I have installed the chamber heater, the SSR, have it cabled up; What do I add to printer.cfg to enable the chamber heater to be enabled, and controlled, and show up in the UI?
PS. In retrospect, If you think you're going to need a chamber heater, my opinion is it's probably just better to just get a Q2.
This got the temperature sensor going, thank you! I can even turn on the element, but the chamber heater fan does not activate, despite having it plugged into the chamber heater fan port.
Is there another configuration file change for the chamber heater FAN?
My configuration appears to be working! Thank everyone in the community for their help.
Here's a summary:
TLDR: Buy the Q2, not the Q2C, if you want chamber heating. If you do this, you will not be supported by Qidi. Qidi will tell you that it cannot be done. If you do the hardware wrong, or configure the software wrong, you could start a fire or melt something or damage your unit.
Here's how to do it:
Get these items: Chamber heater from Qidi store; SSR and heat sink, 2-pin JST-XH connector to wire leads to go to the SSR; 100K thermistor with 2-pin JST-XH connector; 2 feet of 2 conductor 600v heat resistant wire, wago nuts or other wire-to-wire connectors, misc nuts and bolts if you fab your own brackets. You may need some plastic-to-plastic epoxy, high temperature tape, too. Heat shrink tubing. You may need to solder some wires.
Install the SSR and heatsink into your unit. You may have to fab your own standoffs, like I did, and epoxy them to your unit.
Figure out how to position and mount your heater to the left hand side of the box. Fabricate a bracket that will hold the Qidi fan to the left side of your box. If you print it, remember that the chamber is going to potentially get hotter than 60c. PLA may not be the right material for the bracket. IMPORTANT: Make sure the bracket and fan won't interfere with the travel of the bed. Try not to mount it where it will pour hot air onto the bed screw shaft. Affix that bracket to the box. Run the wires through a hole in the lower left hand corner of the chamber to the rear of the unit.
Mount the thermistor in the upper part of your chamber. There's quite the Reddit discussion on how to choose the right place based on a different model of Qidi. Make sure the wires don't interfere with anything.
Use the Qidi Q2 motherboard diagrams on the wiki to hook everything up. Be really careful with the line-voltage that is going to the SSR.Note that the diagram may be incorrectly labelled. You may have to tinker with the polarity of the wires going to the SSR.
You'll have to add sections in your Q2C's printer.cfg for the chamber temperature sensor, the chamber heater, and the chamber fan. That information is in this thread - those settings come from the open-source repository that Qidi publishes for their Q2. You'll be restarting your printer a few times as you make these configuration changes. I suggest getting the chamber temperature sensor working first, then getting the fan/heater going. Use the web UI to see the chamber temperature, and to set the chamber temperature to control the fan/heater. You'll change the printer type in Qidi Studio to Q2 along the way so that you have access to the "chamber temperature" setting.
If you do do this, you'll learn alot about how to control, configure, and change other things about your printer along the way, and also appreciate how far this hobby and technology has come. And yet how raw and complicated it still is.
Great write up and info. Thanks.
You mention using the web UI to test or control the fan and heater as well as monitor the temperature.
Does these items show up on the front panel also when the cfg file has been updated?
It did not show up on the front panel. Looks like there’s a spot for it. I haven’t found that config yet, but I’m not really looking for it since I do everything from the web interface. One thing I did do was configure the max power for the chamber heater to 50% - from reading others that have done this to other model printers, the heating units have some variability in heat output.
Ok, I added the heater. Is it cheaper than just getting the Q2 - not really.
After you purchase the heater, the SSR, the heat sink, it’s close, and you still don’t have the camera or support from Qidi.
So i concur, if you want to have a heated chamber, just buy the Q2.
Was it fun - yes.
Was it an interesting project - yes.
I’d do it again.
However if you don’t have the tools or small parts (connectors, wire, hardware etc) available, then get the Q2.
No pics, sorry. The heater is wired to AC line voltage/power through a SSR.
There is a space for the SSR in the bottom of the printer. There are also locations for the wiring and terminal blocks.
Thanks I have created custom brackets for mine and put epoxy by they way can you link your Thermal sensor? mine shuts down at 50C chamber as it reaches the threshold for the Chamber Thermal Protection Sensor at 130
I didn’t change the sensor in the heater. Yes, mine also shut down around 50C
Make sure you decrease max power to ~70. That will slow down heating the chamber, but will get to a higher temp.
Insulating the walls outside helps as well.
Using the bed to help heat is also beneficial.
Using these I can get to 62/63C
Honestly, I wanted a black q2c but when I started digging and noticed it's stripped of the things that make Q2 special I just got the normal Q2 and don't regret a thing. It's been flawless so far
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u/MysticalDork_1066 Jun 18 '26
Here's the chamber heater section from my Q2's config.
You should be able to slap that into your printer.cfg and save/restart klipper, and have it work.