BLTouch Mount for PrintRite DIY 3D Printer by thedayowl

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a simple mount for a BLTouch Bed Level Sensor for a PrintRite DIY 3D Printer. It mounts on the right side of the extruder carriage using the heatsink and the BLtouch hangs down below it.
Print it with the small tabs on the print bed and the large mounting tab with three holes pointing straight up.
Shape down the two small tabs with a file or sandpaper so that they are a tight press fit into the fins of the heatsink, then secure with a small sheet metal screw that bites in between the heatsink fins.
This does reduce the print area by about 8-10mm to the right, so be aware of that.
This sensor, plus a PEI sheet on my heated bed have been the best of many upgrades I've made to my PrintRite. The BLTouch completely eliminates fiddling with the crappy Z-Axis endstop to set the nozzle height before every print. I've gone from about a 40% first layer failure rate to almost 0% now.
I found a good source for multi-conductor, thin, reliably flexible wire to use for the BLTouch by cutting the cables off of old PS/2 mice. USB Mice usually only have 4 conductors. The PS/2 Mice I found had 6. I didn't do this, but I think it would be a nice touch to leave the PS/2 plug on the wire and find a matching socket to mount on the control board enclosure.
Note:
Please don't ask me for advice on installing a BLTouch with the provided firmware or control board. I don't know if it will work. I have long ago switched my control board out for a SmoothieBoard clone and have no intention to go back and try it. The BLTouch should work with most control boards based on an Arduino Mega running Marlin (RAMBo,etc.) or Smoothie boards.