Qidi Plus 4 - One Killer Feature, A Few Big Flaws

[@ygk3d]

RE: belt pitch. EDIT 2: Did a deep dive into this topic to further educate myself. VFAs have two sources: motor mechanical resonance and the polygonal effect of the belt on the pulley (the belt follows a non-circular path around the pulley because the teeth are harder than the sections in between, so it doesn’t have a constant bending radius). The polygonal effect results in a jerkiness of movement, inducing periodic vibrations (jitter) at the print head, appearing as vertical lines on the print matching the belt pitch. Switching to a 1.5mm pitch belt from the usual 2mm will reduce the prominence of the polygon effect. So this is the real reason why the 1.5 belts are better. That being said, the mechanical resonance of the motor (MRR) is the bigger contributor to VFA. This is speed dependent. Every printer has a different natural frequency at which the motor resonance is maximized. By restricting speed to be outside this range (lower or higher) we can limit the prevalence of VFAs. Qidi achieves this with a setting in the slicer called resonance avoidance. Leaving the original comment for context but I now know this explanation is incorrect. Based on comments, my explanation appears to be incomplete and include some potential misunderstandings. Here's my best attempt at an explanation: It's the finer belt pitch in combination with a smaller pulley that makes the difference. With a finer pitch belt, the pulleys will have a smaller diameter for an equivalent number of teeth. Smaller diameter means a shorter linear movement for one full revolution of the motor. This increases your positional resolution, thereby reducing stepping artifacts that appear on your prints (VFAs). This has a similar effect as switching from 1.8 degree steppers to 0.9 degree steppers. This is Prusa's approach on the MK4. Qidi achieves this with the belts. The drawback of smaller pulleys is that the motors will need to turn more to move the same distance. This will limit the top print speed that is achievable. Ironically, and unbeknownst to me at the time of making this video, Bambu ALREADY uses 1.5 mm pitch belts on the A1 and A1 mini. If you need more convincing about the correlation between belt pitch and positional resolution, play around with this calculator: blog.prusa3d.com/calculator_3416/. EDIT: The Plus 4 pulleys appear to have the same diameter as the Q1 Pro I compared it to. So now I'm thinking the difference is in the belt width (9mm v.s. 6mm) or the fact that a finer pitch belt will have more teeth in contact for an equivalent pulley diameter, resulting in less backlash.

[@IrishZorg]

More teeth on the pulley mean less slack in the system?

[@smow7422]

Im not sure if a smaller diameter pulley translates into smaller VFAs. I have a Voron Zero with tiny pulleys which has very pronounced VFAs. My other machine, a qidi q1 pro has barely visible artifacts while having the same belt pitch and bigger pulleys.

[@Suchtzocker]

you could literally! use a pulley with a V-Belt as long as its slack free and tight you get the precision your motors and your gear/belt/pulley gear ratio will give you lol ... whats so hard to understand about this ?

[@robertj8674]

@@ygk3d your explanation is plain wrong. If you want to say that smaller pulleys increase accuracy or resolution then you're right. But you did not say that. The belt pitch is absolutely unrelated to this, and the bs about an equivalent number of teeth does not safe this. I hope you are aware that there are pulleys with different amounts of teeth, for all kinds of belt pitches and types.

[@ygk3d]

@@robertj8674Mhh… yeah, you’ve got a point. And the pulleys appear to be the same diameter as on the Q1 Pro, so obviously that’s not it. I’m just trying to reconcile why I’m seeing less VFAs and I thought it was because of the belts. Here’s another possible explanation: For an equivalent diameter pulley, a finer pitch belt will have more teeth engaged so perhaps there’s less backlash. The belts are also wider, at 9mm, so that could be the bigger contributing factor (less stretch). Since you seem to be quite knowledge about this, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

[@Desmond-k3]

Thanks a lot for sharing this in-depth video! I’ve had the Plus 4 on my shopping list for a while now, and I’m really drawn to its enclosed chamber. It’s perfect for me since I frequently print with different materials. However, I’ve also heard about some electrical system issues, and those critical flaws you mentioned in your video have definitely made me think twice about its value for money. Lately, there’s been a lot of talk in the community about the T1Pro. From what I’ve seen, it seems to offer good speed and solid customer support, so it’s definitely on my radar. This Black Friday, I’ll probably be deciding between Qidi and FLSUN. Both brands seem to offer good deals, and I’m excited to see what they have in store.

[@markusgranberg8004]

Finer pitch on belts does not improve the position accuracy in this application. And the move distance/ motor step is based on the driving pulley diameter.

[@Zach929U]

Yup, I was gonna say the same thing. The only way to increase positional accuracy is reduce the pulley size or increase the microstepping, both of which lower the maximum travel speed.

[@robertj8674]

​@@Zach929Uincreasing the micro stepping does only limit travel speed if the board can't handle the required step count. It also does not significantly change positional accuracy beyond a certain point. What would work is to use 0.9 deg stepper motors.

[@robertj8674]

This. Quite a substantial error for someone who claims to be so rigorous in his testing.

[@REDxFROG]

Everyone is going to copy this!!!!!!!! Your prints are FLAWED AF

[@jason.miles31]

I disagree, for the same diameter driving pulley the finer pitched belt will allow you to have more teeth on the driving pulley. The more teeth on the driving pulley will decrease the polygonal action of the system. This will smooth out the motion by increasing the occurrence of impacts between the belt teeth an driving pulley teeth.

[@andreask.2675]

Are you sure that the belt pitch results in more precise movement? Smaller gears should give you more precision. I don't see how the belt would achieve this. 🤔

[@AwestrikeFearofGods]

Smaller pitch implies proportionally smaller gear-to-belt tooth backlash. Imagine an extreme case with very large teeth.

