Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[slaine]

Hi all... New on this forum, as my interest in 3D printing seems to ebb and flow, loosely linked to how many blockages or bad prints I get

I've had a Qidi Tech 1 for a few years, and had some moderate success with it, however, recently, I had problems with the right extruder... Stripped it down (yet again...) and it turned out to be a fried stepper motor controller module, then a dodgy connector on the stepper motor cable. Then I also noticed that extruder 0 wasn't wotking, and after some probing around (I'm a trained electronics engineer, so don't worry ) seems like the atmel chip has had a couple of pins fried...

So.
Option 1 was to buy a new atmel chip, and resolder it, but I was concerned that reprogramming it might be poorly documented/traumatic
Option 2 was to look out for a new controller board... seem to be few and far between, and expensive!
Option 3 was to bite the bullet and upgrade the controller board...


I went with option 3, as I like a challenge... So got a BTT SKR 1.3 installed now, with the TMC2209 driver modules. Still have a few more 'upgrades' to do, as it didn't like the stock thermocouples, and still have a bit of an issue with trying to use the stallguard homing on the board, but slowly getting there...

So, after the long waffle, just curious if others have successfully modified the base model, and what problems (with fixes hopefully) did they encounter?

(Forgive me if this is covered previously, but only just joined, and didn't relish wading through all the previous posts for potentially no gain...)

[DarkAlchemist]

Hi all... New on this forum, as my interest in 3D printing seems to ebb and flow, loosely linked to how many blockages or bad prints I get I've had a Qidi Tech 1 for a few years, and had some moderate success with it, however, recently, I had problems with the right extruder... Stripped it down (yet again...) and it turned out to be a fried stepper motor controller module, then a dodgy connector on the stepper motor cable. Then I also noticed that extruder 0 wasn't wotking, and after some probing around (I'm a trained electronics engineer, so don't worry ) seems like the atmel chip has had a couple of pins fried... So. Option 1 was to buy a new atmel chip, and resolder it, but I was concerned that reprogramming it might be poorly documented/traumatic Option 2 was to look out for a new controller board... seem to be few and far between, and expensive! Option 3 was to bite the bullet and upgrade the controller board... I went with option 3, as I like a challenge... So got a BTT SKR 1.3 installed now, with the TMC2209 driver modules. Still have a few more 'upgrades' to do, as it didn't like the stock thermocouples, and still have a bit of an issue with trying to use the stallguard homing on the board, but slowly getting there... So, after the long waffle, just curious if others have successfully modified the base model, and what problems (with fixes hopefully) did they encounter? (Forgive me if this is covered previously, but only just joined, and didn't relish wading through all the previous posts for potentially no gain...)

I look at mine sitting here for years now doing nothing and was wanting to do this. Get rid of the Mightyboard and use my SKR but in my case I need a new heater board (probably go for silicone pad) since it burned up a long time ago and became wonky at best (thanks to this machine not liking ABS). How did you handle the Thermocoupler vs a Thermistor for the nozzle? SKR wants a Thermistor and the Mightyboard wants a Thermocoupler. I don't 3d print much anymore as I had nothing but issues no matter what I purchased but I would like to get this back up working at some point.

[slaine]

I look at mine sitting here for years now doing nothing and was wanting to do this. Get rid of the Mightyboard and use my SKR but in my case I need a new heater board (probably go for silicone pad) since it burned up a long time ago and became wonky at best (thanks to this machine not liking ABS). How did you handle the Thermocoupler vs a Thermistor for the nozzle? SKR wants a Thermistor and the Mightyboard wants a Thermocoupler. I don't 3d print much anymore as I had nothing but issues no matter what I purchased but I would like to get this back up working at some point.

It's still a work in progress, but I've got some new heater blocks on order, so that I can use the glass bead type thermistors. Should be here tomorrow, so then hopefully I can get it all back together, and start the fun part of configuring it properly in the Marlin software... I feel your pain about having problems with 3D printing. I pretty much gave up on it too, but having far too much time on my hands during this lockdown/furlough situation made me look at it again. After I found the failed control board issue, I actually bought another machine, a Geeetech A20M. Pretty cheap, and so far performing quite well, which gave me the incentive to fix up the qidi. It was always a well built machine, but I felt some of the components were a bit 'economy'. Having to rip it apart and rebuild pretty much all the electrical side of it has been very useful in terms of understanding how it all works, and hopefully that will translate into understanding the preparation of the models to print too... So assuming I get it all working again, I hope to have better printing succes with it

[DarkAlchemist]

It's still a work in progress, but I've got some new heater blocks on order, so that I can use the glass bead type thermistors. Should be here tomorrow, so then hopefully I can get it all back together, and start the fun part of configuring it properly in the Marlin software... I feel your pain about having problems with 3D printing. I pretty much gave up on it too, but having far too much time on my hands during this lockdown/furlough situation made me look at it again. After I found the failed control board issue, I actually bought another machine, a Geeetech A20M. Pretty cheap, and so far performing quite well, which gave me the incentive to fix up the qidi. It was always a well built machine, but I felt some of the components were a bit 'economy'. Having to rip it apart and rebuild pretty much all the electrical side of it has been very useful in terms of understanding how it all works, and hopefully that will translate into understanding the preparation of the models to print too... So assuming I get it all working again, I hope to have better printing succes with it

Where did you getthe thermistor heater blocks from as that would solve that issue?

I was about to bite the bullet and buy a resin 3d printer but the thought that after < 100 hours of usage I have to keep replacing the LCD panel in them I just said no to that. I do not want a LCD panel to be considered a consumable as that is just flat out wrong and not something we should be doing in 2020. What happens, so I have read, is that the UV slowly destroys the panels and they have made better panels to get around 500 hours out of them now instead of about 70h but even then 500h is nothing (the panels are about half the cost of a new printer).

[slaine]

Where did you getthe thermistor heater blocks from as that would solve that issue? I was about to bite the bullet and buy a resin 3d printer but the thought that after < 100 hours of usage I have to keep replacing the LCD panel in them I just said no to that. I do not want a LCD panel to be considered a consumable as that is just flat out wrong and not something we should be doing in 2020. What happens, so I have read, is that the UV slowly destroys the panels and they have made better panels to get around 500 hours out of them now instead of about 70h but even then 500h is nothing (the panels are about half the cost of a new printer).

Just ordered some heater blocks from Amazon... Pretty cheap, and if they're not fit for purpose, it's no great loss... It's all a bit trial and error, but that's the best way to learn

[Kahenraz]

Does anyone have a Qidi Tech 1 that they no longer use? I'm looking to buy used parts to fit my unit which came with 8mm rods on the Z axis with 10mm rods that some people got with the later models.

[DarkAlchemist]

Does anyone have a Qidi Tech 1 that they no longer use? I'm looking to buy used parts to fit my unit which came with 8mm rods on the Z axis with 10mm rods that some people got with the later models.

I haven't used mine in years and years and honestly I no longer 3d print as it left a very sour taste in my mouth so I finally left it. If I need to one off something I will but mine came with the 8mm then they made the upgrade shortly after. To be honest it would be far cheaper, and faster, to purchase some rods and the bearings but the issue will come in with the plate as the holes for the bearings are not large enough so you will have to ream them out then that leads to the three mounting holes that then need to be drilled out. Qidi-tech, the last time I looked, had replacement parts on eBay though the last time I looked was in 2019. I don't think the price for that plate is expensive and I would suggest buying it from them then get the bearings and rods from a different source. I would contact them on eBay about the part.

Good luck.

P.S. Where they get expensive is in the consumables like the nozzle and the heated PCB.