Exxos's QIDI X-PLUS 3 adventure

[exxos]

Thought I would start its own little blog for this as it will no doubt turn into a ongoing load of drama

I did post already about unboxing after it arrived here viewtopic.php?p=118002#p118002

I purchased from here my x-PLUS 3

https://uk.qidi3d.com/products/qidi-x-plus-3

It arrived next day and was certainly very well packaged up!

I will likely do multiple smaller posts rather than one huge long one was are taking various images and at various points to bring up..

In case anyone stumbles across this thread via interwebs at some point, I'm not intending this to be a review of the printer just my experiences and annoyances etc I should also point out they have no idea what I am doing, so maybe I missed some things along the way..

REASON I CHOSE THIS PRINTER
(To document later)

[exxos]

THE FEET

After unboxing and lugging the heavy thing upstairs, I realise that there was no way to actually fix the rubber feet on which came separately for the printer.

For the most part, the feet would not be a problem for the majority of people. However, because I am placing this on my desk where it is basically impossible to get at the rear, it is not possible to place the feet on after it has placed on my desk.

While the printer does have some plastic feet, these separate larger rubber feet simply fit over the fixed one it seems. In in the end I just double sided sticky taped them on so that I could just lift the printer with the feet attached onto my desk..

IMG_2537.JPG (222.99 KiB) Viewed 1637 times

[exxos]

THE CARBON FILTER

It was a nice addition to have a carbon filter on the rear exhaust fan. However fitting the carbon bag is rather problematic.

In the instructions it seems to illustrate just opening top half of the cover and dropping the carbon bag in. However, it is then impossible to fasten the cover back because of the carbon all bulges at the bottom of the bag! it is further complicated that the bag is actually rectangle while the fan chamber is square.

The only way I could get it to fit is to lay the printer on its back and shove the carbon bag in the chamber that way. However standing the printer then makes the carbon clump again at the bottom.

There is a LOT of carbon in the bag and I really wonder if the fan is going to even pull any air through it all. I suspect the only air movement will be at the top of the bag where there is actually no carbon only the material of the bag itself. So I am not really sure how effective this is actually going to be..

IMG_2539.JPG (136.01 KiB) Viewed 1630 times

IMG_2571.JPG (248.61 KiB) Viewed 1630 times

[exxos]

THE SPOOL HOLDER

I really like the enclosed box as it will help keep the filament dry et it also has a space for a "silicon dry bag" thingy at the bottom of the box which is cool. The box looks well made and seems big enough to support my larger reels (not yet tested as I am using the smaller sample reel which came with the printer currently) .

IMG_2540.JPG (388.1 KiB) Viewed 1622 times

However, trying to figure out how to physically fit the thing was a monumental challenge at first glance there are slots in the back of the printer, and then "nubs" on the back of the box. So initially I thought it would just slot together and twist to lock. However it was not that simple!

I then found a more typical looking spool shaft which slotted in the back of the printer. Then I thought "ah-ha" slot the box over that shaft.. but nope.. I was sat puzzling for a while and even puzzled over the manual at that point!

It was basically physically impossible to slot the shaft inside the spool holder container!

IMG_2541.JPG (165.99 KiB) Viewed 1622 times

I sat puzzling over this for another few minutes and then realised that the actual shaft end un-clips!! It was totally unobvious and did not seem to be documented anywhere!!

IMG_2542.JPG (437.12 KiB) Viewed 1622 times

So the actual order is to slot the shaft on the back of the printer.. Remove the "slot cap" off the shaft.. Put the spool box on the shaft.. THEN fit the slot cap back on..

[exxos]

BAD INSTRUCTIONS

While removing all the cable ties is pretty obvious. You cannot actually remove four of them as they are trapped under 4 bolts which screw the bed down during shipping. It wasn't until I started powering up the printer that the on-screen instructions then said to remove the bolts and then the bed would move upwards way you remove the packing foam from underneath.. However it should have really mentioned removing the cable ties at that point as well. As it is physically impossible to remove them until that step.

However at that point, it then mentions to heat the bed up.. but the instruction doesn't make much sense to me..

But also it should have actually mentioned to remove the plastic of the bed at that point in case some idiot like myself missed it...

I don't understand how you can heat the bed to the filament temperature ?! I mean the printer bed is limited to 65c I think, the filament temperature normally 220c ?! I just set it to 50c and carried on..

IMG_2543.JPG (245.39 KiB) Viewed 1620 times

IMG_2544.JPG (198.7 KiB) Viewed 1620 times

IMG_2545.JPG (232.18 KiB) Viewed 1620 times

[exxos]

UPDATING FIRMWARE NIGHTMARE

This turned into a whole load of drama But not exactly due to the procedure of updating the firmware...

They supply a USB stick which seems to be about 15GB in size. Only about 400MB is used, with software and examples etc. so I thought I would download the latest firmware and save it to the stick.. And that is where the nightmare began

I copied the files of the stick onto my hard drive as a backup copy. Then downloaded the updated firmware and *tried* to save it to the USB stick. However I was stuck on this screen for about 10 minutes.. I have seen this happen with USB sticks which have extremely slow right speed but this was ridiculous..

1.PNG (24.66 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

I tried to cancel and shut down the computer but it had totally locked up something in windows. I had to "pull the plug" from the PC and reboot. Then I tried again..