[@helixxharpell]

Gearing no matter what size or pitch is susceptible to backlash.( Or the space between each Gear tooth in the mesh.) I look for that, and the degree of tolerance the gears are spaced within the mesh.

[@SquintyGears]

​@@AwestrikeFearofGods That's not actually true in modern 3d printers. The kinds of belts and pulleys used are shaped for the belt and pulley curve to take practically all of the backlash. It's not a generic general purpose motion system. Just try it yourself, pull on the belts on your printer. You can feel the slack but there is no backlash in the motion system. If there was that much backlash the vibration compensation would be so much more complicated. You couldn't possibly see a single or just 3 peaks in the resonance frequency graph.

[@AwestrikeFearofGods]

@@SquintyGears Even with a zero-backlash (i.e. preloaded) system, compliance allows for imprecise motion. Another example is the nonlinear variation of belt speed being greater for lower tooth-count gears of a given diameter.

[@SquintyGears]

@@AwestrikeFearofGods Yes yes that's what you need to consider in general in motion systems. The belt and pulley combos we're talking about aren't the pre-loaded kind of backlash removing. The teeth on the belt are there to prevent slipping and transfer more torque. That's further down the transfer of movement chain than the backlash that would happen at t=0. In fact practically all of the slop in 3D printer belt motion systems are due to the elasticity of the belts not the tooth profile and pulley engagement. That's the part we need to preload. Whe tension, later the belt ages and slacks and needs to be replaced. Good engineers designed parts for specific use cases. We could be using a bicycle's gear and chain to move the axis. But we don't, because it's not suitable. We're very far from the OG home printing days where every part of the printer was randomly picked from what was kinda available instead of what's actually good for the use case. These are all real precision robotics motion system parts. We're at a point where the limits are in the mechanical rigidity and the processing power of the brains of the systems to compensate for things in software. And those are problems that have straightforward cost relations. Not a 2¢ part swap. Software needs dev time. And you can build your printer as beefy as a mill if you want.

[@802Garage]

The ceramic heatbreak nozzle has fixed like 99% of heat creep clogging in the community's experience. Anyone with the stainless heatbreak version can ask for a free replacement. Also just a quick note that for absolute maximum quality on this and many core XY machines you should orient long straight parts 35-45 degrees rotated so it prints diagonal across the bed. :)

[@b3owu1f]

Woa.. never knew about that 45 diagonal thing. Why is that? Curious why that would be any better only because the bed is not a slinger so how does that help the print? Heck I would think the core x/y head having to move +1 in each direction for a straight line instead of just a seamless splurge of straight line output would be slower to print and potential for issues. Like when I print a large "drawer" (or enclosure to hold it).. I would have thought having it oriented along x or y would provide a stronger print overall.. so how does the angled alignment make it better?

[@willofthemaker]

​@@b3owu1fmy guess is because it's only using one motor at 45° so maybe less possibility for non synced movement?

[@802Garage]

@@b3owu1f I have no idea why this comment won't send. Third try. I'm not a total expert on this, but my understanding is that usually the least vibrations are produced moving diagonally. This will vary by printer design and even individual printer tuning, but I believe it is a fairly standard result. The ShakeTune docs have an explanation of Polar Angle Energy Profile and including how to generate and read the chart. Cartesian printers like bed slingers tend to do best at 90 degree angles while core XY tend to do best at 45 and 135 instead.

[@willofthemaker]

@@802Garage given true that Cartesian is best on 0 or 90, single motor operation could definitely be a factor. I did once a test to see which was is fastest though. Unsurprisingly the opposite is true. Using 2 motors to accelerate and move is always better than one.

[@802Garage]

@willofthemaker True for hitting max speeds and accels you probably want the opposite. I should have specified for maximum quality.

[@username9774]

This seems like a killer printer in a few months, once qidi fixed most of the flaws like they always do

[@jdhurrell]

This printer was #1 on my list until I started hearing more about the overheating issues on that circuit board. I don’t want to risk burning my house down.

[@apfeldk]

No issue when using 240 volt

[@lowellhouser7731]

It's not an issue. I have this printer. I contacted support and they are sending a replacement board with installation video and extending the warranty on the printer a full year. I already love the machine, and now their support team is in danger of turning me into a fanboy for the company.

[@AustinMichael]

@@lowellhouser7731 Just because they are willing to resolve the issue doesn't mean the issue itself doesn't exist. haha

[@ihateemael]

@@lowellhouser7731 pls keep us posted..

[@BrandonShelton]

Definitely waiting to see what Bambu comes out with.

[@warmesuppe]

Something closed source which is badly repairable

[@thorstenjaczek3606]

I have the Plus 4 for some time now and use the QIDI Studio (Orca based). Because of the higher Voltage (220V) in most of Europe we do not have the SSR problem. I love this printer and it prints faster and cleaner than my Ender 5 Plus. QIDI has a pretty good customer service and helped me as I couldn't connect the printer with the App and Fluidd. Nice and quiet printer.

[@marcusone1]

i was very tempted until the two issues with the chamber heater were found... i'll wait awhile and see when they fix these issues, or if bambu comes out with a larger printer. 325x325 would be nicer :) but who knows what they are going to do.

[@802Garage]

Nice review! Whatever combo Qidi has going in the motion system, it definitely works. While there have been printers with issues, a lot of the Plus4 prints I have seen are some of the cleanest stock printer results I've ever seen. That includes prints from my own Plus4. It's a very capable printer. The chamber heater power supply issue is regrettable. Qidi could have had a killer product to boost their reputation on hand. There is no problem on 230V and Qidi has revised the board and started sending units out to 120V users. Fingers crossed it's a proper solution. I think there's no doubt it's a great value for the money, but Qidi has to fix the problems. I really hope they let the Max4 cook longer, so it doesn't cook.

