QIDI Q1 Pro - Can it compete with BambuLabs?

[@Factory400]

I ordered one. It's cheap and my expectations are appropriately low. Should do what I want it to do.

[@romantrickey1827]

How do you like it

[@802Garage]

I think you were a bit harsh given price to performance. Bambu Lab doesn't use stock open source firmware and you can put vanilla Klipper on this machine if you want to. How many people want to use ethernet over WiFi for printing? The packaging for shipping seemed fine and no reviewers have received damaged units. There is a lot of good, especially for $469 or even $439 with a coupon right now. It can use advanced materials and seems pretty trouble free. In all reviews I have watched, the print quality looks phenomenal. You didn't show much printing, which I think is very important. Not totally knocking the review. It just seemed a bit against the printer from the start.

[@bp8__163]

Agreed! I wish the review covered a bit more of the actual capabilities of what the printer can do.

[@FrequenciaJogos]

One of the reasons why I considered the Elegoo Neptune 4 and Flashforge 5M was because of the Ethernet cable. So, I agree that the majority of users will ignore that. I don't follow this channel, so I'm not sure if they complain about the lack of Ethernet only on that printer.

[@802Garage]

@@FrequenciaJogos It's definitely a thing for a small subset of users. Most people would prefer WiFi. Not sure why he seems against it.

[@gaxon1920]

He’s honest and gives you the good and bad. He didn’t state anything false. Would you rather him sugar coat a turd or give you the facts?

[@802Garage]

@@gaxon1920 My issue isn't with him presenting the negative at all. I would much prefer a reviewer present the good and the bad. My issue is that it seemed like he found negatives for every positive and presented them as though they were equal in weight and number to the positives. Meanwhile there are a lot of positives about the printer he didn't discuss or barely touched on. Most importantly, according to every other review this printer seems capable of fantastic print quality at high speed with even more difficult filaments. He barely showed any printing and didn't really test the capabilities or compare it to anything else at all. To be honest, it just seemed like a review that wanted to dislike the printer. Maybe he had a negative experience for some reason that is difficult to quantify. Going through the comments it's obvious several people got an overall negative impression from this review. Meanwhile, this printer seems to be a solid value even at full price. Difficult to reconcile. Of course not every review will be positive, but there was genuinely nothing wrong with the printer. Nothing broken, non-functional, or even much worse than many popular printers on the market. It printed well without major issues. A lot of printers can't even manage that. I mean he even complained about it being shipped with Styrofoam. As if $2,000 televisions don't still ship in the stuff. Just seems off. I'm not alone in this opinion either.

[@MemelordSupreme]

Crazy weird because other reviewers have had a totally different experience seemed much more promising. and their wifi worked out of the box

[@Vector3DP]

WiFi worked, it's just WiFi, which is generally terrible. I can't speak about others experience with the printer, just my own experience.

[@Duckferd]

@@Vector3DP Is it possible to uninstall their version of Klipper and reinstall vanilla Klipper through Kaiuh?

[@hughjazz5608]

​@@Vector3DPwhat do you mean by "it's just wifi"?

[@kevinforget549]

What the heck is wrong with wifi? You have some super new wireless communication we don't know about yet?

[@FTairgunsTX]

The heater is safe no way to touch it directly because of the heater grid. any toaster is more "dangerous". In the US, all garages have GFCI plugs, plus you can convert any regular plug to GFCI and never get shocked in case of a ftupid mistake. In Europe, almost all homes have "GFCI" brakers. Anyway, it is completely safe, safe than any other electric space heater 🤷 Looks like a complete overreaction

[@FTairgunsTX]

Same as a space heater 🤷 You know the brakers, right?​@wshannemannuwehannemann9520

[@802Garage]

​@@wshannemannuwehannemann9520It will not experience thermal runaway and it is perfectly safe. The heating elements can only draw a maximum Amperage and only heat up so much. Please don't spread rumors you don't understand.

[@legendfpv]

It's for sale at $440 right now, shouldn't you have considered that in your review and comparison to p1s?

[@Vector3DP]

What's 440?

[@legendfpv]

@@Vector3DPQ1 Pro ($470 on site and there's a coupon)

[@legendfpv]

@@Vector3DP Qidi Q1 Pro on their site with coupon

[@legendfpv]

@@Vector3DPQidi Q1 Pro on their site with coupon

[@legendfpv]

@@Vector3DPQ1 Pro on Qidi site with coupon

[@etiennegarneaubeaudoin8369]

It would have been nice to see the actual capabilities of the hotend and heated chamber with more exotic materials like high temp nylon or polycarbonates. I think this is where this machine could shine when compared to other printers like the p1s or k1c. I get that the firmware is old, but does it really affect the quality of the parts when printing special filaments?

