In the Q2 3D Printer, we have a camera installed in the corner of the printer chamber. With this Chamber Camera, we can do a lot of wonderful things, e.g. live video stream, timelapse, and most importantly, real-time monitoring of the printing process. Spaghetti Detection, among all the others, is the one of excellent features of printing monitoring.
By the word spaghetti, we mean a broad range of printing failures, most of which are just like the famous Italian food spaghetti. However, there are also cases where the filament fragments are not so typically spaghetti-ish, but scattered in small pieces. In our Spaghetti Detection, all these failures are considered the same kind.
Important!
Please note that Spaghetti Detection is currently available only when printing with light-colored filament on the golden PEI build plate with the chamber LED light turned on.
This feature is not a foolproof method to avoid print failures. There can be false positives or missed detections.
The accuracy of Spaghetti Detection will continue to improve in future firmware updates.
Thanks to the powerful internal algorithms built into the printer, we can achieve onboard Spaghetti Detection directly on the machine. Here is the brief procedure:
The printer captures a frame from the Chamber Camera every T seconds.
The image is processed by the onboard detection algorithm. This algorithm analyzes the print and identifies regions that may indicate spaghetti-like extrusion, assigning a confidence value to each detection. If the confidence exceeds the set threshold (based on the chosen sensitivity), it is treated as a positive candidate.
The detection results are post-processed. If enough positive candidates are found and their positions are spatially consistent, a spaghetti failure is confirmed.
For the detector to work properly, a few requirements need to be met:
The detector must be enabled in the Print Options. Sensitivity can be adjusted between {low, medium, high}. If you plan to leave the printer unattended for a long time (e.g., overnight), setting sensitivity to low can help reduce false pauses caused by minor print defects.
The chamber light must remain on. The spaghetti detector relies on adequate lighting to capture print details. If the light is turned off manually, it will not turn back on automatically.
In "LAN Only" mode, the Spaghetti Detection function still works.
The Q2 detects failures/spaghetti using its internal algorithms, and all processing is done locally.
When the printer is used in LAN mode, it behaves the same as when offline, with no internet required for this feature.
For the best performance, we recommend updating the firmware regularly to benefit from ongoing improvements.
As with all deep learning features, we rely heavily on data, so false detections may still occur.
We need your help to improve this function, and the process is very simple:
When your printer is connected to the QIDI Cloud Server, please click Upload Data in case of a false detection.
With your support, this feature will become more accurate over time.