[@willofthemaker]

I bought mine for ABS and it is truly amazing. Mind blowing the quality I get with ABS and no brim at all. Absolutely perfect prints with zero post processing is awesome. I have issues with z seam with PETG. It starts to under extrude and then get bumpy. Not sure why and only on the z seam. Otherwise their flawless. ABS z seam? What seam? It's hardly there

[@802Garage]

@@willofthemaker PETG is particularly finnicky. PETG-CF is the cheat code to beauty! That said dialing out stringing can still be a pain. For your PETG prints I have two recommendations. Try scarf joint seams for stuff that doesn't have tons of seams. They can make it basically disappear. Otherwise, try faster retraction speed, turning on retract on layer change and wipe while retracting, set wipe distance to 1mm or 2mm see what works better, and retract amount before wipe to 100%. All that usually gets rid of my blobs and strings with PETG. Totally agree with you though that ABS comes out absolutely flawless.

[@JTs3DPrints]

I have run my Plus4 non stop and mostly high temp stuff since late Sep without any issues. They sending update for heater out which made me happy. I can say I have been in touch with them on stuff since day 1 and they have been a pleasure to work with. I am very impressed with the prints I have been getting out of the Plus4, I get great prints also out of the Q1 and Xsmart3. Like the new nozzle design on the Plus4.

[@JohnOlson]

I was expecting the one killer feature to be "top mounted spool holder". :)

[@ygk3d]

That's pretty nice too 😂

[@jesuismika]

Would love to see a print comparison between the plus4 X1C and P1S. Make it easier to understand for new buyers.

[@MrAchilles85]

yeah, im trying to figure out as well if I should buy this thing or buy a bambulab P1S or X1C. Seems like an impossible choice.

[@jesuismika]

@@MrAchilles85 from my research, I lean a little bit more toward to the qidi for the heating part. Even if it has some problem, on this hand. But without the heating yes the bambu seems to be the more safe choice. and between the X1C and P1S it's double the price for just the screen difference and the extrusion tougher... Bambulab ecosystem, mod, is huge for sure..

[@MrAchilles85]

@@jesuismika I just ordered the plus 4.👍🏼

[@jesuismika]

@@MrAchilles85 nice, ask the support, for the SSR, I receive my printer and the ssr, I did the change. Maybe I'll upgrade to the omron ssr down the line. I didn't test the printer yet. I'll soon.

[@grasstreefarmer]

There seems to be some misunderstanding on the role of belt pitch. Belt pitch width and depth affects transmission power, it does not play a roll in precision of motion. Precision in stepper motor systems comes from the step angle of the motors. If you consider a 2mm pitch width belt on a 20 tooth pulley its 40mm of belt motion per rotation of the pulley. If you increase the number of teeth on the belt, and the teeth on the pulley it will still be 40mm of belt motion if the pulley is the same diameter as the 20 tooth pulley. The smallest unit of belt motion you can achieve comes down to how small a rotation angle unit you can command or resolve. Larger pulleys produce more belt motion and smaller ones produce less for each rotation. This is why in printer config files you won't see any reference to belt pitch and instead see rotation distance, step angle and micro steps. 1.5mm pitch belts would seem to just make it harder to find replacement parts instead of the very common 2mm pitch standard. I also wonder, but don't know for sure, if the smaller pitch could mean they are more prone to skipping.

[@SquintyGears]

Probably no problem with actual skipping. We're not at the limits of accelerations that such a pulley+belt can do. Missed steps are motor control system faults not mechanical, and that's what you'll probably see first when the head is too heavy for the acceleration (tork) asked from the system.

[@brandonberkmortel9558]

My qidi plus 4 has been going strong for a month now. Nothing but amazing quality prints.

[@Acheiropoietos]

Qidi Plus 4 is definitely on my radar, together with the Bambu X1-C. I’m upgrading from a modded 4 year old Creality Ender 5+. I like the tough material engineering capabilities of the Qidi Plus 4.

[@anthonylong5870]

Im waiting on the Qidi Box to see how good that is and I am also waiting on Flashforge who are also releasing a multicolor unit and new 5M printer in the next month...Its between those two which i get for a Christmas present to myself

[@DaKaN89]

Did you remove the plastic film on the camera lens? seems so cloudy

[@Taliesen.]

I found mine was running at 640x480 but QIDI has instructions on their support site for changing it. Not sure if they have changed that in the lastest builds or not.

[@lowellhouser7731]

Had one of these for a month. So far I don't think I've even printed with PLA. PETG, Rapid PETG, nylon string trimmer line, PCTG, and PA12CF, but not PLA. Nozzle clog with the PA12CF, so I ordered .6 nozzles and am gonna try that again. Using VisonMiner's bed adhesive to get the nylon to stick, but even then you have to craft a profile with LOW acceleration to avoid knocking the print loose fro the build plate. The drying cycle feature is great. Gonna try some PCTG-CF and NylonG next. So far the heated chamber is not a game changer with nylon. Don't think it's hot enough because the trimmer line warped about the same as my Kingroon KLP1 which has no active heater.

