QIDI TECH 3D Printer, X-Pro 3D Printer with WiFi Function, Dual Extruder, High Precision Double Color Printing with ABS,PLA,TPU Filament,9.1x5.9x5.9 Inch

So, I read many of the reviews prior to purchase, and I've used 3D printers many times in the past, and I decided that the price/performance/features and the reviews made sense for this printer.The bad news was that the delivery did not go well. In fact, the Amazon driver dropped the box on the porch. Literally dropped it about 18", and I had it on video. Amazon, to its credit, gave me a $20 credit on my next purchased, and they said the return would be easy if the printer was damaged. I feel fortunate that it wasn't, as it really is an outstanding value in my opinion.I set up the printer following the directions supplied. The written instructions were not great, but they were sufficient to get it going. Probably the hardest and most frustrating thing I found was removing the clear hood from the body of the printer where it is stored during shipment. I really had to think about it carefully. Seemed trivial at first, but it took me 15 minutes to get it out. Perhaps this was my issue. LOLLeveling was straightforward and took just a few minutes. I can't see how one would screw up. There are three thumb screws and a piece of material supplied.Then, there's the software UI. It's not straightforward even after watching the related and supplied videos (which go way to fast.. seriously, they need to slow down), so I emailed support at the email supplied. The response was amazing. The first reply took a day. For subsequent inquires, and there were many, the response was no more than a day and usually quite quickly, sometimes within minutes. The support person (Judy) sent me links to videos that really helped. At one point, one of the extruder stopped working, but the fix was simple, which basically included a couple of troubleshooting steps, then replacing the extruder with one of the spares. (Subsequent to the replacement, I repaired the extruder with a propane torch, which was incredibly easy.) Do be careful, as both the extruders and the platform can get quite hot. I used the supplied tools and a garden glove to remove the problem extruder.As to the printer, it really works well. It's quiet.. a lot quieter than I thought it would be. I typically print ABS, using the PLA for test prints. I was expecting ABS printing to generate quite a bit of fumes, but that wasn't really the case. Basically, I would close the door to the room and go to sleep. Minimal noise, no fumes evident. The printer is easily controlled by the software, and it remembers where it left off if you so desire when stopping a print job. There are several bits and pieces of spares and tools included with the printer. I never felt like I needed to use my own tools. I think the only minor downside is that during printing, there doesn't seem to be a way to turn off the very, very bright LED that illuminates the work. You can turn it off prior to printing with the touchscreen menu, but not during. The touchscreen functionality is good after you really think carefully about what the symbols mean (and in my case after an email response from support).I use Ethernet printing exclusively, but I did try WiFi once. It worked, but I've got an Ethernet port about a foot from the printer. The only thing to remember is to ensure that a memory stick (the one supplied is fine) is inserted in the USB port on the printer. That's where the temporary files for printing are stored. The stick supplied has the manual and other information on it in a folder. I copied the folder to the computer, then removed the folder from the stick, although I don't think that was really needed, as the files are rather small. The largest and most complicated item I printed was 5 megs. The stick holds 16 gigs.The only other thing you need to keep in mind is to have patience grasshopper when setting up a print. The extruder (one or both, depending on what you're doing) take a while to heat up. You can observe this on the printer touchscreen, but it's not particularly obvious. It took me a couple of tries to understand that patience was the key. You can heat them up manually on the touchscreen, but don't bother. Let the software do it. It's a lot more straightforward. After a file is sent to the printer, you get a series of beeps. Then, the platform and extruder heats (all preset for ABS or PLA.. you don't have to do anything manually). This takes a while, then the printer starts. My recommendation is to leave most of the defaults initially.All in all, it's a very good printer. I don't much care about looks, but I do care about it being well-built (it clearly survived being dropped), and I care about print quality, of course. I also very much care about after-sale support, and whatever minor deficits this printer has, the support really made up the difference.

