Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[rcleav]

I downloaded it from there site.
https://cloud.simplify3d.com/account/dashboard

[DarkAlchemist]

Has anyone been able to get this update to install?
The 'check for updates' function in S3D says I'm running most current version.

Also...turns out the issue with my machine WAS a short...just took awhile to fully manifest as such. Was working on restoring power to the board last night, talking with Qidi...and then the power connector finally arced.
I think Dark may be onto something....seems like their liberal shipping of waranty parts is starting to take its toll....They asked if I would mind paying the DHL cost on the new board. I am sure they would have sent it anyway if I had said no...but I don't mind paying the shipping at all, better than paying for a new board. Plus I am very happy with the machine and the level of customer support Qidi gives.

Mind sharing how much they charged you? If not no big deal I am just trying to wrap my head around how they can afford to keep sending out all of these parts without going bankrupt.

If you are under warranty I do have to say I am sad to see them ask you to pay for shipping. Really, you didn't take your printer out to the beach for some surf but instead the board malfunctioned within the warranty period (unless you have 10k+ hours on it I am amazed it died this fast on you) so they shouldn't be asking any customer, who is within their warranty period, to pay for shipping. This is not a good sign.

[Syd_Khaos]

It was $20 USD.

Here is why it does not bother at all, not even a little:

Qidi has excellent customer service...better than most places I have to deal with here in the States even.
The machine, despite its few issues, is a great machine for the price.
They asked me if I would mind paying the DHL shipping....they didn't say I had to or anything like that. Had I pressed the point I know I could have gotten them to ship it on their dime. But they asked, rather nice at too.
I have managed places and started 2 fab shops from nothing...I can tell ya from personal experience that what looks good on paper don't always work in practice. It is VERY common practice the world over for a company to chance its pricing structure or company policies to account for market changes, inflation, shipping changes, supply changes....or for any number of other justifiable reasons, none of them being 'not a good sign'.

I did just this thing several months back. The place I used to get 3/4in aluminium pipe went bankrupt. Now I am paying $0.78 more per foot for the exact same stuff. So of course the price of jobs I do using said material has gone up as well.


Do you work for Maker or FlashForge? lol

[DaveB]

I downloaded the new simplify from my login account. Installation was no problem. I was releieved to see that it did not appear to goof with my existing configs. I did select the Qidi Tech printer from their updated process list and have been printing a few simple objects with that new configuration. One thing I notice is at the begining of a print from SD card, the extruder moves to the near-far-left position. I hear a single "clunk" when it hits the left side at the termination of that transit. Also noted that the X and Y stepper drive levels in the GCODE scripts are back to 127.

[DarkAlchemist]

It was $20 USD.

Here is why it does not bother at all, not even a little:

Qidi has excellent customer service...better than most places I have to deal with here in the States even.
The machine, despite its few issues, is a great machine for the price.
They asked me if I would mind paying the DHL shipping....they didn't say I had to or anything like that. Had I pressed the point I know I could have gotten them to ship it on their dime. But they asked, rather nice at too.
I have managed places and started 2 fab shops from nothing...I can tell ya from personal experience that what looks good on paper don't always work in practice. It is VERY common practice the world over for a company to chance its pricing structure or company policies to account for market changes, inflation, shipping changes, supply changes....or for any number of other justifiable reasons, none of them being 'not a good sign'.

I did just this thing several months back. The place I used to get 3/4in aluminium pipe went bankrupt. Now I am paying $0.78 more per foot for the exact same stuff. So of course the price of jobs I do using said material has gone up as well.


Do you work for Maker or FlashForge? lol

I sure don't work for either of those but the fact is no damn company should ask, or tell, you to pay for shipping for something under warranty. Now if it is out of warranty then that is on the customer not the business and most companies will just say tough titty said the kitty.

It really doesn't matter because they can raise their prices all they want to until they become more expensive than the thing they copied it doesn't matter but what matters is just how many parts are having to be replaced in just the first six months of getting a machine for most people. THAT is what I meant by them charging for shipping, now it is asking soon it will be telling, it is not a good sign. It means they are hurting and instead of making a new machine and stop producing the current one which has a lot of QC issues they decide to keep making said machine and asking people, for now, to pay for shipping for parts that are under warranty.

I may be old fashioned but a warranty is meant to cover PARTS and labor for some said amount of time and at no cost to the customer. Paying for shipping while under warranty just adds insult to the injury. Be like a sun roof has flooded your car due to a leak in 3 months after you buy it. Sure it is under warranty but could you pay the shipping for everything? No customer in the right, or left, mind would go for that.

[Syd_Khaos]

Is there a spot to get ribbon cable with same connectors as whats in the Qidi running from CB to the display box?

I have my machine on a table so that the extruder block is comfortable to work on. This makes it so I have to squat down to muck about with the controls on said box and read the display. While I got my machine this much apart I would love to mount that display box on the upper part of the machine.

[okjimmied]

I got the Maghold platform installed a few days ago and have been really happy with it so far. It does make getting a print to release a non-event, that part of the process works perfectly as advertised. In the very worst cases a thin blade spatula can be helpful, in most cases the objects just pop right off. Slightly bowing the plate makes it a piece of cake to slip the spatula edge under a part's corner. I'm using the BuildTak surface that came with the Maghold and PLA with no additional treatments aside from cleaning w/ isopropyl before each print. .

I just installed mine as well. I'm very pleased so far. I've tried both ABS and PLA and while I never had too much trouble releasing PLA in the past, ABS was really challenging. Now with Maghold, it's exactly as you describe...small bend followed by the spatula edge and it pops right off. I thought it was a bit steep in price, but seeing the quality of it, I'm happy with the purchase.

[DaveB]

There are some differences in the S3D Ver 3.1.0 QIDI printer GCODE scripts vs those scripts posted in this forum

GCode in QIDI thread includes: G1 X-100 Y-75 Z30 F9000 ; Move to wait position off table
GCode in S3D has: G1 X-120 Y-70 Z30 F9000 ; Move to wait position off table

GCode in QIDI thread includes: G130 X80 Y80 Z40 A80 B80 ; Default stepper Vref
GCode in S3D has: G130 X127 Y127 Z40 A127 B127 ; Default stepper Vrefs

Also, GCode in QIDI thread has this additional line at the end just before the object's body starts: G92 A0 B0 ; Zero extruders
This line is not present in the S3D script.

[DarkAlchemist]

GCode in S3D has: G130 X127 Y127 Z40 A127 B127 ; Default stepper Vrefs <- Shame on them maxing everything out like that. Kill that and use the one from here.

[DaveB]

There are some differences in the S3D Ver 3.1.0 QIDI printer GCODE scripts vs those scripts posted in this forum

GCode in QIDI thread includes: G1 X-100 Y-75 Z30 F9000 ; Move to wait position off table
GCode in S3D has: G1 X-120 Y-70 Z30 F9000 ; Move to wait position off table

I made this mod to S3D's V3.10 GCode Script and no more clunks.