[@meadmaker4525]

As someone looking to get into 3D printing, it's awful trying to decide between all these machines. But after months of research and watching every review video I can find, I keep coming back to Bambu as the most reliable, consistent, quality printers on the market. The problem is, I'd really like something in the 350mm-cubed range, so it's big enough to do just about whatever I want, but it needs to be reliable enough and easy enough to use that I don't feel like I've just flushed a bunch of money down the drain for something that's going to brick itself at any given moment. Most of the bigger printers available seem to fall into the latter category, which is a real shame. I mean, can you imagine if a Neptune 4 Max was as reliable, consistent, and easy to use as a Bambu A1? The thing would dominate. Everyone would be asking, "Bambu who?" I just don't understand why these other companies don't just do that. The new Creality K2 is pretty interesting, too, but Creality don't have the best reputation and people doing reviews of the K2 are already having the same kinds of problems they had with the K1-Max, which doesn't bode well for that printer. The current sales on Bambu printers make them really tempting, but I feel like if I buy one now, next month Bambu will announce it's new 350mm-cubed printer and I'll be kicking myself for not waiting.

[@ygk3d]

@@meadmaker4525 the fact that you’re this well educated without even owning your first 3D printer is impressive! Everything you’ve said is true. Bambu’s next machine might be bigger but it will be north of $1500 easily. So depending on your budget it might make sense just to buy one of their smaller machines that are already available. Not sure what you plan on printing but the 256^3 volume of their current lineup is pretty reasonable for most things.

[@Wyldwulf]

I could have written this post apart from having been printing since about 12 years ago with a replicator2, which I still hobble along. Have pieced together many a print due to its tinyass volume. But at the same time I expect that at average printer now is more reliable than my sole printer experience...while seemingly undefeatable the replicator is definitely a tinkerer. I too have continued to waffle about between the Sovol SV08, K1 Max, Qidi Max 3 and this Plus 4... thing is all of them seem to have problems, but I think it's likely all do and just have to pick the problem I am ok with.

[@Boulevardfree]

Sounds like you should just wait until Jan 2025 or so for Qidi and community to figure out the Plus 4's children's diseases and then go for it after the worst if it is sorted out. That's what I. another noob in the market for his first printer, plans on doing.

[@kozmaz87]

My biggest issue with the PLA tests... their complete and utter irrelevance to anything sensible you might want to print. PLA is good to print what I consider rubbish, trinkets and stuff. Proper stuff is printed with more demanding materials the long list of which begins with PETG. So any overhang or tolerance test with PLA is completely meaningless most of the time unfortunately.

[@ygk3d]

@@kozmaz87 I see where you’re coming from but PLA requires the most cooling of any material. Most engineering grade materials require none. Also, PLA is the most commonly used material. Considering those factors, the test is definitely relevant.

[@leaftye]

I'm not crazy about new nozzle. It was already difficult finding different types of nozzles until Trianglelabs made a v6 adapter. Being able to use all sorts of nozzle materials or even just hardened tips, coated nozzles, and high flow cht-type interiors are great options to have. Iirc, it was about half a year before a cht-type Qidi 0.4 nozzle was available, and then several more months before other diameters were available. How long will that take for the Plus 4? I guess that, the normal and safety revisions, and the release of their AMS, is another reason to wait to buy a Plus 4.

[@ygk3d]

Proprietary parts are definitely a pain. Usually a good idea to wait a few months before buying a new Qidi printer anyways.

[@chrisgill5692]

True, but every high flow nozzle should be dedicated to a single material type. Most manufacturer websites will state that... including Qidi and Bondtech CHT. Personally, I much prefer these bi/tri material style nozzles as are super versatile and can handle multi-materials at 'reasonable' flow rates.

[@leaftye]

@@chrisgill5692 That's what's wonderful about the V6. You can get a copper nozzle that is nickel plated, with a high flow CHT steel core and entry sharp edges, and hardened tip. I guess that's what you'd call tri metal. As long as you don't use fiber reinforced filament with the 0.4mm nozzle size, that is the everything nozzle. It's relatively expensive at $20, but there are $4 nozzles with a couple sacrifices and still much better than the Qidi nozzle. I think it was Built It Make It that tested the $20 nozzle and found that it had great performance. I just ordered one. I've been using $4 cht nozzles for the past year or so with no problems, although I haven't been using fiber reinforced filament in that time.

[@chrisgill5692]

@@leaftye Two issues.... (i) Chinese nest of vipers ripping-off others work, IP and patents and (ii) if you read the Bondtech (& Qidi) website they absolutely state that high flow nozzles are advised only for single material type. I left comments on the Needitmakeit channel to that effect as he was promoting cheap Chinese rip-off nozzles without apparently realising it ($20 is nothing and less than half the price of a real Bondtech item). If you are happy with the clone CHT's and no clogging when jumping between filaments then just crack-on.

[@XeroShifter]

Thanks for the solid look at the printer. Its so tempting to pick one up, but I just bought a P1S and AMS for the reliability because I have a tinkering problem lol.

[@jimshafer970]

I was going to buy this printer after seeing the first few reviews. I now know that the chance that one of these printers will become a calibration and repair nightmare.

[@ygk3d]

It seems to be hit and miss. Some people have had a really rough time. I guess I got lucky.

[@bsw6583]

In your opinion, it is better to buy, for example, creality K1 max? There are a lot of problems with the K1 max, but the K1 max (the whole line of K1 printers) also has a large support community. I need something with a table around 300x300 and can't find anything interesting.

[@ygk3d]

@@bsw6583 I don’t have the K1 Max but based on my experience with the K1 and other Creality products I’d sooner recommend the Plus 4.

[@802Garage]

@@bsw6583 Personally, I would not get a K1 Max and even with the potential issues I would recommend a Plus4.

[@robertj8674]

@@ygk3d I think it's more likely that printer manufacturers pre select the units they ship to influencers like yourself. That's why the more serious channels purchase the hardware themselves to rule that out.

[@billkaroly]

Hey. Great review of the PLUS4. Can the hotend assembly be swapped to a Q1 Pro? I like the all in one nozzle assembly.