[@gg48gg]

Good content although for delivery I prefer a more conversational style vs this repetitive intonation style used by so many KZbinrs for reasons that are beyond me.

[@rgbok5453]

Im gonna let it circulate in the market for a bit so the versions they will release in the future will be slightly improved based on feedback.

[@richc9890]

I think there is a firmware update in process for this printer which will hopefully fix some of the quirky issues. Good to know a usb network port can be used in place of the wireless dongle. For the minute cost of including the RJ45 port on the board, not sure why they chose not to include it (as they have with the XMax 3).

[@NoMercyFtw]

I was going to order a A1 but not anymore

[@802Garage]

This is def a much more capable printer.

[@BradClarke]

Wow, that's really bad regarding the klipper install. Did the mks mcu come with an ancient Linux version as well? Sovol uses an mks board for their klipper screens and it ships with buster, causing issues with crowsnest.

[@choderdroid]

My WiFi was flaky with this machine. The USB network adapter was much better! My back panel did not have the cutout for the network adapter. This has been a really good printer so far, but I am coming from an almost 10 year old Flashforge Creator Pro.

[@rjakiel73]

My Q1 Pro laughs in your general direction.

[@saddle1940]

It's father was a hamster (pronounced hampster).

[@bartman2395]

Yes, exactly this sir. Pps-cf and ppa-cf printer for less than 400€ with 15% code lol.

[@berlinberlin4246]

Yes, IF Klipper than a vanilla Klipper!

[@ambaro0887]

I'm just skeptical all the internals will last a durable period under 60°C before something fails..

[@ambaro0887]

A spool holder is the first thing you should be printing with this printer.👀

[@mmmmbeeeeer]

I've just been having a closer look at the QIDI specific klipper version that they have in their github account. It's actually a bit crazier that you've noted. You said that they're using a very old version of klipper (0.10.0 I think you showed), but doing a quick diff between the real klipper repo and the QIDI repo, it looks like they've manually merged SOME of 0.11.0 into their repo - it clearly has some of the 0.11.0 files, bit it looks like this was done before 0.11.0 was released, or at the very least, some of the updated files are newer than the 0.10.0 version but older than the 0.11.0 version. I haven't had time to go through in detail, but I'd guess that their version (assuming your machine has the latest that is in their github) is *somewhat* closer to 0.11.0, but not actually based on 0.11.0. I'm hoping to have time to go through and work out what they've actually changed in their version apart from just selectively pulling updated files from 0.11.0. I'd like to say that I hope this sheds some light, but tbh it really just throws some pretty harsh shade on their software development practices.

[@AndrewAHayes]

Oh dear!

[@ScytheNoire]

This is a great example of cutting a lot of corners. The more I see companies push towards closed off environments, even though they are using open source, the more I'm fairly certain my next printer will be a Voron. Just waiting to see more news about the Voron Phoenix, release date, build sizes, LDO kits, etc.

[@parallelsandtangents938]

The Phoenix interests me as well, but the 5k price tag deters me.

[@Duckferd]

The Phoenix is in an entirely different price and size class. This would be competing against a 250mm Trident with a chamber heater.

[@1supertec]

AMS early 2025 but not sure it will be for this printer 👍

[@doomersnek3878]

I've been thinking about getting the Q1 since its release, but some things in this review does concern me. This especially is a concern for the open source-ness of the printer and the firmware issue. Is their X-Plus 3 better for open source?

[@stew675]

What's the specific issues about open-source that you're referring to? The source code for their Klipper, Mainsail, and their Screen UI is all available. They forked from mainline Klipper on 24th July 2022, but do occasionally back port in mainline features into their own fork. This appears to be a business decision, as supporting a printer with a completely open firmware would be a nightmare for a company with respect to the number of things that can go wrong in that scenario. If you ask Qidi however, they will actually provide you with a full copy of their dev environment for you to work on their version of Klipper yourself and port in any upstream features that you want. I've got half a mind to try to merge their fork with mainline myself but haven't had the time to do so. The physical hardware isn't open source, but that doesn't mean that you can't mod it. It's running an MKS SKIPR board and they give you root access to that, so really you can do whatever you want. They just don't make those facts front and center as they apparently already deal with a fair number of people who have bricked their printers by fumbling about. This is usually recovered easily with a new eMMC though. The slicer is fully open source and available. The recent issue with PrusaSlicer not being correctly credited in the "About QidiSlicer" popup page was introduced two months ago by a bad PR, that they've reversed and will be fixed in the next slicer version. In all other locations PrusaSlicer remains correctly credited.

