Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[wirlybird]

For PLA with the stock Qidi blower duct? Yes, the left extruder nozzle gets the best airflow. I've heard of folks doing it, but I've not tried using a blower on ABS yet.

Ok. What is the purpose? Does this help cool the material so it sets faster? Would make sense.

[DaveB]

Ok. What is the purpose? Does this help cool the material so it sets faster? Would make sense.

Yes. So it sets and does not warp.

[wirlybird]

Yes. So it sets and does not warp.

That has got to be it. I can see now even though this one was printing better it is still having issues in the back. Looking closely it is where the fan duct is the furthest and most blocked from the material being laid down. I am going to swap out and see how it goes from the left.

I think I will try the ABS now in the right. Recommendation for a good item for a test ABS print?!

[DarkAlchemist]

So, its not just my Qidi that ignores those.

It is not and my scope is half a house away so I cannot test but I suspect there is no PWM being fed or if it is it is at full throttle because S1-S255 there is absolutely no difference in fan speed. Already hard defeating the printing mechanism to test this since there is only on and off via the front panel for the fan and apparently in the firmware too. I have Stwert intrigued he is going to test it as well but he was in a print.

Seriously, this works on other Mightyboards with a real Sailfish so that can only mean Qidi effed something up in the firmware and let me tell you a gale force wind from that blower even PLA would not stick. I mean I only ever used 100% on my I3 when doing a bridge and anything over 40% was too much. Now on a standard fan, not a cage blower, 100% is fine.

7.8 needs to be removed and the real 7.7 installed but not a soul has done it that I could find. Going up from a non SF version to the current version of SF at the time but never trying to go to the real SF.

How this has never been found out means most people only take it for granted OR are using only ABS but it is seriously unacceptable to have a 100% fan for even PLA.

Now I did do some digging and if you send the printer the fan command without the S it is at full speed so I wonder if they effed up the parser section so it ignores the S portion of it?

I really can't stand this compiled code and wish this was gcode so some solid testing could be done because I do not know if it is the Qidi or is it S3D? I immediately ran to the software given on the SD card but no fan commands on either.

[DaveB]

It is not and my scope is half a house away so I cannot test but I suspect there is no PWM being fed or if it is it is at full throttle because S1-S255 there is absolutely no difference in fan speed. Already hard defeating the printing mechanism to test this since there is only on and off via the front panel for the fan and apparently in the firmware too. I have Stwert intrigued he is going to test it as well but he was in a print.

Seriously, this works on other Mightyboards with a real Sailfish so that can only mean Qidi effed something up in the firmware and let me tell you a gale force wind from that blower even PLA would not stick. I mean I only ever used 100% on my I3 when doing a bridge and anything over 40% was too much. Now on a standard fan, not a cage blower, 100% is fine.

7.8 needs to be removed and the real 7.7 installed but not a soul has done it that I could find. Going up from a non SF version to the current version of SF at the time but never trying to go to the real SF.

How this has never been found out means most people only take it for granted OR are using only ABS but it is seriously unacceptable to have a 100% fan for even PLA.

Now I did do some digging and if you send the printer the fan command without the S it is at full speed so I wonder if they effed up the parser section so it ignores the S portion of it?

I really can't stand this compiled code and wish this was gcode so some solid testing could be done because I do not know if it is the Qidi or is it S3D? I immediately ran to the software given on the SD card but no fan commands on either.

I've got what's probably an ignorant question you may be able to clear up: The three GCODE setup scripts we've been using are associated with the left, right or both extruders. I know you and I have previously discussed that setting everything to 127 seemed inappropriate. I'm not sure what everyone else has done, but I've compromised with the following:

G130 X80 Y80 Z40 A80 B80 ; Default stepper Vrefs

OK, to the point... I've noticed that when I print on a single extruder, both extruder feed stepper motors get quite warm. As two of these scripts are unique to Left or Right extruder use, would it make sense to put the unused extruder's stepper Vref into an idle state?

G130 X80 Y80 Z40 A80 B20 ; Default stepper Vrefs (with the unused extruder in idle)

I've made a bunch of assumptions here, am I correct that A and B are the extruder steppers? Is A the Right extruder and B the Left? What is the downside to doing this?

