Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[DarkAlchemist]

Heh, my printer didn't include the glue stick because China confiscated it as Emily said China considers it contraband.

[cncartist]

I vaguely remember the glue stick being hidden somewhere between the foam pieces when I received the package. I had pre-purchased hair spray and a pack of 12 glue sticks prior to the printers arrival so I was ready to go. The glue sticks don't last long anyways so if you are utilizing them, make sure to keep some extra handy.

[talasyn]

The video and description were very helpful. I'm slowly learning

Again, thank you.

Todd

[Shinobi]

How ya like the Prusa I3??

Just ordered an I3 clone. Want to mess around with the Mk8 setup. Figured if nothing else it would be a good knock-around machine to play with while my Qidi's are printing shop stuff.

i also only had a clone. it actually only used it for a few weeks and i realized i wanted something cooler... thats why i bought a creator pro. yeah, i'm impulsive

...and i could sell it for the same price if bought it from china

results were good, but i prefer an enclosed case and the leveling was a bit a pain in the ass

[Shinobi]

ok so i printed the famous boat with standard settings from flashprint and it came out pretty good i think. i have some adhesion problems, but i guess they can be fixed with a glass plate

DSC_0745.jpg


a few minutes ago i wanted to print something else with fast settings (0.3mm) but the first layer already looked pretty bad. there are a lot of "blobs". over extrusion? i also think my bed is now leveled. on the right side the lines are pretty flat and on the left they get much "higher". but when i run the leveling routine, everything looks normal?!

DSC_0746.jpg

[DarkAlchemist]

I vaguely remember the glue stick being hidden somewhere between the foam pieces when I received the package. I had pre-purchased hair spray and a pack of 12 glue sticks prior to the printers arrival so I was ready to go. The glue sticks don't last long anyways so if you are utilizing them, make sure to keep some extra handy.

Nope, no need with this blue stuff that is a PITA to get PLA off of and I haven't tried ABS with it yet as I read it is even worse. The whole thing with a proper bed is that it sticks but not overly sticks and this blue stuff way overly sticks the prints (even in that video I saw the second object being cantankerous). I can't imagine a need of hair spray or glue sticks with it.

Does anyone know why it takes so long to get the nozzle up to temp? It uses a 40W heating cartridge and my I3 used the same 40W but at 24v (for both) the i3 would go from 20c to 200c in about 30 secs and this thing was torture as it took about 3-5 mins which is way too long when using a 40W. If I were in Marlin I would head straight to the PWM controls section in Configuration.h then the autotune PID immediately afterwards but I just don't have such controls with this printer. I did see a PID but there was no autotune so I have no idea what to change them to once I get the rod from China and get it installed.

[cncartist]

The video and description were very helpful. I'm slowly learning

Again, thank you.

Todd

You're quite welcome!

Nope, no need with this blue stuff that is a PITA to get PLA off of and I haven't tried ABS with it yet as I read it is even worse. The whole thing with a proper bed is that it sticks but not overly sticks and this blue stuff way overly sticks the prints (even in that video I saw the second object being cantankerous). I can't imagine a need of hair spray or glue sticks with it.

Does anyone know why it takes so long to get the nozzle up to temp? It uses a 40W heating cartridge and my I3 used the same 40W but at 24v (for both) the i3 would go from 20c to 200c in about 30 secs and this thing was torture as it took about 3-5 mins which is way too long when using a 40W. If I were in Marlin I would head straight to the PWM controls section in Configuration.h then the autotune PID immediately afterwards but I just don't have such controls with this printer. I did see a PID but there was no autotune so I have no idea what to change them to once I get the rod from China and get it installed.

I tested the printer and blue sticker build plate without an adhesion layer (no glue stick) and the ABS print did not stick to the bed ruining the print and the time I put into it. If you have a better method for the blue sticker build plate to share with the group, please do so. "Overly sticks" is a generalization as I'd rather have the print do that than come loose during printing. Please keep in mind the second part removal in the video was me illustrating how to remove a part that does not have an easy or lift access point and I showed how much force can be applied without the part coming loose on purpose. 90%+ of what I print is removed easily when the bed is heated to 60-65 degrees C, like the first part removed in the video.

Not trying to be combative, but I find you talk a lot of "theory" as if you know what to do but the manufacturer built the machine just out of reach for your knowledge base. The answer to your question is: it takes that long to heat up the nozzle, because that is the way the machine works. I don't think it takes too long to heat up (build plate heats first, then extruder heats second), but of course it would be nice if it was a shorter time period as our time here is valuable.