[@doomersnek3878]

@@stew675 I'm not as well versed as other people are with 3D printing, I have an Ender 3 V2 as a project to work on. I knew going into it that it'd be something where I have to learn how to fix all of the, well, poor quality to it. The best I know is about using Virtual Studio to follow direction on installing a pretty basic Merlin firmware. What concerns me is not getting the latest Klipper firmware. Tho I am unfamiliar with Klipper, I do intend to learn a lot more about it when getting this 3D printer. However, I'd like to not be restricted to a two year old Klipper version. Overall, I do just need a 3D printer for making parts and art models of my own because I own cats now and little time to work on the Ender 3 V2. I cannot be bothered to see my prints go to waste because my cats decided to get at it and set themself a blaze. Therefore, I just need it to work and still be able to maintain the 3D printer. My worry is having to purchase proprietary parts important to the 3D printer's functions. I'd like to not rely on one company to provide parts just because of wack design philosophy. This extends to the firmware as well because I'd like to know I have options if I want to upgrade or diagnose any issues.

[@bp8__163]

I got a Q1 pro, coming from a heavily modded klipper Ender 3 V2. The Q1 was the simplest thing to set up, it was printing almost flawless parts. For the early bird price, it’s almost stupid to pass up. (Given you have the resources to get one)

[@802Garage]

@@bp8__163 Wow you got it fast! Glad it's going well for you. I really want one.

[@97hondacivic]

Seems incredibly rushed

[@CammyFi]

The honesty is so refreshing, I've tried this thing, and I agree with everything you've said.

[@gordon861]

Well I saw this printer pop up on my feed earlier and thought it looked decent as a first printer, but listening to you pointing out all the issues with the software has made me decide to stay well away from this and keep looking for another options. Opensource software is great, but locked down two year old open source software not so much. Thanks for the heads up.

[@802Garage]

I mean, are there even any features lost? My understanding is that you can put vanilla Klipper on this machine anyways. It seems like a phenomenal option to me, especially at $439 right now with a coupon. Nothing else is going to print as many materials this well for under $500 that's for sure.

[@gordon861]

@@802GarageTotally understand, but as a new user I am not keen on buying something new and then dumping the supplied OS and killing any warranty that may come with it. Especially on a brand new untested printer that has changed specs since they sent out the review versions and the actual release, the word 'ethernet' no longer appears on the specs page of this printer, so what else are they going to change between releases? £400 sounds great though, if/when it comes back in stock in UK.

[@802Garage]

@@gordon861 If that's the case, then why would you care if it comes with vanilla Klipper anyways? What matters to you is features and stability. This seems to have both in spades. It also won't kill a warranty to change firmware as a general rule. The printer was never really supposed to come with ethernet is my understanding. You get what you actually buy, not what was speculated on before. Would you even use ethernet? The WiFi is so much more convenient and works perfectly well. I'm just saying. This review seemed a bit sour, but most of the issues pointed out are minor and common with many printers available. I just think it has a lot of positives, especially for the price.

[@Duckferd]

​@@802Garage There are bug fixes and feature rollouts that vanilla Klipper rolls out with. The last update for example in late 2023 had bug fixes and code cleanups, alongside new hardware support. It feels rather strange to feature "Vanilla Klipper, but not really"- even Creality has at least tried to justify their Klipper fork by skinning it and giving it "different" features. I'm just hopeful that it's possible to use Kiauh to completely uninstall all the current elements on the printer and reinstall the latest Klipper release- in which case this is much less of an issue. If that is possible, then much can be forgiven for its price tag.

[@802Garage]

@@Duckferd Sure, but their code is just based on an old version, not completely unmodified. That's my understanding. They do have a new revision now from what I've heard. Plus if every reviewer is having weeks to months of failure free printing and no features missing or not working, what is the harm? I'm just saying there has to be an actual impact or difference to the consumer for it to matter. New hardware support also doesn't matter for a single piece of hardware. There are justifications for not using vanilla, such as easier tech support. I agree though, Qidi should just use it stock and open. My understanding is you can switch to vanilla like you want. Obviously have not done it myself though. I think even with the locked down version, $439 or even $469 is a great price. Bambu Lab printers cost much more and they don't have vanilla anything. I don't understand why people have different standards for different companies.

[@joeking433]

No WiFi? Really? How stupid! Deal breaker! They dropped this to $469 but it still is a no-brainer to go with the Bambu Labs P1S or P1P.

[@Vector3DP]

It does have wifi.

[@Heiserton]

I am really having a hard time seeing what problems this printer was designed to fix. Decent price, but smaller build volume than Bambu’s. If they would have at least matched the Bambu’s or made them slightly bigger, it would likely have been much more of a hit.

