QIDI MAX3 3D Printer, Max 600mm/s High-Speed FDM Printer, Large Printing Size 12.8×12.8×12.4", Core XY All-Metal Structure, Direct Drive Extruder, Auto Leveling, 65℃ Chamber Heat

The media could not be loaded. (Pics are prints using the included red PLA, and a blue PLA from Overture. The video was a timelapse taken with Octoprint.)I've been resin printing for about 6 months now, but I had serious reservations about making the move to FDM. My perception was that FDM printers were finnicky machines with too many moving parts that needed tons of tweaking before you could get anything resembling a finished product.I was wrong.I did a fair amount of research, and I knew several of the larger companies from my resin printing experience already. I finally found the Qidi i-mates after being recommended it by someone on a 3D printing Discord server. The enclosure interested me: no fear of cats playing with a 200 degree nozzle! The Amazon reviews looked good, the price was right, and I pulled the trigger.The i-mates arrived in a couple days and was very well-packed. There were foam inserts preventing any of the internals from movement and protecting the entire case. I actually think they may have gone a bit overboard, and it took some maneuvering to get the power cable out from under the foam protecting the bed. Setup was dead simple. I plugged in the printer, switched it on, leveled the bed (manually, but assisted by a simple bed leveling wizard), and loaded the included red PLA filament into the direct drive extruder. Qidi includes a test print with their USB, and it printed very cleanly with no issues right out of the box.Qidi includes their slicer software on the USB along with documentation and the test print file. As far as I know, it's a customized version of an older Cura release. The slicer included on the USB itself is a bit out of date, and it's recommended that you download the newest release from their website. I didn't have any real issues with their slicing software, and the recommended settings worked fine for PLA. I printed a red benchy with no changes and it came out very clean. If you want to use actual Cura, you can find the printer profiles for Qidi printers on Github.The Qidi Connect feature to send files and print over wifi works, but I found it to be a little bit slow and unreliable. That didn't really bother me, as I was able to very easily set up Octoprint on an old android phone using the Octo4a app, a USB OTG splitter cable, and a USB TTL adapter. Octoprint makes printing so much more fun (in my opinion), and I was really happy that I could get it working on the i-mates. If you decide to go the same route, there's a plugin called "Fix CBD Firmware" that I needed to make things work.I did have a couple of hiccups, though most of them were normal things that I had expected to run into while learning to 3D print: filaments (especially silky PLA) needed to be dialed in to print smoothly, some uneven layers due to wobbling when the printer was on a desk that wasn't particularly solid, etc. The biggest issue I had was with the Z offset randomly changing. After leveling the bed, I'd get a perfect print. But if I printed again, even after homing each axis, the nozzle would usually be much too low and run into the bed. This resulted in my first nozzle making a deep gouge in the print bed and shearing off the tip of the brass nozzle itself. I contacted Qidi support, because I couldn't think of anything I had done wrong, and they were extremely helpful. They provided me with a few tests to run as well as firmware files and gcode settings, and examined the gcode of my past prints to see if any errors had slipped in. When everything else checked out, they shipped me out a new motherboard the same day. I received it about 4 business days later and it resolved my Z offset problem!Overall, I'm very happy that I chose the i-mates as my first FDM printer. I was up and running the day I received it, and their Support was extremely attentive and helpful with the one issue I did have. They also provide a ton of extra parts with the printer. The 0.4mm nozzle I damaged was no problem, since there were extras included. They also include an entire extra hotend for use with their 0.2mm nozzle. There were extra thermal fuses and tools as well. If you want a frustration-free introduction to 3D printing, you can't go wrong with this printer.

*Picture was my first print on the printer with no adjustments to the Qidi software. Pretty awesome if may say for out of the box!!!From the top:- Package arrived very quickly and was packaged very well. The entire printer was surrounded by Styrofoam. No loose parts and packaged so that nothing would get damaged during shipment.- You will receive the printer, and all accessories. Also included are all of the necessary tools along with some extra nozzles, ptfe tubing, etc. A VERY thorough manual along with support files and videos on the USB drive that make setting this thing up a breeze. The files on the USB drive also cover common problems that any 3d printer may experience and how to fix them.- This printer literally comes out of the box and is ready to print after you level the plate and load the filament. It really doesn’t get better than that. This makes it easy for any novice to get into the hobby. Aside from that, this printer features many quality improvements that make this printer valuable to those experienced with 3d printing as well.- I have 5 other Qidi printers, and there's a reason I bought another…there are continuous improvements which show that Qidi actually cares and listens to their customers. Everything is thought about and tested before releasing their products.- I usually use other slicing software because I had started way back with something different but I did actually decide to use Qidi’s software for this printer. They have a profile set up right from the start. You can literally drop an object into the slicing software and be on your way. As with any 3d printer, minor adjustments are made to perfect the print, which usually has a fair amount to do with what you’re printing along with the filament you’re using. The slicing software provided with the printer covers all the essentials you need along with an “expert” tab that opens up very specific settings that you may want to tweak for your model. By my 3rd print, I had this printer dialed in.- Did I mention this thing is quiet! Wow, I feel spoiled lol. This may not be important to everyone but let me tell you how nice it is. You could put it in your bedroom and sleep through the night.- This printer features a nice big build platform, definitely a welcomed upgrade from some of my other printers.- The full enclosure is really nice and while you think it may not be necessary, it makes printing high temperature filaments that much easier.- The new extruder is great, the fans blow nicely over where the plastic is extruded to cool the plastic as it comes out. Makes a big difference in prints!!!- Also noted that this printer has a locking wingnut under the plate level adjustments. So while this may not feature auto leveling (a very expensive feature)…once you get the plate leveled to where you like it, you lock it in place and it doesn’t vibrate and change. There’s not much vibration to be had anyway with this printer.- An added bonus with the extra extruder included in the S model is the ability to print finer details with the 0.2mm nozzle. A nice feature that is easy to swap out.- I’m always of the notion that eventually you’re going to want to print something with great detail, or you may want to experiment with different high temperature filaments. This makes me recommend the “s” version with the enclosure panels and 0.2mm extruder.- Lastly, a few words on Qidi customer service. As mentioned before, this is my 6th Qidi printer…all of them are still in excellent working condition after years of almost non-stop use. I run a small business and I work these printers hard. When an issue has come up, even just questions about how to do something or whats going on…Qidi has always been right there for me. They respond within 12-24 hours, usually faster (may vary based on your time zone), they have insightful recommendations and they’ve even sent me replacement parts with no questions asked. Let me just say this is not true across the board for other brands. Qidi customer service will make your 3D printing experience a good one.I hope this review helps others in their decision-making process. I repeatedly recommend Qidi, and it’s from real life experience with this company. Happy printing!