My extreme modded Craftbot 3D-printer

After some hardware issues I want to upgrade my nice Craftbot Plus 3D-printer, this old printer is alive again and makes nice prints! Time for sharing..

My modifications: SKR1.4 Turbo, TFT3.5 v3.0, Reprap firmware v3.3.x, improved hotend, hotend-fan & heated bed, 3 new steppermotors, 2x NEMA17 Vibration Damper Shock Absorbers, filament sensor, RGB ledstrip, RPi4, Camera, etc..

Just a few photo's	Click to enlarge..

Let's MODDING your Craftbot!

• First off all, get the pinout of your new 3D-printer mainboard, I used the SKR1.4 Turbo

• Remove the old Craftbot electronics: mainboard and TFT and case fan, we don't need it..

• Get the backplates for the new electronics, you can find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4499006

• Nice TFT3.5 case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4839597

• Get some hardware, see list below

RepRap software setup

• Please follow all the instruction on the firmware-website below.
• To make the Craftbot and SKR1.4turbo setup more easy for you, you can find a full copy of my Reprap-configuration here

Marlin software setup (optional)

• For starters, you can use my inital Marlin-setup first, to test your Craftbot with the SKR1.4 Turbo (without RPI3). You can find the complete Marlin setup code here (this will not be updated, totally switched to RepRap now..)

WIFI setup

• https://github.com/luc-github/ESP3D
• https://github.com/luc-github/ESP3D-WEBUI

Original Craftbot hardware

• Meanwell SP-320-24V PSU
• Extruder stepper: 17HS3001-20B
• X,Y, Z steppers: 17HS3001-26B (optional replacement: SL42S247A: 1.8deg.step DC2.5A)

Used modification hardware

• Bigtreetech SKR1.4 Turbo with 4x TMC2209 stepperdrivers

• Raspberry Pi4

• RepRapFirmare Raspberry Pi to SKR 1.X Adapter for easy connect (one of Peter’s great creations!)

• Bigtreetech TFT3.5 v3.0 (optional)

• Bigtreetech Filament sensor (optional)

• DFRobot Gravity MOSFET Power Controller

• Craftbot Improved heated bed (optional)

• Craftbot all-metal hotend (optional)

• BigTreeTech BTT Writer v1.0 (optional, Marlin only, WIFI adapter * programmer)

• 35cm neopixel 12volt (60 leds/meter) RGB-ledstrip (we will replace the original white ledstrip)

• stepdown XL6009e converter for ledstrip

• [DC-DC Adjustable Step-down Buck Converter XL4015 5A - with Current Limiter]

• Panel mount USB B to USB B cable (mount the adapter to the orginal Crafbot case USB-hole and connect the cable to the USB-port of the SKR1.4 Turbo)

• Devine NCD chassisdeel crystal adapter D-size (make 3 holes in the Crafbot backplate, use a short UTP-cable to connect this adapter to the RPi)

• 2x NEMA17 Vibration Damper Shock Absorber for X and Y-steppers (optional)

• RPi camera (optional)

• flatkabel 10wires (display: 5 wires, ledstrip: 3 wires) 60cm flatkabel 2wires (for Y-end switch)

• 2x 240cm wire (for fans)

• 24v fan (to replace original 12v heaterfan)

• 24v fan (to replace original 12v Case fan)

• 2x 24v fan (to replace original 12v objectfans)

• 1x 12v 60x60x25mm EE60251S1-1000U-999 Sunon fan (optional, to replace old 2410ML-04W-B20 BRUSHLESS FAN 12V Fan inside the original installed PSU)

Wiring

• Connect the 'RepRapFirmare Raspberry Pi to SKR Adapter' to the RPI3, connect the adapter to SKR:EXP2 using a 10-wire-flatcable and 2x (2x5pins) connectors
• Connect the input of the stepdown XL4015 converter to the 24V PSU, tune the output of the converter to 5Volt
• Connect the 5V/GND of the 'RepRapFirmare Raspberry Pi to SKR Adapter' to the output of the stepdown XL4015 converter
• Connect the X-stepper (Craftbot back right stepper) to SKR:XM
• Connect the Y-stepper (Craftbot back left stepper) to SKR:YM
• Connect the Z-stepper (Craftbot back middle stepper) to SKR:ZMA
• Connect the E-stepper (Craftbot extruder stepper) to SKR:E0M
• Connect the X-stop (Craftbot extruder switch) to SKR:X-STOP
• Connect the Y-stop (Inside Craftbot front right switch) to SKR:Y-STOP
• Connect the Z-stop (Inside Craftbot back left switch) to SKR:Z-STOP
• Connect the hotend-heater to SKR:E0
• Connect the hotend-thermistor to SKR:TH0
• Connect the bed-heater to SKR:HB
• Connect the bed-thermister to SKR:TB
• Connect the 24V PSU to SKR:POWER
• Connect DFRobot Gravity MOSFET controller1 VIN/GND to SKR:FAN1
• Connect DFRobot Gravity MOSFET controller1 VOUT/GND to the extruder FAN
• Connect DFRobot Gravity MOSFET controller1 D to SKR:PWRDET
• Connect the Object coolerfan to SKR:FAN0
• Connect the TFT3.5 v3.0 to SKR:TFT using a 5-wire cable.
• Connect the 2 datalines of the LED-strip to SKR:Neopixel
• Connect the input of the stepdown XL6009e converter to the 24V PSU, tune the output of the converter to 12Volt
• Connect the 12V/GND of the LED-strip to the output of the stepdown XL6009e converter
• Connect the (optional) BTT filamentsensor to SKR:I2C, G=GND, V=+5V, S=0.0
• Connect the 24V Case fan to SKR:FAN2

=> Allways check every connection twice, make sure you use the correct polarity!!

Used firmware

• RepRap firmware, created by a few great people!!

• https://teamgloomy.github.io/lpc_sbc.html
• after installation, downgrade the RepRap firmware to v3.3.x with:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TeamGloomy/LPC-STM32-DSF-Install_Script/master/RRF_LPC_3_3_0.sh sudo chmod 755 RRF_LPC_3_3_0.sh ./RRF_LPC_3_3_0.sh

Rpi-Camera setup

• enable the Camera with raspi-config first

• follow these nice instructions (works perfect on a RPi4): https://github.com/cncjs/cncjs/wiki/Setup-Guide:-Raspberry-Pi-%7C-MJPEG-Streamer-Install-&-Setup-&-FFMpeg-Recording, after this setup, last thing to do is: sudo chown pi:pi /home/pi/mjpg-streamer.sh

• Just to have a backup of it, I added the above Camera instructions and autorun-file to this page too.

• After reboot, enter http://local-ip-address:8080/?action=stream in Reprap-panel->Settings->General->Webcam

PID tuning

You can find some info about it here: https://3dprintbeginner.com/hotend-and-heatbed-pid-tuning

M303 E0 S245 C8 (extruder)

M303 E-1 S90 C8 (bed)

Tips

• get some free time and have patient ;-)
• A Raspberry Pi3 model B can be used also (tested), but the Pi4 gives you a quicker printer-interface!