3.PNG (47.95 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

After about an hour of messing around I gave up and just assumed the USB stick was faulty !

I got a spare USB stick and instructions say the name has to be a "space" which is odd...but ok then... Put the update files on the stick and place it in the printer.. It flashed away but no update button appeared...

IMG_2546.JPG (236.6 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

I then wondered if it was because the stick was formatted to NTFS... So I formatted it as exFAT as that was the only other option in Windows I had four USB drives... Tried again and no luck ...

I then looked at the original drive which was formatted as FAT32... The only way I could do that is with paragon partition manager..

4.PNG (54.93 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

So about two hours later... The update button finally appeared!!

IMG_2548.JPG (258.52 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

It took around 20 minutes for the firmware to update...

IMG_2549.JPG (314.03 KiB) Viewed 1617 times

I think if USB stick was not faulty then updating the firmware would have been relatively painless!

[exxos]

RANDOM ODD THINGS

Some things slightly puzzled me and other things may just be down to my own personal preference more than anything..

For starters, I realise the top of the printer has to be removable and us to allow some space for the filament tube.. BUT.. The (glue) tube which feeds to print head is barely even at the top level of the printer. It then has this huge plastic cover on top which could actually be made the few inches shorter

IMG_2552.JPG (200.27 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

It is only a minor thing but looks like a slight manufacturing defect while the slots was cut for the logo..

IMG_2553.JPG (235.85 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

Also while reaching inside the printer with the door partly open the corner caught my arm and it was rather sharp!!

IMG_2569.JPG (232.5 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

Another thing which is slightly annoying on the door, is that while I understand it is probably due to strength more than anything, the centre part of the door is actually recessed inwards. It is difficult to take a picture because of the reflections in the door.. Though if you wanted to look at your print through the door, the view is actually obstructed by these recesses.

It could also be down to literal "style" to have the door recessed. But for me personally I would have just preferred it without the recess so it is easier to see when the print is first starting.

[exxos]

FIRST PRINT

At this point I had not yet connected it to my Wi-Fi. That was a total nightmare, but I don't think the IP & MAC binding works properly in my TP_LINK VR400 router so I don't believe there was any problems with connectivity actually relating to the printer itself.

So initially I used the 3D-benchy which supplied on the USB stick as gcode. You have to set the bed position manually with the supplied "paper" but that was super simple. Normally I can spend several days fighting with that aspect alone on other printers!! Then the auto bed levelling seems to work fine as well.

My first impression was that this printer is extremely fast!! I would there even to say it is too fast or scary fast even

If anyone is interested in some footage of the first print and I can do a video..

These are the images of the first print...

Sometimes it looks like there is bad "banding" for artefacts but it seems to be a trick of the light more than anything somehow. I don't think the shiny PLA helps and being black isn't helping. I have seen other reviews mentioning this "problem" as well.

IMG_2559.JPG (420.34 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2560.JPG (411.58 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2561.JPG (404.71 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2562.JPG (338.17 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2563.JPG (300.79 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2564.JPG (340.78 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2565.JPG (425.52 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

IMG_2566.JPG (327.07 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

Generally I have used a 0.2mm nozzle to gain better details. Adjusting the layer height alone does not really help in some cases.

I have also printed a few of my "68K dummy CPUs". These printed in under three minutes which is great and they seem really accurate as well! Before I would have to print out and fight with the printer for about 50 prints before I got the thing to behave!

I eventually got it connected up to Simplify3D. The default profile seem to work fine. I also emailed QUDI as at the time I could not find profile , they responded quickly and gave me the link to download the profile. However the profile they sent seems broken.

First off the printer head seem to bang against the edge of the case. Then it started printing in midair without moving the base. There there was no filament flowing (more on this shortly) and then the printer bed seem to want to go through the bottom of the printer banging about like the printer was trying to destroy itself! So I just turned it off at the mains!

There printer profile as different settings to the default one in Simplify3D. So I created my own profile variant to try out next. Though there is no filament extruding at all.

Though I did try printing my ST2VGA case before.. Started looking a little bit ropey and then the printer said print was complete even though it had only done about 50%:WTF: so I don't know what happened there...

IMG_2570.JPG (435.46 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

Though since printing that object has been no filament extruding. The next I will try priming the head again as I assume it has got stuck or just become unloaded while I was testing the QIDI profile...

[stephen_usher]

Oooo.. a bit stringy. Probably need to dry that PLA.

New printers are trying to catch up with Bambu Lab with regards to speed. Some manufacturers are doing better than others on that front.

[exxos]

Investigating why the filament was not extruding became quickly apparent! I don't know really how it ended up like this. But I guess it explains why suddenly stopped printing. I don't know if the printer detected no filament flow and the aborted the print before It probably explains the "bad print" as well.

IMG_2573.JPG (187.62 KiB) Viewed 1599 times

IMG_2574.JPG (223.91 KiB) Viewed 1599 times

Decided to put my larger PTEG stuff in.. As usual, no printer known to mankind seems to accept these reels properly

I guess it would be nice if there was some sort of bearing inside to allow easier rotation of the spool. Though I think I will have to go hunting to see if someone already build a spool adapter.. but for now.. lets just get back to printing!!

IMG_2575.JPG (223.88 KiB) Viewed 1599 times