A project aiming to use QIDIs X3 series printers with the stock display with latest klipper and OTA update support.
Lets unlock the full potential of your printer together!
Current supported printers:
- X-Max 3
- X-Plus 3
- X-Smart 3
Possibly working:
-
- Plus 4 (Testers needed, please get in touch with me if interessted)
Future support:
-
- Q1 Pro (Estimated firmware release: April 2025)
If you appreciate my work and it has been beneficial to you,
I would be grateful if you consider supporting my efforts with a ko-fi:
This also helps me to justify puting more time to maintain this project for the future :)
Qidi's X3 series printers are built with hardware that has great potential, but they run on outdated software.
With the right software, these printers can work better, faster, and be more user-friendly for everyone.
I believe that what I offer provides you with a better overall experience.
It ensures you aren't locked out of the latest features from Klipper, as well as all the great software that integrates with it
(such as Moonraker, Mainsail/Fluidd, Crowsnest, Shaketune, and thousands of plugins).
Here's a list of improvements that unlocks the full functionality of the printer through my clean and updated Armbian-Klipper system:
- OTA Updates instead of downloading it, putting it on a USB thumb drive (takes ~4min for a full update instead of ~40min)
- Pure Klipper instead of a modified/hacked klipper and moonraker (not upgradable)
- Latest Klipper 0.12.0+ instead of 0.10.0
- Armbian Bookworm instead of Buster
- Python 3.12 instead of 2.7
- And all the possibilities that come with the latest software versions (Fluidd, Moonraker, etc.)
- More available disk space
But it is more than this.
Have you ever taken a look at the stock printer config and macros?
Yes! It's a mess.
It's full of unnecessary sections, not optimized, and the naming is confusing.
FreeDi has a clear structure
Everything has a clear naming.
Macros have been optimized.
And of course: No garbage any more!
You will notice many things are now snappier and just works better/faster eg. adaptive bed meshing is now almost twice as fast.
It also fixes the "System starts abnormally"-error
What started as a hobby project for my personal use has grown significantly.
To meet the community's needs, I've spent hundreds of hours working on features I don't
even personally need or use to give you the best control interface the stock printers can have.
I hope you like it!
The LCD software is called FreeDiLCD and created for those who want to use Qidi X3 series printers
with mainline (vanilla) Klipper and the stock LCD screen.
If you want to see more, check out the menue guide for a walk through the most important functions.
I am incredibly thankful and proud that my FreeQIDI tutorial has gained so much popularity.
I've seen forum posts, GitHub repositories, Reddit threads and other sites linking to my project in various languages such as English, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, ...
And I am very happy that this gave you so much benefit and you like your printers more since.
But I also noticed while many were interested and wanted to get the benefits of a pure and recent system, my guide had a disadvantage that cannot be dismissed out of hand:
No touch screen functionallty any more.
You could get a new mainboard and attach an HDMI touchscreen, or use (Tiger-)VNC to turn a wireless screen into a monitor, but come on:
The printer already has a screen, and you paid for it... So let's get that thing working again! ;)
Additionally my FreeQIDI tutorial was mainly followed by the more "techy people" and simple users have been somehow locked out.
My goal is to give every owner of a X-3 series printer an improved user experience over the stock system.
While I appreciate the effort of CChen616 to provide a system based on a recent bookworm, it still has several drawbacks:
- Limited updates: Modified Klipper and Moonraker files prevent easy updates from mainline sources.
- Unreliable thumbnails: Thumbnails only work if configured correctly in your slicer software (and at least for me it never really worked on the stock printer)
- Z-offset risks: Applying the Z-offset to an additional file has reportedly caused "nozzle into bed" accidents for some users.
- Reduced disk space: The additional included software can decrease available disk space.
- And is still not optimized at all. Sorry!
So I started this project and its quite versataille.
If you own a different printer with the same/similar LCD, you can start a feature request in the "issues" section.
Thats how X-Smart 3 support was done :)
I dont make it any longer.
Head over to the Wiki for the Installation Guide to use it.
But I invite you to read the other parts as well!
Before you start, please understand that this is a hobby project and using my firmware is at your own risk.
I have spent many hours testing and flashed the LCD more than 1,000 times to ensure it provides
the best possible experience, but I can't test every possible scenario. If you encounter any issues,
please report them here on GitHub.
Please do not contact Qidi support if you have any problems. By making these modifications,
you will void your warranty in this regard.
If you ever want or need to revert to the stock system after flashing my firmware, don't worry – it's possible.
You can use a "recovery" image provided by Qidi and flash the official *.tft firmware back to the LCD.
I kindly ask that you do not copy, share or redistribute any parts of my guide and software without explicit permission.
In the past, sections of my work have been used without proper credit and claimed as their work.
Or incorrect parts have been added to other guides and resulted in additional effort on my part.
This resulted in me being contacted for support related to these guides which had errors.
I hope you do understand that I dont like to spend extra time to fix other faults :).
If you have suggestions or improvements, I warmly invite you to submit your contributions directly to me.
I will gladly consider integrating them to improve the guide and firmwares for everyone.
This not only improves the usability for everyone, but also helps to ensure accuracy and reduces unnecessary support issues.
Thank you for respecting this request and for helping to foster a supportive and fair community.