This is my third 3D printer but the first where I didn't feel the short comings were so bad I needed to start modifying things. My other printers are heavily customized and using Marlin via dedicated OctoPi on RPi's. The firmware on this isn't perfect but that could be a result of me being spoiled by Marlin & OctoPi. This unit really has changed my view on printing things, my other units usually work fine but I’d have to check in on them remotely via OctoPi to make sure they didn’t just totally screwup making a giant rats nest or hairball. This printer has just lowered my printer anxiety a bunch since it just works and makes quality prints with little fuss. Just remember this and EVERY 3D printer need maintenance, after 5 months I needed to replace both heads (extras included in the box) and I replaced the magnetic PEI sheet at the same time even though it didn’t seem like it really needed it.Setup: This was pretty straight forward, the only tricky part was installing the fan shroud only because the instructions were not clear here. Taking my time this was up and running inside an hour for sure and that included a beer break. I also initially setup Wi-Fi on the printer too and it was fairly painless.Software: The provided one by Qidi is a clone/customized version of Cura so if your already familiar with it the learning curve is short. I’ve got no complaints really from it other than one thing, while I can dial in my settings fine and it remembers them there is no way to save a profile. I found the default settings prints the included filaments just fine but when tuning a few things here and there for other brands it would be nice to be able to save a profile. Now for Wi-Fi printing which SO many people complain about not working. At first my wouldn’t seem to work either and saving the sliced item via Wi-Fi never would appear as an option. That is until I noticed the little Wi-Fi icon in the lower left of “Cura”. As long as I was on the same Wi-Fi as the printer (worth noting if you have more than one network in your home even if they are connected somewhere i.e. a cascading internet or similar) then I could click the Wi-Fi icon and viola it would appear as my option to save the GCode. I said earlier I initially set this up and while it still is I rarely use it because transferring a large print can be slow as the main board of the printer (like most for that matter) just don’t have the bandwidth to receive the Wi-Fi signal and copy it to the USB drive. For example a Ramps boards built off the ATmega 2560 is only an 8 bit board running typically 16mhz. For medium to really large files I find it just saves time to pull the USB drive and save directly to it and slap it back in the printer. I have DEFINITELY been spoiled here by running a dedicated OctoPi server before as file transfers can be essentially instant. At some point I’ll probably setup a dedicated OctoPi for this unit as well (note if your interested in doing this the built in USB slot is NOT repeat NOT capable out of the box of doing this, you will need to make some connections to the main board itself directly and it’s been done numerous time and google is your friend).Head Leveling: As others have mentioned the dual heads can sometimes be a wee bit off and there are steps to correct this via a paper shim. It’s actually quick easy and painless to do so don’t chicken out and panic by sending the unit back like some others who reviewed on here have done. It takes 2 or 3 minutes with testing (trying different thickness of paper) but if you need to do this here are some suggestions which could save you from needing to do this at all. When your leveling the bed via the touch screen; first preheat the bed and *both* heads for a good 5 min before you level then select the leveling option. When it gets to the first point to set (front left) don’t dial it in yet. On the screen there are 2 options; bottom left goes to leveling point 2 and bottom right stops the leveling process and this is what you want to push. Make sure the preheaters are still off if (I think they do stay on) then use the manual move option and lower the bed say 10mm. Now via the touch screen move the print heads to the right several steps till both heads are over the board (you could move towards the back say 10mm too if you want). Now move the bed back up the same interval you moved it down and set the level checking both heads. You should have a very similar drag on both, remember it’s a light drag no scraping or drilling holes through the leveling sheet. Here’s why. On the first leveling point only the right printer head is over the bed so you cant even check both and if yours is like mine the front leftmost corner is like .25mm higher RIGHT on the edge. The heads can still be slightly off here, honestly you’re never going to get them dead nuts on less than say < .1mm so don’t spend all day trying. Now lower the bed 10mm again and leave the front back setting as is and now move the heads all the way to the right side of the bed mirroring the position just used. Raise the bed again and repeat the leveling like before. Now drop the bed 10mm again and move to the dead center and then rearward as far as you can staying over the bed. Raise the bed again and well you get the point. While doing this take note that if the drag on each head remains consistent at each leveling point. If it is you can try shimming to fix this but if you have different drags between heads on different locations you might try reversing your magnetic build surface and see if it still does it. I have a slight difference still in my heads and it’s not enough to worry me at all, for the lower of the heads use that one for filaments that like to be squeezed a little more like ABS and for the fractionally higher one you can use it for ones that don’t like PETG. Unlike my other printers which require all to frequent leveling I only level this printer every other week or so and it responds fine to this.After 5 months of printing I started noticing some degraded print quality, especially on taller items. My first clue was occasional clicking from the print head coming from the stepper feed. The frequency of the clicking increased till nearly every print above 20mm would fail. I was being lazy but if you see or hear this just save yourself aggravation and replace the print nozzles with the extras included in the box. Unless you’ve only used 1 the whole time you should replace both. This is because the work to replace both is almost the same and your going to have to level everything again anyway. I’m honestly surprised they lasted this long as my other printers (my heaviest modded one in particular) chews them up every couple weeks. So replacing it and doing the extensive 100 point leveling process would make me want to walk away for weeks which is why I bought this unit in the first place.