I see what you mean but I gave up on those adapters since they were so wrongly sized and don't actually fit properly on the Qidi Tech (only FF I assume). I am surprised they fit for you. Can you take a picture of your setup?
Printable View
Does anyone know how to control the LED light in the Qidi Tech? I assume there's only one light which is the white one on the top front inside of the case. For me it seems like it's always white but I see in the menu there are options to turn on and off the light and to set color. I've tried both of these settings and they don't seem to do anything.
Does anyone know what type of nozzle these machines have? going to experiment with some of the abrasive proto pasta filaments but want to have a spare on hand.
hey guys. just got my qidi!
I downloaded the simplify3d software but am having trouble locating the printer!
Also what model should I choose? I chose FF pro and nada.
Help me!
Yes MK10 nozzles should be the same height. You adjust your hot block/nozzles with the tube connected to them in the cold block.If your going to print with abrasive filaments you may want to look into theses.http://www.micro-swiss.com/#!product...e-cece31e3ba6f
Yup, printed with ABS and PLA. From the Simplify 3d defaults you will want to lower the extruder temperature for PLA to 200-205C. The bed temp should be around 50-60C.
If you have any print quality issues check out their troubleshooting page:
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/p...oubleshooting/
guys I am having a hard time or rather no luck whatsoever getting simplify 3d connect to the printer!
I get fail to connect message over and over!
If your using the usb to the computer it's either you on the wrong computer comm port or the baudrate is wrong.
It's recommended to use an SD Card to print rather then direct connecting to the computer.
I'm having problems with my right (X-Axis) endstop. It isn't stopping. The light goes on so I know the switch is working so there probably is an open in the cable preventing the signal from getting back to the controller board. Doesn't surprise me since those cables have to deal with a lot of movement. Guess I won't be printing today. :(
While I had the machine open I took a look at the LED light strip, it is just a single color LED strip and they have it plugged into the same power as the case fan. There is a port on the control board to plug in an RGB LED so it looks like you can upgrade the LEDs.
Did you get an extra cable with the printer? When you put it back together at least reroute the cables so they don't have sharp bends. This is a common problem with clones and probably why they include a spare cable.
Or print one of these https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:124700. I have one of these on both of my clone printers.
What color LED do you guys have? Mine are Blue. My board has the holes in the board for an LED strip but no header plug there.
Honestly, a SD card is an SD card these days. You have to worry more about performance when you are dealing with high resolution videos on something like a GoPro or fast frame rates on a DSLR. Get any Samsung, Sandisk, Transcend, etc Class 10 card you see on sale on Amazon.
Drats, you already hit the dreaded X-Axis bent cable issue? There's a lot of talk about this on the Google Group for FlashForge. Look at the latest threads and you'll find one I posted in extensively.
Anyone have any idea what sort of RGB LED strip would be compatible? I would love to disconnect the single color one and replace/add the new one that can change colors (ie red for heating, blue for printing, green for done). Just an idea.
Would you mind posting detailed shots of how you re-routed the cables to minimize strain? I would greatly appreciate it.
Edit: My light is white. I saw a post on Thingiverse where a guy hacked together a connector to plug into the board. It looks like he also had to solder in some surface mount resistor/caps (I can't tell).
I took a closer look at the Mighty Board and the schematic. It is not going to be as simple as just connecting an RGB LED strip to the connector. It looks like to save costs they did not populated the RGB driver circuit. To get it to work your going to have to solder some components to the board and you will need some good solder skills/equipment.
Here is what you need:
U15
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...4-1-ND/1125730
U19
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...8-1-ND/2814156
U16, U17, U18
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...1NCT-ND/458954
R113, R114, R115
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...ACT-ND/1180412
They are driving the RGB LED strip from the 24V supply. If you can't find a 24V strip then you could run a 12V strip (which I believe is more common) by adding a small 12V power supply, or hacking on a 12V regulator.
Make sure the RGB LED strip is Common Anode type.
This is all assuming that the firmware is actively trying to talk to the U15 driver, my guess is that it is... unless Qidi purposefully disabled it in the code.
I may eventually try to do this mod. If I do I'll report back my results.