[@ygk3d]

Thanks! Not sure but I think not.

[@802Garage]

FWIW I generally think the max speed and acceleration advertised for any printer is supposed to be max before a mechanical issue of some type. Stepper drivers overheating, motors overheating, motors skipping steps, belts slipping, bearings binding, stuff like that. You will never get good quality out of using the max advertised specs for a printer.

[@JasonBrodel]

The misunderstanding of Shaper graphs drives me up the wall. Alright, so a basic explanation, a Shaper Test tells you how fast the printer can go while being able to account and counteract the vibrations that cause quality issues with Input Shaper turned off. The accelerations and speeds on most stock profiles on printers are lower because for the most part, the biggest problem with high speed printing is that you cannot cool the plastic fast enough (hence why we do crazy mods like CPAP), but having the ability and motion to do the super high accelerations is nice, which from what I've noticed the Plus 4 does effortlessly (and it better do considering the specs)

[@SquintyGears]

Just the shaper bothers you? The conviction that it's due to the belt pitch change is wild to me 😂.

[@JasonBrodel]

@@SquintyGears There are several things that drive me up the wall, not only with this channel but with several channel that either don't know what they are talking about (which would be forgivable if they just came into like a popular Discord server for example like Armchair or Annex to ask questions) or ones that just go along with the buzz words and random guesses that makes my life miserable when I gotta counteract videos to recommend people printers. At the very least the Plus 4 is a great printer that is easy to recommend...after they fix the SSR issue

[@warmesuppe]

​@@JasonBrodelArmchair discord?

[@DownUnderTechReview]

I think that Qidi has hand picked/tuned their samples and not just taken random ones off the factory line, my bed level was 0.9 out of the box, with adjustment I got it down to about 0.35 but certainly can't get it any better than that.

[@ygk3d]

That’s quite possible

[@rondlh20]

12:31 The belt pitch is NOT related to the amount of movement per stepper step. The amount of movement is related to the size of the stepper motor pulley. The pitch might affect the smoothness of the movement

[@m97120]

Looks really promising but the quality issues is a recurring theme. Based on reviews of their previous printers that I've watched they seem like they rely on using KZbin reviewers as their QA department. I'm also not a big fan of every manufacturer making their own nozzle standard. I don't want to have to make international orders just for a nozzle. And their EU warehouse currently has no nozzles in stock for this machine.

[@ygk3d]

Yeah, KZbinrs are used as a QC department WAY too often. Don’t they realize it’s bad press to have your product beta tested in public? And I definitely agree on the nozzle. Would be much better if it just used an open source standard.

[@redkingrauri3769]

I don't wanna give too much praise to qidi given they released the bad relay boards in the first place, but by the same token if they treat this like they did with the x-max 3 where they just straight up accepted all returns and send out significantly better models after the fact then they at least can have that as a plus to them. I am waiting for bambu's next announcement purely because I'm more in the market for an idex machine or toolchanger and if reports are accurate their next one isn't to be just a bigger version of the current line.

[@ZT_1234]

This is a recent issue, but modbot has a video on it. The heater is a fire hazard, and the control board melts

[@helixxharpell]

Where you aware at the time when you started filming that the electronics that govern the chamber heater (w/ 120vac models) is highly susceptible to catching fire? Qidi has been working on a fix & as of today, sending affected customers replacement boards. I have the knowledge to replace these boards but i do not recommend customers who arent confident working on Mains AC circuitry attempt this. New customers who receive 110-120vac models should absolutely know this up front! I filed a complaint with the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission regarding this issue. At that time, Qidi was working on a solution and i agreed to accept the replacement. We'll see if Qidi issues a recall.

[@802Garage]

To be clear, there has not been a single instance of a fire yet. There is a component on the board highly susceptible to overheating and damaging the components on the board. I am not saying there is zero risk of fire, but when people drastically overstate the case it makes it sound like there have been fires already. He does cover this topic in the video.

[@davidbuser6881]

9mm​@@802Garage

[@TechVirtue]

Would you be able to provide a list of settings for the best quality prints? Speed is not an issue as I prefer quality over speed. Thank you.

[@ygk3d]

@@TechVirtue the main things I did are: disabled slow down for overhangs (the acceleration / deceleration was causing issues), and calibrated pressure advance. Besides that, I was just using the default profiles.

[@802Garage]

If you want super clean prints I'd also recommend turning on "Don't slow down for outer walls" in the filament cooling settings and using inner/outer/inner wall order. Also turn on small area flow compensation. Tuning your extrusion rate and PA values first is always most important IMO. If you want to go even deeper you should get the Shake&Tune download and dive into input shaping and vibration profiles to find the best speeds for your printer.

[@unionse7en]

SORT OF......having less pitch on belt does not directly result in the belt moving less with each motor step, the minimum belt movement per step is a function of the smallest step (or 1.2 step) the motor can move *combined* with the radius of the pulley. Still a finer pitch may result in a smoother print...or not depending on speeds/resonance. I think proper tooth profiles of timing belts were designed to provide smooth linear movement at the tooth engagement geometery. Chains have similar considerations there were "Hyvo " chains to address the geometry for similar reasons.

[@karmakh]

I doubt the belt pitch has anything to do with print quality. There are many ways to increase accuracy (motor specs, gearing, phase stepping, minimizing backlash, tolerances, ...) of the mechanical system, but a belt pitch is not it.

[@Mr.X3D]

Bought it on the day of release. Have only done one print with it, but it was nine hours PA-GF, turned out very nice but with horrible layer adhesion on the first layers. Don’t know if it is due to the filament (Bambu), or some errors trying to copy the Bambu defaults to qidi-slicer. Anyway, I doubt I’ll use this as a daily driver. The heat bed is just to slow getting up to temperature, adding a lot of time to small prints.