[DarkAlchemist]

A is the right extruder and B is the left extruder and set them to 55-60 and live better for it. X/Y=50-55 as anything more the motors get hot and I do mean hot (especially X because Y has the metal bracket it is attached to so in effect the bracket, then the case, becomes a big heatsink so it will always be cooler than the one with all plastic holding it up).

If you never use A then set it to 0 (or heck even 1 or 10 etc.... because current is still going to that motor even if it is not turning so you save on power consumption too).

[DaveB]

A is the right extruder and B is the left extruder and set them to 55-60 and live better for it. X/Y=50-55 as anything more the motors get hot and I do mean hot (especially X because Y has the metal bracket it is attached to so in effect the bracket, then the case, becomes a big heatsink so it will always be cooler than the one with all plastic holding it up).

If you never use A then set it to 0 (or heck even 1 or 10 etc.... because current is still going to that motor even if it is not turning so you save on power consumption too).

I will give cutting the unused extruder Vref back a try and let you know what I find. We might also consider changing the Qidi Example GCode that is posted on this BB. For what it's worth, with my Qidi set at Vref=80 the X and Y stepper motors run about 30C to 42C under heavy use. The extruder steppers both get to about 50C, even the unused one.

[DarkAlchemist]

I will give cutting the unused extruder Vref back a try and let you know what I find. We might also consider changing the Qidi Example GCode that is posted on this BB. For what it's worth, with my Qidi set at Vref=80 the X and Y stepper motors run about 30C to 42C under heavy use. The extruder steppers both get to about 50C, even the unused one.

You are lucky with those numbers.

[Stwert]

It is not and my scope is half a house away so I cannot test but I suspect there is no PWM being fed or if it is it is at full throttle because S1-S255 there is absolutely no difference in fan speed. Already hard defeating the printing mechanism to test this since there is only on and off via the front panel for the fan and apparently in the firmware too. I have Stwert intrigued he is going to test it as well but he was in a print.

Seriously, this works on other Mightyboards with a real Sailfish so that can only mean Qidi effed something up in the firmware and let me tell you a gale force wind from that blower even PLA would not stick. I mean I only ever used 100% on my I3 when doing a bridge and anything over 40% was too much. Now on a standard fan, not a cage blower, 100% is fine.

7.8 needs to be removed and the real 7.7 installed but not a soul has done it that I could find. Going up from a non SF version to the current version of SF at the time but never trying to go to the real SF.

How this has never been found out means most people only take it for granted OR are using only ABS but it is seriously unacceptable to have a 100% fan for even PLA.

Now I did do some digging and if you send the printer the fan command without the S it is at full speed so I wonder if they effed up the parser section so it ignores the S portion of it?

I really can't stand this compiled code and wish this was gcode so some solid testing could be done because I do not know if it is the Qidi or is it S3D? I immediately ran to the software given on the SD card but no fan commands on either.

Ok, so not that I'd need to but I can confirm what DA is saying, with the Qidi it's all or nothing no matter what you try for the cooling fan.

I've been doing some digging on the matter and it seems we need two things for it to work. A compatible Sailfish and it seems we're running the unreleased beta (well alpha really) version of it. The last update of which was 8 days ago. But digging through the code on GitHub (though not too extensively, I've only had an hours sleep) it seems we should have PWM control regardless of which 7.8 alpha Qidi has chosen to use. Although there should be an option available on the LCD in the utility's for the cooling fan as well and we're missing that, so I don't know what Qidi is up to.

So other than that the only other possible suspects I can think of is that we're missing the FET on the motherboard to regulate the speed.
I can't rip my printer apart until the wife gets out of bed to go to her work but I'm going to have a look when she does.
Or Qidi have removed the option in the firmware, in which case flashing the latest 7.8 should rectify the matter.

I've reached out to Qidi for clarification to find out which alpha they have used and just what they have to say about the lack of speed control. Though I doubt there will be a reply on a Sunday.

Ohhhhh, I do enjoy a mystery, ha.

