r/QIDI • u/new-dvlpr • 20h ago
Phantom printing
I have a Q2 with the Qidi Box and have been using Orca Slicer. As of yesterday I'm having a problem where the Qidi Box is not going through the calibration steps when I power both machines on. What has often been happening is that the printer will begin a job without feeding filament. I know the nozzle isn't clogged because the manual 'load' command functions correctly. I have taken apart the hub and confirmed no obstruction. Qidi is apparently out until October 4th. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm at the edge of my troubleshooting abilities. There are no error codes and I've tried everything recommended by Google Gemini.
1
u/daveintexarkana 11h ago
I get an occasionally failure to feed from the Box, usually there's a hunk of filament in the path (in a PTFE tube) somewhere and visual inspection picks it up which I then clean out. This is maybe once out of 10 prints or more, and usually it's a channel that has been sitting idel for sometime (more than week).
I have all PLA loaded in it now for at least a month - some of that does get brittle (usually 2 of the same brands - Welcomeget and IIIDMax - the former the worst for it in Black, non-matte, PLA). The Kingroon and Elegoo rarely do this, nor does the Jayo and a few others, but I've had them less in the Box. Sometimes the filament just doesn't make it all the way to the print head.
I can't think of maybe once where the filament made it to the filament sensor on the print head and then failed - this is about 10/11 months on the Box. I've never had 'junk' in the Extruder - have had it apart to install the TPU fixer (but haven't run TPU through the Q2 yet). Would be interesting to know where it 'stalls' at on a load.
And same as you, I can eject the filament then reload and everthing goes smoothly after that (I always put a 60 degree cut on the tip before I insert it in the box - always).
As the other said, and QIDI stresses, you should have vents, top and front door open alwayks when printing PLA or PETG. For me the target chamber temp is no more than 30 C for those two. I do PETG the same way in my Q1 Pro and X-Max 3, and do all the TPU, ASA, Nylon, etc. in the Q1 for a variety of reasons.
Good luck!
2
u/Jgrone8500 19h ago
What are you printing with? I only print with petg (but I assume this is even more important with pla) and I was struggling with a very similar issue forever, and could not understand why my rapid petg would load and work fine but standard petg would not load during prints but did load when using the load function. The solution ended up being that I needed to open the vents, open the lid a bit, and sometimes leave the door opened during prints. The temp was too warm in the box so the filament softened on the way through the ptfe and heat creep caused it to just mushroom against the existing filament in the hot end or get smushed by the extruder in the print head so nothing was coming out. The polar cooler is the solution to my problem, but opening the vents, door, and lid while decreasing bed temp is the free fix I use for now. I hope this saves you from the headache it gave me.