[@JohnDoe-ot5ir]

The plus 4 is a great printer. I really like the quality and performance from it. It's as good or better than my bambu.

[@eliokreier522]

Why would a smaller pitch on the belt increase accuracy? The accuracy is determined by the diameter of the drive pulley on the motor.

[@IrishZorg]

You had bed level diagrams. One was tilted another was within 0.25mm. Which one was out of the box and what did you do to make it 0.25?

[@ygk3d]

@@IrishZorg 0.25 was after I ran BED_TILT_ADJUST. The other was from the Q1 Pro also after running bed tilt adjust.

[@normanguiver1538]

Hi more questions than answers. I am one of many with Zortrax + printers looking for a new printer to print nylon. I sent Qidi a .stl and the support team were terrific and they printed it but the material was damp so didn't print well so I don't know what it is capable of. Any experience of it?

[@bharathvigneshwar8914]

I have a quick question. Can you mention how to operate 3d printer from somewhere else, like you said we can operate via cloud, can you elaborate on that. thanks in advance.

[@ygk3d]

@@bharathvigneshwar8914 you have to download the Qidi Link app.

[@kongchho]

I think if you're going to express the big difference in print quality and how great it is you shouldn't show a part with tons of ringing. There's tons of vertical lines present in the example at the beginning. As the light catches the part they are very visible.

[@freedomofmotion]

What temperature and filament did you get that flow rate? I've been printing daily at 25mm³s with sunlu pla+ at 225c

[@ygk3d]

@@freedomofmotion eSun PLA+ at 210 I believe.

[@freedomofmotion]

@ygk3d Ah fair enough that's quite a low temperature for high speed printing. Sunlu filaments come with temperature ranges for various printer speeds now. 50-100 100-200 and 200-300 mms I'm achieving those flow rates with the default speed profiles but 0.25mm layer height and 0.6 extrusion width for the inner walls and infills. I'm printing PETG-cf at 20mm³s, ASA-CF at 24mm³s and TPU 95a at 15 mm³s I think I could push a little bit higher but I think for TPU there's just too much Bowden tube and so too much friction to go much higher.

[@kozmaz87]

One should never allow any cheapo app to be getting in your equipment on your home network without proper safeguards... They could not even be bothered to put in a fast enough processor for that display... do you think they spent the time coding with security in mind when they did the remote control app?

[@nunovicente34]

The A1/mini also uses belts with 1.5mm pitch

[@802Garage]

Interesting. That along with the great single gear extruder design may help explain why they have so little VFA.

[@nunovicente34]

@ yup, but any printer can have little VFA’s if well built and with good quality belts and bearings, and extruder of course. My Voron Trident has slightly less VFA’s than my A1 mini, but since the minis belt pitch is smaller it also makes it less noticeable

[@ygk3d]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing this out!

[@AndrewduToit]

I would really love to get one.

[@unlock-er]

Will u be reviewing k2 plus?

[@ygk3d]

@@unlock-er hopefully. Not certain yet.

[@coledavidson5630]

1:24 why do people see this as such a big upgrade? Plastic is lighter and as far as I know more shatter resistant. Are there significant advantages to glass that outweighs these disadvantages, other than "it looks nicer"?

[@lam_xyz]

Hi there - is this max flowrate test print available somewhere? I would like to test my own configuration (Voron / Rapido 2 HF).

[@ygk3d]

@@lam_xyz it’s built in to OrcaSlicer.

[@PheonixKnght]

I think Bambu is going with magnet drive and removing weight off of the print head.

[@MrGarkin]

Belts are consumables. How and where would a user source replacements belts for the printer? How much do they cost? VFA talk is useless without a VFA speed range test. 90% of printers on the market have a limited speed range where they print without ripples. Omiting those in the modern printer review looks flunk. This is something i would expect from Sanladerer or Angus dudes, not from you. The accuracy block is also bit weird. A smaller pitch reduces the teeth polygon effect and improves belt-related VFA geometry. But this improvements are minuscule in comparison to pulley teeth count.

[@kilianlindlbauer8277]

Printers will continue having vfa until manufacturer start to use teethed idlers for the teethed side of the belt again. My v0 has its drivers tuned for the motors and used current while my trident hasn't. Both use moons motors, so pretty low vfa from the start. Guess what, the trident has much better surface quality than the v0. There is one important difference, the v0 uses bearing stacks everywhere, the trident uses toothed idlers too. See prusa mk4, even its 0,9 degree steppers didn't solve the vfa situation, only improved it. Also uses smooth idlers. The problem with smooth idlers becomes even more pronounced if we were to use the belt tension specified by gates/the manufacturer which is in general higher than the user manuals of the printers suggest

[@AJLaRocque54]

I really appreciate your video and the time and effort you put into making it. I’ve already decided to purchase the Plus 4 with my tax return. Hopefully, by then Qidi will have addressed most, if not all, of the issues you have pointed out in your video.

[@antunrosovic7284]

why do you think 1.5mm teeth distance has anything with the printing precision? gear diameter and motor step has, but the teeth distance is irelevant

[@IrishZorg]

How does actual 6200 mm/s2 compare to X1C and other?

[@ygk3d]

@@IrishZorg the quality is still good at 10,000 is just that the sharpness of details is somewhat lost. The details get smoothed. Without converting my X1C to the X1 Plus community firmware I have no idea what the input shaping results for that would be.

[@IrishZorg]

​@ygk3d thanks!

