The QIDI Box is a separate accessory, priced at $228, that turns the Q2 from a single-spool printer into a multi-material, multi-color setup with active drying built in. It’s a compact ABS/PC housing, 357x300x234mm and 4.35kg, with four filament slots, expandable to 16 colors by chaining up to four boxes through a hub.
The gears are hardened steel, which matters for carbon fiber and glass fiber filaments that chew through softer gears over time. Drying is active rather than passive: the box heats filament up to 65C and can keep drying while a print runs, not just between jobs. An NFC reader identifies QIDI’s own spools automatically and loads the right settings without manual entry, and if a spool runs dry mid-print, the box switches to a backup spool on its own. It also watches for tangles, clogs, and filament running out.
Spool compatibility matters here: it takes spools 50 to 72mm wide and 195 to 202mm in diameter, and cardboard spools need an adapter to seat properly. Power runs on 110V or 220-240V AC, drawing up to 245W.
On materials, the box handles PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, PET, PA, PC, PP, POM, HIPS, TPU 64D, the carbon and glass fiber versions of ABS, PLA and PETG, PPS-CF, and PET-CF/GF, plus PVA and BVOH once dried. It does not handle TPE, generic TPU, wet PVA or BVOH, TPU 95A, QIDI’s own PAHT-CF, or some silk and glow-in-the-dark PLA blends. Generally, anything too rigid or too soft to feed reliably through the gears is off the list.
It also works with the Plus4, Max4 and Q2C, but one unit doesn’t move freely between machines: the hub and signal cable differ by model, so a box configured for the Q2 stays that way unless you buy the model-specific upgrade kit. Before connecting one, make sure the printer’s firmware is current, since QIDI lists that as a requirement.
QIDI hasn’t published a written step-by-step for connecting the box to the Q2, only a video walkthrough, so treat any detailed text version found elsewhere with caution. What’s consistent across its documentation is that the connection runs through the Q2’s dedicated hub and its own signal cable. Once it’s connected, check for any red indicator light before starting a print, and address that first if one’s lit.
Multi-material setups add a filament-handling step on top of what the Q2 already does on its own; the Q2 filament loading guide covers the printer’s own load and unload routine, and general spool storage advice is covered in the filament storage guide. For the printer’s own slicer setup, including presets the Box doesn’t change, see the Q2 slicer setup guide. If a Q2C paired with a Box throws an error, the QIDI Q2C Error Message Index covers the printer’s own fault messages separately from anything the Box itself reports.