Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[Syd_Khaos]

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!

Change your connection port.
There should be 2 options by default for port connection, you need the 2nd one for connecting via USB.

[rcleav]

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.

[KludgeGuru]

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.

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.

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.

[rcleav]

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.

[KludgeGuru]

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.

Yeah I have a spare cable, I didn't have time to replace it this morning before work. I like that cable chain, it will be next on the list to print.

[onewickedsvt]

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.

Any recommendations?

[sygyzy]

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.

Any recommendations?

[sygyzy]

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.

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.

[sygyzy]

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).

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.

[KludgeGuru]

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.

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.