You may be able to use one of these for the voltage reduction.
http://www.amazon.com/Solu-Regulator...5%3A2470955011
Yeah that does not seem trivial.
piece of cake! lol.
Here are some pictures of the drag chain I printed for the X axis cables on my machines.
Attachment 8973Attachment 8974Attachment 8975
Replaced the cable and I'm up and running again. :D Going to start printing the chain parts tomorrow.
Oh interesting. I guess it didn't click that the chain cable has you re-route the cable down to the board directly instead of running up then along the upper right edge, then down the side edge, then down. Makes sense looking at it all of course.
Can you take a picture of how it attaches to your case on the end opposite the endstop and motor? From Thingiverse it looks like you have to drill and screw a few inches up the side. But on yours, I can't tell how it ends.
On the Qidi I used an existing hole about 1/4 of the way up for the mount. On the CTC I drilled a hole lower since it's plywood. I like how the chain on the CTC lays and think I may drill a hole lower in the QIDI so it lays the same. The CTC mount is nearly as low as you can go just above the bottom deck.
Ideally if you read the older clone forums the ideal X axis cable routing is coming out the right rear corner of the machine. This is so you can move in RF generating cables away from the display. To help minimize the RF scramble of the display. As you can see I didn't do that.
Curious what the deficiencies are if you've used both... I've never got to see a FFCP up close. There are a bunch of places I could imagine improvements but specifics would be great. Maybe there's an opportunity to engineer these things with just a little bit of effort.
All that said, it's not a fantastic printer, but it does a good job for my purpose: quick prints of things I dream up in CAD. I put together a BOM and this thing seems to be ~$100 over the low quantity parts I pieced together. Great value for the money with lots of room for improvement.
It actually isn't too bad, but the Creator Pro has a more solid Z axis and platform. Really, that so far is my only concern, but it is a big one because of how flexible the guide rods are. It is silly how easy it is to move the build plate from side to side especially when the platform is in the middle of the travel. I'm not too fond of the metal side plates, but I suppose they will be ok.
Note also that flashforge extruders and thermocouple will not fit the Qidi. The Qidi uses a slightly bigger diameter thermal barrier, and the thermocouple has 5mm threads instead of the 4mm threads on the Flashforge.
Thanks, yes, the bed is the biggest problem I see, too. I'm playing around with that this weekend. I doubt I'll find an easy solution but maybe there's something to be done there. Despite its flimsiness it seems to hold level for a very long time and the ringing on direction changes isn't bad and can be dialed down with software. Hoping to try some hardware solutions.
I have a Qidi bought around Nov. 1, 2015 and it has 4mm thermocouples. They went to the larger thermocouples last december in there latest update. They seem to roll in improvements to the machine several times a year.
I don't really think the thermocouples being a different size makes much difference unless you have multiple machines with the smaller size.
Also check Qidi ebay store there parts can be bought at ridiculously low prices that Flashforge will never match.
I have this designed, getting pricing this week.
Attachment 8982
Part of the problem with the Z axis is how weak the rods are intstalled in the bottom mounts. The Flashforge plastic mounts are stiffer and more material around the rods, even back when they used 8mm rods...
On the Qidi, it might be possible to use a solid resin based epoxy and fill in the cups a the bottom of the z rods. This will help stabilize them. Right now they are like a fence post in a hole that hasn't been filled in.
I tried a less permanent version (see photo - there is a mirror version on the other side). It makes some improvement in ringing on a box test structure, so I think further improvements with either a better printed part than my sketch, epoxy or a redesign will help.
Attachment 8983Attachment 8984
Agreed, most ringing should be due to xy gantry issues. Ringing like that can come from a bad interaction between the xy gantry and build plate... that is the aim of the fix. Since the whole thing is stupidly open loop (like most 3d printers or gantries) better mechanical design can help. This could be shown or disproved by putting IMUs or other sensors for better position sensing on both the extruder assy and the build plate to look at phase differences in their oscillations (this would also bypass the need to generate test prints to test hypotheses)
I would expect more layer over layer registration issues with the z axis having lateral flex like that. The thing is you probably wont notice it until you are in the middle of the Z travel. Items over 50 - 60mm tall should show the effects. Then as the build plate gets closer to the bottom they would go away somewhat.