I have the latest QIDI Tech Avatar as well (dual extruder and full metal frame). Out of the box, the prints are just reasonable, but they become outstanding once you take the plunge to upgrade the firmware to Sailfish. It can be a bit of tricky process though…
Shamez
5
How did you manage to update the machine firmware? I have been trying for ages with no luck. Thank you
Hey Shamez,
It can be a very frustrating process, but I finally managed to get it upgraded to Sailfish 7.1. Everything later than 7.1 is still giving me trouble, although I would love to try the newer versions! Perhaps we can work together and get it beat. But regardless, the older Sailfish is still way better than the stock firmware.
I started with this tutorial, and even had a couple of my questions answered by Jared himself that helped steer me in the right direction. BTW, the CTC is an pretty much identical to the QIDI but with a wooden frame.
What finally worked for me, was to use ReplicatorG pointing to the Jetty firmware URL, using the machine type Replicator 2X, the board type of Makerbot Replicator 1 Single & Dual, and the firmware Sailfish 7.1 (r895). When you try uploading it, make sure to press the Upload button in RepG at the exact same time that you press the reset button on the QIDI. Also, I removed the white cable to the build platform, since loading the wrong firmware causes the bed heater to turn on and ramp up the temperature as high as possible.
Let me know how you get on with 7.1, and I’ll try and answer any specific questions you have while doing it. After that, we can try and get the higher versions to work. I attached a couple of images showing the firmware version, as well as my custom machine name in the main menu. 
Adam
Shamez
7
Thanks Adam Sounds like a plan 
Shamez
Shamez
8
Hey Adam I managed to get version 7.5 firmware uploaded by using board version replicator 2x. Let me know if that works for you as well. Thank you Shamez
Shamez,
I just tried doing 7.5 again (several times), but it always fails for me. Do you remember all the steps and settings you used? I really want to get past 7.1. At least the good news is that I now know it is definitely possible if you were able to do it!
Adam
Shamez
10
Adam The only different thing I did was use replicator G saltfish version. I tried several times and found clicking the upload button 2 sec before the reset button worked. Another thing I noticed, my printer was on version 7.2 to begin with. Maybe an update to 7.2 prior to 7.5 will do the trick. Let me know if I can help with anything Shamez
Using Makerbot Desktop, I was able to step through their firmware from 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 in order. But I still can’t get it to accept Sailfish 7.5. Are you absolutely sure you have Sailfish 7.5 and not just the Makerbot 7.5? If you go into the version info on your LCD screen, does it say Replicator or Sailfish?
Adam
Shamez
12
Ah! I’m sorry, you might be right. It just says firmware 7.5 does not say sailfish
That’s too bad, but at least it means I’m not going crazy!
I’m not sure of the differences between the proper Sailfish 7.1 and the Makerbot 7.5 (or which one is better), but there has to be a way to get the later Sailfish versions on this bot. I’m not giving up on it…
Shamez
14
Same here I will keep at it and if I make any progress I will let you know
Dresch
15
Hi, Thanks for the info. I have a QiDi Tech 1 metalframe and I was also able to upgrade to SF 7.1 using your settings but now it seems my SD card will no longer work. Have you run into this? (I see that QiDi has come out with a new version printer that comes with SF 7.8, on their eBay store).
Thanks,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Yes, the SD card will not work after upgrading to SF 7.1, unless you reformat it to regular FAT (not FAT-32). I think it also has to be 2GB or less. This will get it working for you again, although it also limits you to a 30 character file name.
That’s interesting about the new ones coming with SF 7.8. And unless they also upgraded to a board with the Atmega 2560, then there’s a good chance it’s exactly the same as ours. Not to mention that the linked You Tube video works on a CTC that also has the exact same board as ours, so I’m sure we should be able to do it as well. Just need to get the right procedure nailed down, as well as the timing. If you’re willing to keep trying and update us with any progress, then at least there is 3 of us working on it!
Adam
Dresch
17
Adam,
Many thanks, I will give that a try. I know the card is FAT-32. I will scrounge up an old one and try again.
The ebay ad does say the controller is now a Atmega 2560. I am planning on trying to get some information out of the QiDi Tech company… I know, good luck. If I get any info I will certainly post it.
Bill
Has anyone made any progress on getting the firmware past Sailfish 7.1? I’m curious to see what this machine can do with the latest improvements, especially in terms of speed. I feel limited to 40mm/s at the moment. Anything faster than that, and the machine has difficulty maintaining the quality of the print.
Shamez
19
I’ve had no luck. I made several attempts.
Dresch
20
Hi Adam,
Are there any instructions on reloading the original firmware? I don’t even know the version (Creator 1?).
The board itself looks pretty much like a MightyBoard Rev E with the Atmega1280 and mega8u…
This website appears to to provide the original firmware but does not reload it thru the boot loader but via the ISP port:
http://www.unclechucks3dprinterstuff.com/firmware%20restore.htm
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Is there a particular reason that you want to go back to the original FW? I’ve seen that website you mentioned before as well (back when I thought I had bricked my printer), but it seems to be easy to always get it back to either the MakerBot FW or SailFish 7.1, both of which seem better than the original.
So in short, no, I don’t know of an easy way to go back to original. But I wouldn’t recommend it anyway - SF 7.1 seems to be the best for it so far. Although I still want to get to the higher versions…
Adam
Dresch
22
I would certainly like the option of loading the original firmware. QiDi Tech has emailed that they do not support SF for this printer, so if I ever have to return the controller board, this might become an issue.
My complaints are minor. The front panel is a bit twitchy with SF 7.1, something I did not notice with the original software. Sometimes it responds OK, other times I need the press the buttons a number of times for a response. I also would like to use any available SD card I have. I have not seen the stunning improvement in print quality that people are showing but again, any number of factors may be at play there. It does, generally, seem to print better.
I have done a lot of programming with atmel and arduino products, including instrumentation development, and I find it really weird to be able to load only one version of this software. Is QiDi using a slightly larger bootloader, or some weird setting of flags in the Atmega1280 that is preventing loading later versions? I mean a 1280 is a 1280 and the amount of of Flash, EPROM and RAM should always be the same.
Again, I would like the option of going back (this is not a dig at SF at all) to whatever level of Creator was on the original equipment and if anyone can show me that, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Bill
Dresch
23
Thinking about it, maybe the fuse bits are the problem. If QiDi did not set the fuse bits to the standard configuration used by the other manufacturers, then perhaps there are protected memory areas that are kept from being written to by the later versions of the software. The standard Atmega Arduino bootloader is 1K:
If QiDi set the fuse bits to something other than 1K bytes for bootloader and SailFish 7.x (x > 1) needs some of that Flash memory, then the newer SF versions will not load and checksum correctly…
What we need is the fuse bit settings for the QiDi and then the fuse bits settings for the CTC. A simple ISP change to the fuse bits is all that maybe needed to upgrade to SailFish 7.x (x >= 2). Let me do a little poking around.