[DarkAlchemist]

Ok, so not that I'd need to but I can confirm what DA is saying, with the Qidi it's all or nothing no matter what you try for the cooling fan.

I've been doing some digging on the matter and it seems we need two things for it to work. A compatible Sailfish and it seems we're running the unreleased beta (well alpha really) version of it. The last update of which was 8 days ago. But digging through the code on GitHub (though not too extensively, I've only had an hours sleep) it seems we should have PWM control regardless of which 7.8 alpha Qidi has chosen to use. Although there should be an option available on the LCD in the utility's for the cooling fan as well and we're missing that, so I don't know what Qidi is up to.

So other than that the only other possible suspects I can think of is that we're missing the FET on the motherboard to regulate the speed.
I can't rip my printer apart until the wife gets out of bed to go to her work but I'm going to have a look when she does.
Or Qidi have removed the option in the firmware, in which case flashing the latest 7.8 should rectify the matter.

I've reached out to Qidi for clarification to find out which alpha they have used and just what they have to say about the lack of speed control. Though I doubt there will be a reply on a Sunday.

Ohhhhh, I do enjoy a mystery, ha.

Emily is there on a Sunday but she will say she has to ask the "engineer" who has about as much brain power as does some moss on a dead log.

I firmly believe that a lot of the functionality in SF was removed by them because their product lacks a lot of things and/or they are too afraid of allowing the masses to have that much control but a lack of fan speed control takes the cake. Unless there is a missing FET (I think you will see there isn't unless I skipped over it though at the time I wasn't concerned about this) then they borked the code with their dodgy programming skills. It has already been shown, numerous times, they do NOT know wth they are doing and are just playing it by ear.


edit: This is not that easy to look through as Marlin but here is for the fan -

#if defined(COOLING_FAN_PWM)
if ( fan_pwm_enable ) {
// fan_pwm_counter is uint8_t
// we expect it to wrap such that 255 + 1 ==> 0
if ( ++fan_pwm_counter == 0 )
fan_pwm_counter = 256 - (1 << FAN_PWM_BITS);
EX_FAN.setValue(fan_pwm_counter <= fan_pwm_bottom_count);
}
#endif

I wonder if they have that toggled off?

I may have found the issue -

#if defined(COOLING_FAN_PWM)

void Motherboard::setExtra(bool on) {
uint16_t fan_pwm; // Will be multiplying 8 bits by 100(decimal)

// Disable any fan PWM handling in Timer 5
fan_pwm_enable = false;

if ( !on ) {
EXTRA_FET.setValue(false);
return;
}

// See what the PWM setting is -- may have been changed
ATOMIC_BLOCK(ATOMIC_RESTORESTATE) {
fan_pwm = (uint16_t)eeprom::getEeprom8(eeprom_offsets::COOLI NG_FAN_DUTY_CYCLE,
COOLING_FAN_DUTY_CYCLE_DEFAULT);
}

// Don't bother with PWM handling if the PWM is >= 100
// Just turn the fan on full tilt
if ( fan_pwm >= 100 ) {
EXTRA_FET.setValue(true);
return;
}

// Fan is to be turned on AND we are doing PWM
// We start the bottom count at 255 - 64 and then wrap
fan_pwm_enable = true;
fan_pwm_bottom_count = (255 - (1 << FAN_PWM_BITS)) +
(int)(0.5 + ((uint16_t)(1 << FAN_PWM_BITS) * fan_pwm) / 100.0);
}

Something tells me they have it messed up in the internal eeprom due to this line -

// See what the PWM setting is -- may have been changed
ATOMIC_BLOCK(ATOMIC_RESTORESTATE) {
fan_pwm = (uint16_t)eeprom::getEeprom8(eeprom_offsets::COOLI NG_FAN_DUTY_CYCLE,
COOLING_FAN_DUTY_CYCLE_DEFAULT);
}

I bet a dollar to a donut they stupidly set that to 255, or it is gibberish and was not set therefor faking the code to think it is >=100. This is the part of the eeprom we can't see and are always told not to mess with else brick city.