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Battosai42 / CraftbotPlus_Upgrade

Modernizing a Craftbot Plus with RepRap Firmware and Features
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Open MichaelMartinez opened 2 years ago

MichaelMartinez commented 2 years ago

Awesome work thus far....

I have a CB+ as well and have been debating whether to build a Voron or Ratrig or just redo this guy. I think there is a lot of potential left in these bones, but they need some help.

I would really like to run an Orbiter or the EVA system for extruder/hotend. I would really like to run Klipper and MainsailOS for control.

Need to find dims of the plate that holds the current hotend and see if I can modify one of the newer hotends to adapt!

Any ideas?

Battosai42 commented 2 years ago

hi Michael

I agree, the CB+ still has a lot of positive features despite some of its shortcomings, some of which can be worked around (i have a voron, which is superb) but my CB+ is still my reliable workhorse that with some updates can still hold its own.

switching the control board with something Duet or Klipper compatible is absolutely worth it in my opinion as the closed source controller/firmware is very limiting.. specially adding ABL and input shaping will allow for faster and more accurate movements as the motion control system of the CB+ is not very rigid leading to strong ghosting if even only moderate acceleration settings are used..

For the extruder i don't have a much better solution at the moment as the gantry is very limiting in how much room is available for the whole hotend and cooling fans without colliding with the frame.. are you using the dome enclosure (https://eu.craftbot.com/collections/enclosure-for-craftbot-plus-craftbot-2-craftbot-plus-pro/products/craftbot-2-plus-pro-cover)? if not removing the metal "lid" might gain you some room for fans on the hotend. In my case this is no option as i use it fully enclosed for ABS printing.

I dont have any experience with the orbiter (heard mixed opinions on that one) but i can recommend the bondtech LGX (i use it in my voron 2.4) and i have been thinking of getting a Bondtech LGX light for the CB+. the much larger drive gears of the LGX seems to perform very well with less irregularities and increased grip without deforming the filament.

I did draw up a basic model of the carriage and the surrounding enclosure i plan to use for the extruder design, i just committed that to github if you want to have a look (no guarantee though for accuracy, i did it in a rush..)

are you interested in collaborating? bouncing ideas off someone in such projects is always very helpful!

MichaelMartinez commented 2 years ago

Well, I just gutted my CB+... It has served me well for the past 6 years and I need something new for it. I have a need for speed. I don't use the dome and my version of the printer used the FFC. I removed all of it as sort of a kick in the pants to do something. I want to push this thing as far as I can...

Currently investigating extruder/hotend combos that I can fit into the space. Luckily for us, the emergence of high speed printing has brought about lightening and shrinking of components related to these parts. I hope to find something that needs minimal modifications.

The plan in my head is to reuse the extruder and hotend bracket that rides on the linear rod. It seems a bit odd to do this backward as so many machines build from frame toward the hotend. But here we are and this is a rough plan...

Measure and draw the bracket into CAD. Start downloading the major open extruder and hotend designs... plug them into the assembly... and hopefully find one that works. My gut and the limited amount of measuring I have done suggests a pancake stepper style extruder with a minimal hotend is going to work best. The bondtech LGX, Orbiter and Sherpa extruders may work out of the box. Then I simply need to find a suitable hotend. Sounds easy enough... we'll see I suppose.

Also, I agree on the collaboration. I will share anything I create or do here!

Battosai42 commented 2 years ago

No dome should make it a bit easier, but the FFC version is a bit harder to mod.. i guess you will need to design a new PCB to connect to the FFC or are you planning to keep the original controller board and firmware?

yeah, reusing the metal carriage on the x-axis would be nice and i see no reason this should be a problem as it is already fairly compact. are you planning to keep the part cooling that comes with the original extruder? i always found that quite lacking.. specially for PLA it seem insufficient.. at least i was never happy with it.. that always seemed to be the biggest challenge to me in replacing the extruder as there just is not much space available.. i like the extruder design of the voron afterburner/stealthburner, leaning on that, placing the part cooling above the the hotend/extruder seems the best way to go on the CB+ as well.. or using smaller fans on the side as in the voron0, but the air flow is notably less on that one.. but it might fit

what CAD are you using? i uploaded my basic model i drew up for the frame/x-carriage in .FCStd (FreeCad) and .step if you want to use it.