If I was building this machine for general consumers, I wouldn't want to give them access to the firmware either. Why would any manufacturer want to deal with the headache of people messing with the firmware, bricking their printer, and then claiming it just died on them? The manufacturer would find out the firmware was modified by the customer when/if the board is sent back. It's especially troublesome when people feel that they have a grasp on a new printers firmware because they were able to manipulate another printers firmware in the past. Messing with firmware is best for users who have built their own printer and I can't advise anyone to try what you are describing with the Qidi without a working knowledge of the firmware that is on this machine.

EDIT: Professionally I'm well versed at upgrading/modifying/restoring firmware on many types of devices. I have not attempted it on the Qidi yet and wouldn't do so without a full understanding of the firmware restoration process.

[Syd_Khaos]

i also only had a clone. it actually only used it for a few weeks and i realized i wanted something cooler... thats why i bought a creator pro. yeah, i'm impulsive

...and i could sell it for the same price if bought it from china

results were good, but i prefer an enclosed case and the leveling was a bit a pain in the ass

This clone has same 3 post leveling as the Qidi, not sure if the Prusa has it like that or 4 post.
http://www.eastmachinery.com/product...FZY1aQodgH8Ccw
This is the Prusa I3 clone I ordered.
Enclosed seems to be the best way to go to me as well just based on things i read. I have also ordered some lexan sheets and plan on fully enclosing this machine and my quidis, with airflow ports of course.
Its just that the Mk8 nozzles seem to have more readily available range of options than the Mk10s, I really just got this to play around with nozzle sizes for a little cheaper. And like I said before, will be a knock-around machine, or worst case I strip it for parts toward building my own machine...sure would like to take a crack at that before to long.

[KludgeGuru]

Nope, no need with this blue stuff that is a PITA to get PLA off of and I haven't tried ABS with it yet as I read it is even worse. The whole thing with a proper bed is that it sticks but not overly sticks and this blue stuff way overly sticks the prints (even in that video I saw the second object being cantankerous). I can't imagine a need of hair spray or glue sticks with it.

Does anyone know why it takes so long to get the nozzle up to temp? It uses a 40W heating cartridge and my I3 used the same 40W but at 24v (for both) the i3 would go from 20c to 200c in about 30 secs and this thing was torture as it took about 3-5 mins which is way too long when using a 40W. If I were in Marlin I would head straight to the PWM controls section in Configuration.h then the autotune PID immediately afterwards but I just don't have such controls with this printer. I did see a PID but there was no autotune so I have no idea what to change them to once I get the rod from China and get it installed.

I haven't timed the nozzle heating but in my opinion it heats up fast enough. The bed takes much longer to heat then the nozzle does. When I go to start a print I will usually go into the preheat menu and start both the nozzle and the bed heating, this will heat them both up at the same time. I usually have it preheating while I'm working in Simplify3D. By the time I'm ready to print everything has heated up and stabilized. If I take too long in preparing my models to print the printer will timeout and turn off the heaters.

[DarkAlchemist]

I haven't timed the nozzle heating but in my opinion it heats up fast enough. The bed takes much longer to heat then the nozzle does. When I go to start a print I will usually go into the preheat menu and start both the nozzle and the bed heating, this will heat them both up at the same time. I usually have it preheating while I'm working in Simplify3D. By the time I'm ready to print everything has heated up and stabilized. If I take too long in preparing my models to print the printer will timeout and turn off the heaters.

I am used to a long heat up time with my I3 as its heated plate is 200x200 (MK2 style is 219x219 with the heated part 200x200) and 110c was a very long time but I must admit this bed takes about as long to get to 40c as my bed does to 60c on the I3. At first I thought it might be an under powered PSU since the lights flicker in it as it is printing too but at 350 watts my I3's PSU was 360 watts and 10 watts is not enough to account for the long times.

I am starting to think it may be Sailfish that is the culprit here because in Marlin I am fully exposed to all sorts of parameters I could, and I did, control. Not a fast enough heat up time in Marlin? Just go to Configuration.h and change MAX_BED_POWER for the heated bed and BANG_MAX and PID_MAX for the nozzle when using PID mode then run M303 etc... to PID autotune. Bob's your uncle and all done.

I really dislike a system that detaches me from such parameters. I understand the reasoning due to people messing with things they don't grasp and burning down their houses etc... but for someone who knows these things don't detach them. The problem is Marlin is firmly documented if you look but I don't see Sailfish documented for these things that I could easily find.

More than likely I will get this printer working and when the warranty is out I will swap that Mightyboard out for a more tech friendly version of either Ramps 1.4 or move over to the Due or Smoothie boards where I am not as detached.