[@evertchin]

Although 3d printers are becoming really good compared to the early boom of reprap kit around 2016-2020 but in general 3d printers from China still suffer from issues that shouldn't exist in the first place. It seems like the 'engineers' that designed these printers don't really have enthusiasm nor have much experience of using a 3d printer in the first place, and what makes matters worse are most of them don't really know what to test for before committing to productions and tends to treat the customers as their internal alpha testers....

[@Chrissi33004]

3:20 I just can't wrap my head around how this company copies one of bambus main features and instead of improving on it, they make it actively worse. like thats not the way its supposed to be Competition should improve the technology over time, not slap it on as an afterthought It seems like their standard is "as many features as possible" instead of doing one thing right

[@joliang2849]

10:05 bro that is so bad, is there any way to fix that?

[@b3owu1f]

So I am torn on how I feel about having a heater issue (in the US) with this printer. On the one hand.. for $800 it gives you more value than many $2K+ engineering printers do, even beating the X1C at 25% or more cheaper. On the other hand.. though I know QIDI will soon fix the heating issue for US market (and frankly even the 220v world though its not nearly as pronounced).. I suspect (correct me if I am wrong) that MOST 3d printer owners not only are tinkerers of some sort, but often 3d print upgrades/changes to their printers.. and thankfully we have a LOT of smart folks that not only are engineers and know how to dissect and improve upon printers.. but then design and offer the STLs/etc for the rest of us to benefit from. My heater is bad.. so QIDI sent me a new one and got it in 2 days. I also requested the ceramic heat break option.. which I am not sure if that is the same thing you were talking about with regards to the clogging issue and they resolved? At any rate I got that too.. haven't put it in yet. But I ordered the parts (Omron relay, heat sink, etc) to fix the heater issue myself and honestly I am OK with this. Sure I would have preferred not to do that.. BUT.. on the flip side apparently the Omron is a MUCH better quality part than what they offer out of China (or at least more likely than what QIDI will fix the issue with). So.. I am not bothered by the "upgrade" if it solves the problem and ensures my heater is "better" than what future QIDI Plus 4 owners will get. I will say I wasn't aware of the 3d print to upgrade the air flow on the extruder.. that's good to know so I'll have to print that once my printer is working again and look to upgrade that. I did buy the upgraded nozzle (made from adamantium ;) and a 2nd PEI sheet. Was hoping BIQU would offer their new cold/blue ones in this size, but not yet.

[@802Garage]

Pretty reasonable take I think a lot of people, including me, mostly align with. At $800 even without a chamber heater it is a good value. So once the issue is properly fixed, it's a great proposition. It's just unacceptable a safety issue was let out the door like that. Hopefully they make it right for everyone. My Plus4 has been nearly perfect, but I'm still getting a replacement board and may move to an off the shelf SSR unit later.

[@b3owu1f]

@@802Garage Is QIDI sending you a replacement SSR? I wasn't offered that.. even though I did just speak to them 3 days ago about my heater not working. In my case if I turn on the heater it immediately spikes the sensor in seconds to 140+ c and shuts things down. So I can't run the heater at all.

[@Kimberlie1]

@@b3owu1f Contact them and their after-sales support will send you the parts you need. US users will get the latest SSR for free and extend the warranty for one year.

[@CasGRos]

I am looking forword to a vertion of this printer that has the filament holder inside of the heated chamber to avoide moister absorbtion.

[@ygk3d]

@@CasGRos that would be nice!

[@tempacc9589]

Great review thanks

[@Suchtzocker]

you could literally! use a pulley with a V-Belt as long as its slack free and tight you get the precision your motors and your gear/belt/pulley gear ratio will give you lol ... as you contact inner teeth in a radius seeing the belt outside pulley inside you reduce the tenency to slack to basically zero in comparison to a pulley that has to drive a straight belt so even that argument is not really worth the discussion

[@ellisgl]

I think an offset wishbone belt would be better.

[@Unown_B]

wanting for x1c 2

[@sabahoudini]

It boggles my mind why they choose glass over PC panels. PC has better heat insulation and doesn't break.

[@802Garage]

Looks nice, feels nice, doesn't scratch. They had gotten a lot of complaints about scratching and were trying to please the customer base. Reviews were constantly talking about all the plastic, so partially blame reviewers. FWIW the printer is pretty well insulated as is, even with gaps.

[@ivansmith654]

I need to how nose the Qidi plus4 makes?

[@antunrosovic7284]

Only 21 mm^3/s maxflow?! On toylike V3 KE I have 27 mm^3/s for regular PLA. :/

[@rcls10]

X1 carbon or qidi plus 4?

[@ygk3d]

Depends on what you value more: size or multi-color capabilities. The Plus 4 is intended to have multi-color in the future with the release of the Qidi Box but that might be awhile yet. The Plus 4 is also a little rough around the edges still. It’s a really good printer but there seem to be some lemon units out there. The X1C is pretty great all around but more expensive for a smaller build volume.

[@NathanaelRouillard]

Carbon filters don't do anything about the ABS fumes, just the smells, so in some ways it's worse than not having the filter, as you're still inhaling the toxic fumes, even though you don't get the warning of the bad smell.

[@ygk3d]

Mhhh, interesting. If that’s the case, it’s definitely problematic.

[@warmesuppe]

source for that information? Or is it trust me bro?

