "warranty_months", "spare_parts_sold_individually", "documentation_quality", "firmware_policy_summary" ], "_file": "unranked.json" } ]