[@802Garage]

Build area is quite similar, runs Klipper which can be swapped out for stock, much cheaper than any enclosed Bambu Lab machine, heated enclosure, more capable of printing exotic filaments out of the box, comparable general features otherwise. Every printer on the market is trying to solve a similar set of problems while adding a few extra features. The heated enclosure and general temperature capabilities are pretty impressive here. Especially at $439 with a coupon right now.

[@parallelsandtangents938]

Seems to me that this is just a repackaged x-plus 3. Actually chopped down x-plus 3. Missing some crucial things such as wifi. Kind of a let down from the Qidi folks. Obviously just a quick release to try to stay with the other manufacturers that release new products annually or half annually.

[@802Garage]

It has WiFi.

[@pellcorp]

I think the X plus 3 used a wifi dongle too. Pretty awesome that you can just plug in USB ethernet, wish k1 had that option.

[@marilupena4463]

Hey I’m first

[@joehimes9898]

Sigh. Close but no cigar.

[@Duckferd]

Although you can't update Klipper out of the box, can you remove and reinstall Vanilla Klipper with KIAUH? Assuming that you can put together a printer.cfg for it well enough.

[@Vector3DP]

KIAUH generally blocks operations when the files are modified, that's why you can't update.

[@NoMercyFtw]

I contacted support and the newer printers are coming out with an Ethernet port and they're going to send me out an updated board all I had to pay was $20.00 for shipping

[@stripes7214]

A very harsh review, but that's good.

[@TimofeyTitovets]

I think the 10080 port used to restrict root access to the system

[@GiovaSanta12]

I'm a little undecided between Qidi Q1 Pro and Creality K1C, you tested either those models? What's your advice for a total beginners that want first 3d printer?

[@riba2233]

Q1, not even close, creality is 💩

[@GiovaSanta12]

@@riba2233 and between Qidi Q1 Pro and Bambulab A1 Combo?

[@kevinforget549]

Their quality control seems all over the place. Their sla printers look pretty good though

[@wesboyd3578]

Seems like former Elegoo and Bambu engineers got together and designed it. Elegoo has a bastardized version of Klipper running on their N4 series (I learned the hard way that you can't update Klipper without bricking the machine) and then the chassis and hotend look like you ordered a Bambu P1/X1 printer off of Wish. Still seems like a decent entry level CoreXY printer. I have a Bambu P1S now and I really miss Klipper and the Fluidd interface at times.

[@mohammadhabbal3691]

how does the q1 compare to the p1s?

[@Antoan108]

This or the creality k1c? And why?

[@kilianlindlbauer8277]

As a bystander im actually not sure which one. The qidi has chamber heater and has actually automatic bed leveling (it can level the bed left to right), but the k1c is better on the software side (you can actually do something with the klipper installation) and looks a bit more thought through. I would say that way, if you primarily print pla, petg, pctg, tpu then the k1c, if you only ever touch abs, nylon or polycarbonate, then the qidi if its quirks dont bother you

[@Antoan108]

@kilianlindlbauer8277 Thanks for the reply, man! I'll probably be getting the k1c since I won't use abs, ass, or nylon. And I have 6% off on the k1c so that's nice.

[@802Garage]

This for sure. Given all the reviews I have watched this is a far more solid unit with far fewer issues. The heated chamber, build area, and leveling are all big advantages. It's also my understanding you can put stock Klipper on this.

[@Antoan108]

@802Garage but it's just looks so bad. And if I won't be using the heated chamber or bigger build plate, do you still think it's better. What kind of issues are you talking about on the new k1c?

[@802Garage]

@@Antoan108 I think it looks perfectly fine, though I wish the front door was flat with no view warping. If you don't need a heated chamber or larger build plate, look at the X-Smart 3 or Adventurer 5M which you can build your own enclosure for. Insane value for money. Or just get a bed slinger and save even more of course. If you want to spend $550-$600 to not get a heated chamber or larger build area and pretty much the same features otherwise, I mean go for it? Price for performance, this seems near chart topping at least. That is considering this is $439 right now with a coupon. The K1C seems better overall than the K1, but my understanding is they still have issues with bed leveling, heating, and warping. More VFA than other printers as well and I don't think the cooling is top notch. Cable chain and Bowden tube still have some annoyances with the lid and binding in certain areas. Don't get me wrong I actually still think they are good overall for the money, but I'd go for this over a K1 for sure. Given the price I'd get it over a P1S too I think, given the added capability. I do care about printing exotic materials and larger parts though, given I do a lot of automotive parts.

[@ThreeDPrintDesigns]

I really cant stand the aesthetics of qidi printers. They do not look very professional

[@Vector3DP]

Agree.

[@CammyFi]

It's all pretty tacky yea

[@Basement_CNC]

they saw creality put out the k1C so they had to put out SOMETHING as well no improovement over the previous printers just something rushed biggers selling point :its NEW 😮 i dont get why companys are doing that😂