Intro
I wrote already plenty of descriptions (mainly in german) about this mod, but I thought lets do a blog article about it as for the Herkules Mod to have it also bit more modular and in english for non Germans.
Wichtig: Wir sind nicht verantwortlich for irgendwelche Schäden. Bitte nutzt die Anleitung und die Upgradeteile auf Euer Risiko.
Important: We are not responsible for any damage. Use responsibly and at your oww risk
As the Qidi X-Plus and X-Max is regulalry suffereing a clogged nozzle/ the extruder gears are no longer able to transport the filament there are several modifications out there to improve this. On top Qidi uses propriatary hardware which could also be replaced by more "standard" one for easy replace and maintenance so becoming more independent from Qidi sourcing. AS such a mod is somehow challenging to source (parts) and Polycarbonate is not the easiest material to print we decided to offer this modification as a prebuild service. So here we go with the manual how to assemble on your individual printer.
Parts delivered to you
If you order the upgrade package from our shop you will get the following pices:
- Carriage top part printed with assembled (if ordered) parts for the extrusion
- Carriage bottom part printed
- Fan Duct
- Belt clip
- Distance plate (for X-Max)
Tools and preparations
Tools needed
- Allen keys
- Flat screw driver
- A flat file to adapt belt clip
- USB SD card (should be included with your printer)
- Notepad ++ or similar editor
- Loctite (optional - if you want to secure your screws)
- Heattransfer paste for high temperature use (optional if you want to improve heattransfer between heatblock and nozzle)
Preparations
Backup of your current printer config
See here for detailed intructions
X-Max (only) - early y-endstopp switch
Add the thin plate as shown. It is included in your package (for MAX orders only)
Next (for all variants), remove the original QIDI extruder and carriage. To do so
- Power down your printer and disconnnect your power cable!
- Remove the screw from the top cover
- Remove the cover
- Unplug the ribbon cable
- Enscrew the extruder from below with the two screws (and possibly fan duct if you have one)
- Lift out the extruder
- Remove two screws holding the belt plate
- Lift over belt then pull off the whole carriage carefully but firmly, it can sit very tight on the bearings. Don't scratch the rails in case you use a screw driver or similar as lever.
DONE - with preparations and disassembly. Now we build it up again using the mod.
Chad Assembly
Assembly of the carriage
Situation original extruder removed and printer is off.
The carrinage is delivered with mounted fan duct (4 screws) and the belt clip - please remove them first.
Remove the clip with the help of a screw driver
Starting point with removed original extruder
Now place the mod onto the bearings and ensure that they are in parallel to the carriage and slided into the slot a bit already.
Now press firmly on both bearing of one side with your two thumbs while holding the carriage with your index fingers into the carriage.
Note: here I used only one hand as the other one hold the camera
After you mounted the top part place the carrigae to the left (exact position does not matter) bring the upper belt into position and try to push on the belt clip. It case too tight you can use a file and remove a bit of the platics show below.
In case the belt clip is too tight (depending on thickness of the belt) you can remove a bit of plastic.
Finally it should look like this.
Note: the fan is optional and not needed.
Tipp: in case you accidentely remove a bit to much plastics you can "repair" and get it tight using a bit of glue like UHU. It just needs to kept in place and should be removable later - so never use ultra strong glue.
Connect Ribbon Cable
Cable path
Easiert way to get it done:
- Turn the PCB up
- Insert Ribbon cable into the connector
- Create a loop as on the picture
- While you push down the PCB slide in the fron part into the guide/holder.
Note regarding airflow
It should go from left to right. Means cool air will be blown into the carriage crossing the heat break and leaving it as warm air. It case it is different turn the fan.
Airflow Hotend
Firmware/config changes
For the following steps the printer needs to be powered on again - this assumes all steps above where succesful! Of not or questions please consult me via the conversation button in the right top corner of this forum:
Please check if the temperatur of the heatblock is reported correctly
Note: the picture shows Celsius, typically the sensor is reporting ~5C more than real. But this does not matter for 3D printing that much as you anyway need to dial in your target temp based on a heat tower per material your print. In case it shows 1077C the connectors are not sitting properly - please check cabling.
