Icarus 2 is a strong, lightweight and dimensionally accurate one-piece carriage for the QIDI X-Max, X-Plus and I-Mate (and I-Mate S) that was designed focusing on strength and ease of maintenance while keeping it very lightweight.

Icarus 2 is based on my popular Icarus 1.x mod but with a number of key improvements:

• A universal carriage for all supported printers, regardless of extruder and hotend. Instead, you print a mount for your chosen extruder and hotend that install with just four screws meaning you can quickly swap to another extruder and hotend while still using the same carriage, improved maintenance.
• Hotend fan upgraded from 4010 to 4020 - improved cooling performance and lower noise level (4010 fan is still supported with optional printed distances).
• The belt teeth are now on the belt peg and tensioner instead of the actual carriage.
• Proper belt tensioner for both open and closed (stock) belts. For the stock belt the tensioner is optional but recommended, you can attach the belt peg alone if you like.
• Support for the new wider Qidi PCB supplied with some printers.
• Increased blower fan stability.

Supported Extruders

• Orbiter 1.5
• Orbiter 2.0
• Sherpa Mini R1
• Sherpa Micro R1
• LGX Lite
• BMG

Supported Hotends

• Dragon
• Dragonfly (both BMO and BMS)
• Mosquito (and clones)
• V6 (and other hotends with V6 groove mount)
• Rapido HF K500

You can use any combination of the above, just print the appropriate mount.

Why?

I have earlier developed the Hercules mod. While print quality with Hercules is just as good as this, the BMG extruder and the V6 groove mount are not ideal for flexible filaments. This design uses a rigid mount and has a much shorter filament path from the extruder to the hotend. I also wanted to offer a truly lightweight option which this is.

What to print

Print these files from your extracted zip file:

icarus-carriages/icarus-2.1-normal.stl
belt-pegs/icarus-belt-peg.stl
belt-pegs/icarus-belt-tensioner.stl
fan-ducts/icarus-fan-duct-2.5.stl

You can also print the optional dial holder if you're going to use one. Also, print the mount for the extruder and hotend you have chosen as well as its corresponding PTFE cutting jig. For example:

mounts/mount-sherpa-mini-r1-dragon-2.1.stl
ptfe-cutting-jigs/sherpa-mini-r1-dragon-and-mosquito-ptfe-cutting-jig-14.70mm

The PTFE cutting jig is for a short piece of PTFE tube used between the extruder and the hotend in the cold zone where it does not deform from heat, it's required to lead the filament to the top of the hotend. Dragon and Mosquito use the same length of PTFE tube which is why they share jig.

BOM - Bill of Materials

I buy most of my 3D printer parts from quality stores on AliExpress. Shipping takes a while from China but quality is excellent and the prices are good. I might add more stores to the BOM later but it's a lot of work keeping it updated and current so I will try to keep it short.

If the links do not work disable your adblocker or use a VPN.

1. Extruder (pick one)

All of the supported extruders below are low weight with dual gears and are excellent for flexible filament out of the box (excluding the BMG, not very good for TPU).

Use whichever you like and fit your budget.

2. Hotend (pick one)

I can highly recommend the new Rapido K500 Hotend that in fact was made specifically by Trianglelab for us/Icarus users so thanks to Trianglelab for bringing us this product. It's not cheap but it includes both the thermocouple and the heater so you do not have to buy those separately. It has performed excellently at speeds up to at least 200 mm/s in my testing the past month.

Normal Rapido hotend is NOT supported as it uses a thermistor, only the K500 one from the BOM works.

Dragon and Dragonfly are also great options.

Other hotend options are Mosquito and clones (NF-Crazy for example) but they're not linked from here.

3. Thermocouple / Heater cartridge

Notice: If you went with the Rapido K500 Hotend above, skip these two purchases.

The budget thermocouple is fine, I've used a bunch without issues. Buy a spare. The sensor only is needed.

For heater I recommend a 24V 60W heater cartridge, a 50W will also work well.

4. Hotend fan

I like to use Sunon Maglev fans, good quality and not too noisy. If you plan on printing > 350 C a lot you may want to go for the second option (2VX) as it pushes considerably more air, it's not very silent though. Otherwise, the first option is sufficient for prints up to 300 C.

You can use a different 24 V 4020 fan if you like or a 24 V 4010 fan with printed distances.

5. Fasteners

You need some M3 hex bolts (socket head) at various lengths. It's best to grab the kit below, it will have everything you need for this build and many more.

Heated M3 inserts are required too, for example for attaching the fan duct to the carriage, you will find out more about this later in the build.

6. Tools

You also need a JST crimping tool and some JST-XH terminals and connectors. I'm using this IWISS crimping tool which is inexpensive and is doing a good job. A digital dial indicator is optional but it's recommended so you can level the bed perfectly. A soldering iron is needed too for the heated inserts.

7. Optional Parts

These parts are optional. You can use the extruder PCB and blower fan from one of your old Qidi printheads to keep costs down. The other parts are spares that are good to have on hand.

Print Settings

Print the carriage in high temp resistant filament. I recommend using Polycarbonate (PC), a PC blend such as PC-FR (flame retardant PC), PC-CF (PC with Carbon Fibre) or PA-CF (Nylon with Carbon Fibre). I like using the Prusament PC Blends with the PC-CF being top choice but it is often out of stock. ABS or ASA is fine as well but for long term usage and higher print temps, PC is best.

This PA-CF should be a great option:

• Trianglelab Filament PA-CF15

To summarize, print the parts in PC if you can to be on the safe side.

Notice: The LGX Lite hotend mounts must be printed in a non-flexible filament such as PC, else it can flex when extruding due to the unconventional mounting pattern.

Print all parts in 0.2 mm layer height using a 0.4 mm nozzle. I recommend using 5 top, bottom and perimeter layers with an infill of 25% or higher.

The whole carriage prints in one piece, supports are not needed.

The fan duct for parts cooling, the belt peg and the dragon mount all print without supports. The optional dial holder needs some supports but is easy to print.

Notice: If for some reason you find the carriage sits too tight or too loose you can print one of the other carriages with narrower or wider clearance for the bearings (named narrow and wide). It also depends on slicer settings so make sure you dial in flow before you start.

Precaution!

Before you start, please ensure you use the parts in the BOM only. It's very important to use a high quality thermocouple that is rated for 500 C for example, the stock Qidi thermocouple is only rated at 300 C.

If you want to increase the print temp beyond 300 C (stock) you can enable it in firmware, I have commented it there.

Do the mod at your own risk. Never leave your printer unattended, stock or not.

Buy a prebuilt and tested Icarus 2

If you're looking for a prebuilt Icarus 2, here are a few authorized resellers worldwide *:

• CLPerformance (Germany)
• Motor City 3D Print (United States)
• NextGen 3D Printing (Australia)