[@NathanaelRouillard]

@@warmesuppe sources are unfortunately more difficult to share on youtube comments than they should be, so hopefully this works for you. You'll need to search for the paper, but it's called: Exposure hazards of particles and volatile organic compounds emitted from material extrusion 3D printing: Consolidation of chamber study data Authors are Qian Zhang and Marilyn S. Black I read it on Science Direct It should be noted that the VOC styrene is a potential carcinogen, and that's of note, but it's probably the UFPs (that you tend not to know about, or what UFPs there are going to be since the addititives are usually not going to be fully disclosed) that should be more concerning. I'll hold my hand up on potential confusion there - I shouldn't have just said fumes, which probably plays into the same issues where everyone just talks about the smell of ABS printing. I'm not saying don't print these materials, but a carbon filter can give a dangerous sense of security if people aren't aware of the other issues that need to be mitigated.

[@ChrumkavySuchar]

I don't get the Z offset / leveling. Why, if it already is able to detect/set z offset with nozzle probing, why they added a magnetic sensor to do bed leveling. It doesn't make sense, no? Added weight, and probably less precision than if they would use nozzle probing like the rest newest printers that have flawless first layers.. Weird.

[@ygk3d]

Yeah, I don't get it either.

[@pizzablender]

Why QIDI uses only 2 Z motors, you need 3 (or more) for full bed leveling. And oh, belt patternsdo not cause vertical artefacts. Those patters would be horizontal...

[@802Garage]

A horizontal pattern distributed vertically is literally what FVA are.

[@ygk3d]

Yeah, they don't have full bed tramming. 3 points is needed to define a plane. But 2 points of adjustment at least lets you eliminate any left/right tilt. Forward/backward tilt is still possible but the bed is constrained in that dimension by the bushing and linear rods, so It should be relatively level. And to your second point, belts do cause VFAs... check the comment below by 802Garage.

[@ProjectDefi]

Still haven't opened my max3 from the box jaja

[@kazolar]

Belt pitch has nothing to do with VFAs. 9mm belts is what help to mitigate that, though my trident is still running 6mm belts and has no VFAs. 1.5mm belt pitch is not going to get copied, it's not standard, hard to source, doesn't evenly fit into any steps/mm math. Please actually research the physics behind the cause of VFAs -- throwing out the "killer feature" as the 1.5mm belt pitch is kinda silly considering the killer filler feature is the fact this machine's chamber heater SSR will set your house on fire.

[@MichaelThompson77]

Belt pattern ringing is a thing, the finer pitch makes it less noticeable.

[@802Garage]

The belt pitch and size are contributors to VFA issues, even if he overstated the case. The lack of VFA from Plus4 prints is very noticeable.

[@MrBaskins2010]

this is a solid machine

[@97hondacivic]

so all the drawbacks of a bambu printer with none of the benefits, such a shame

[@Archeagle]

I have the Qidi plus 4 and i print with PLA+ and since last week, i cannot print anymore. The hotend become always clogged. I clean the nozzle perfectly. Try again and it became clog again. QIDI is sendi g me a new hotend

[@802Garage]

As he covered in the video, the early version nozzles were prone to heat creep clogging. Best thing you can do is print slightly colder usually and with the top off and door open. Once you get the ceramic heatbreak nozzle, your issue should be solved.

[@Archeagle]

@802Garage i change the hotend fan for a more powerfull and it work for 40min than.. clog. I will wait for my new hotend.

[@ThePlexman]

@@Archeaglehad this myself new hit end with new nozzle and it’s been printing fine since

[@Archeagle]

@ThePlexman same for me. It prints fine. I'm so happy.

[@802Garage]

@@Archeagle Glad to hear it.

[@Crazypit1000]

it makes no difference betwen a 2mm or a 1,5 mm belt. My Prusa MK4 and my ZeroG are printing as fine as this printer, or better...

[@Mkz0r]

Travel accelerate can go beyond 6200

[@ygk3d]

True, good point.

[@Mkz0r]

@ygk3d infill also

[@REDxFROG]

0:38 Only your prints look this bad.

[@ygk3d]

Have you ever printed a shiny PETG part? Almost all printers show artifacts like depicted. Some are worse than others. From my testing, the Q1 Pro was really bad.

[@emanuelemagri8056]

lately you tube is full of killers

[@AndroidA258]

How to fix vfa with this crazy simple trick... Just raise speed by 10%

[@kheperiupuaut]

i can't get over the horrible name

[@AngelVenomous]

Prusa mk4 should have no vfas as it has no vfas motors so there is definitely something wrong with your printer and you should contact their support. I think they even advertise that feature.

[@ygk3d]

They use 0.8 degree steppers on the MK4 which I believe is why the make the claims of no VFAs. They also claim a perfect first layer which I’ve found to be untrue in practice on my XL. The MK4 prints are good but if you look close on a shiny part I can see artifacts I would describe as VFAs.

[@olorf]

@@ygk3d0.9

[@AngelVenomous]

​@@ygk3dyes I had the same problem with the "perfect first layer". I don't remember though anything about the vfas. Excuse me but, shouldn't you contact them and tell them to help you fix these issues you are having? If you already did, what was their response?

[@ygk3d]

@@AngelVenomous I just added a z offset override in the slicer and moved on. That fixed the issue. Couldn’t be bothered to deal with support when I already have a solution that works for me.

[@AngelVenomous]

​@@ygk3dwell yeah that's an easy fix. I was mainly talking about the vfas.

[@StasonKalbason]

Молодцом!

[@ScytheNoire]

Qidi Fire Hazard

[@johnbeima6413]

Print Quality? All those prints at the start riddled with VFAs/ringing/artifacts. Simply horrible.

[@802Garage]

One of the prints he showed was from another printer. That was the point.

[@bradleyhovan9390]

Biased review. Please don't trust this guy people.

[@ygk3d]

@@bradleyhovan9390 how is this biased? It is a very balanced review of positive and negative. Go watch the last video on my channel before this one and you’ll see how ironic this comment is.

[@Hidden.forge-fevo]

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