Please take care of your Extruder Gear/Stepper degree setup and adapt the e-steps acordingly - see also Extruder Kalibration Defaulvalues. The below examples are for an 0.9degree stepper, which I use per default if nothing else is ordered.
X-Max Specific
Use this only on X-Max (X-Plus is below)
Code
M8002 I0;X motor direction
M8005 I1;Stepper motor direction
M8011 S0.00119446;E-steps
M8020 S0;Disable firmware retraction
M8024 I290;X Maximum stroke
M8025 I240;Y Maximum stroke
M8026 I290;bed height change
M8500;Save changes
Place the .gcode file on your USB drive and print the gcode file (as for the backup command above)
Note: The maximum stroke values are for security reasons 1cm smaller than they could be. You can adapt later to increase build volume again. Z Will be adjusted via leveling E.g.
But be careful with that
X-Plus Specific
Use this only on the X-Plus (X-Max is above)
Code
M8002 I0;X motor direction
M8005 I1;Stepper motor direction
M8011 S0.00119446;E-steps
M8020 S0;Disable firmware retraction
M8024 I260;X Maximum stroke
M8025 I190;Y Maximum stroke
M8026 I190;bed height change
M8500;Save changes
Place the .gcode file place on your USB drive and print the gcode file (as for the backup command above)
Note: The maximum stroke values are for security reasons 1cm smaller than they could be. You can adapt later to increase build volume again. Z Will be adjusted via Leveling Eg.
Code
but be careful with that
Movement check
Move your extruder manual and slowly to the middle like:
If you now move the tool head via tools on the touchscreen it should look like:
In case the extruder moves to the right even if you pressed the left button the direction setting above did not work. Please check again if you executed the steps correctly.
Now do a standard fast leveling - to calibrate the Z-Height. Hold your finger on the poweroff button and be ready to power down in case the nozzle moves into the bed.
Tuning and optimizations
As further steps you should do some further calibrations like:
- PID Tuning - tunes the algorithm to heat up your nozzle and to keep nozzle temp stable
- Build Volume optimization - above we reduce the max volume, here how to increase it again
- Bed Leveling settings - How to move bedleveling spot to different locations
- Extruder Calibration - Howo to calibrate the amount of filament flowing out per stepper rotation.
I will write manuals for this so stay tuned.
Spareparts/Ersatzteile
I have them typically also on stock - so if not in the shop yet you might ask. At least shipping within Germany should be much faster as from China.
Here for Trianglelabs:
- TL Dragon Heatbreak
- TL Dragon Heatsink
- TL Dragon Heatblock
- TL Plated Copper Nozzles
- TL Dragon Screw Set
- TL Dragon Adapter
- TL Standard Nozzles
- TL Hardend Steel Nozzles
- TL Steppermotor
- TL Steppergear
- TL Heatelement 50W
- TL BMG v2 Geardrive
- TL BMG Gearset
Further notes
- The nozzle might rattled lose while transport - so please retighten it with 1.8Nm torque - ideally when warm
- Check all screws if still tight - you might secure them with Loctite if you want, otherwise add the check to your maintenance procedure of your printer (anyway needed)
- In case you want to clean the nozzle with a brush please ensure that you do not not shorten the heat element. According to support group experience this will destroy the mainboard. Heat up the nozzle switch off printer and only after display is off as well start the cleaning process.
- Heatblock/Nozzle heat transition: you can improve heattransition between heatblock and nozzle if you put a bit of thermal paste on the nozzle thread. Be careful with this in case you are going up to high temp like >280C as not all thermal pastes are able to handle those temps. You might bake nozzle and heatblock together. Note: Per default Qidi does not allow temps >300C.
Kommentare
Neu erstellte Kommentare unterliegen der Moderation und werden erst sichtbar, wenn sie durch einen Moderator geprüft und freigeschaltet wurden.
Neu erstellte Kommentare unterliegen der Moderation und werden erst sichtbar, wenn sie durch einen Moderator geprüft und freigeschaltet wurden.