Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[rcleav]

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 mode. 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

[sygyzy]

Yeah that does not seem trivial.

[onewickedsvt]

piece of cake! lol.

[rcleav]

Would you mind posting detailed shots of how you re-routed the cables to minimize strain? I would greatly appreciate it.
.

Here are some pictures of the drag chain I printed for the X axis cables on my machines.

IMAG0504.jpgIMAG0505.jpgIMAG0506.jpg

[KludgeGuru]

Replaced the cable and I'm up and running again. Going to start printing the chain parts tomorrow.

[sygyzy]

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.

[rcleav]

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.

[jfkansas]

Well it isn't exactly a Creator Pro. Some significant quality differences...

so 649 for a creator pro and lots of bits. Can't see how you'll beat that :-)
Now go print something !

[jfkansas]

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!

Why are you trying to connect the printer? You should only connect the printer to update software and make firmware changes. Normal operation should be to copy files to the SD card to print. I rarely have my printers connected to a computer...

[mtnride]

Well it isn't exactly a Creator Pro. Some significant quality differences...

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.