LPA Modular X Carriage Daughter Plates with BLTouch by bkbreyme

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Remixes of the LPA daughterplates for the LPA Modular X carriage v3.0 for the TEVO Tarantula.
Update: Added versions with the mount raised 15mm and 25 mm, in order to regain some of the vertical travel lost by the design of the x-carriage.
Note, the raised mount plates move the heater blocks closer to the x-carriage, so using high-temperature plastics for the x-carriage is recommended if printing anything that needs more heat than PLA.
Single and dual extruder mountplates with integrated BLTouch. This moves the BLTouch far closer to the hotends, and causes much less loss of travel than the stock BLTouch mount (on the rear of the carriage, about 5 CM from the hotends)
The BLTouch actually mounts behind the hotend (s), providing minimal loss of X or Y axis travel.
I also have enlarged the Bowden tube holes for the dual extruder mount to better fit the Chimera clone that the Tarantula uses. The original Chimera mount was too tight around the Bowden couplings.
This will, of course, fit the Black Widow as well, if you have a Chimera hotend (or clone)
Y offset
All hotends:
-20mm
X Offset:
Single hotend: 0
Left hotend: 10mm
Right hotend: -10mm
Z offset: My calibration (see below) usually ends up with the Z offset at about +1.6 mm. This varies depending on the exact measurements of the "Chimera" clone that you use, as well as installation of the hotend. Some variants may require some nuts or washers above the BLTouch in order to lower it to the correct location.
Since I have had several people ask me if I have any heat issues with my BLTouch, I am adding my answer to the description.
I have been using this design now for more than a year, and have noticed no heat-related issues. Note: most of the prints I make are PLA, with the occasional ABS. I do not use any of the higher-temp plastics at this time.
I do recommend making sure you have at least 1 mm of distance between the BLTouch and the hotends, rotating the heater blocks of the hotends slightly away from the BLTouch, if necessary.
I install the BLTouch with the circuit board away from the hotends.
I also run the bed probe process with a "cold" hotend and a "hot" bed (if heating the bed is desired), only heating the hotend after probing has been completed. I started doing this to prevent damage to the bed if the probe failed for some reason, such as the probe missing the edge of the bed, causing the hotend to crash into the bed. I highly recommend this.
For calibration, I run a "cold" probe of the bed. I then heat the hotend to the planned printing temperature. I then move it to the "0" Z position. Then I move the hotend's Z position in .1 mm increments until I can just pass a standard sheet of paper under the hotend with a slight resistance. I then use the distance I moved the hotend from "0" as my Z offset. Once the Z offset is set, it does not matter if the hotend is heated up during the probe or not. The assumption is that the hotend will expand approximately the same amount every time it is heated to a particular temperature. In any case, a Z probe will not measure the actual distance from the hotend to the build plate, just the probe distance.
I am not certain if any of the above makes a difference or not, but I have no complaints about the performance of my BLTouch with this mount.
Added standard E3D V6 mount.
Update: Adjusted E3D V6 mount to allow more space for the BLtouch. original design made the gap between the V6 heatsink and the carriage too tight.
Update! Added prototype plates for "Diamond" 3-in-one hotends for those wishing to experiment with 3-extruders. Of course, the original electronics of the Tarantula do not support more than 2 extruders, so electronics modification is necessary.
Diamond Hotend mount re-designed to better match the hotend to the height of the BLTouch. A cutout was added or routing the wires of the hotend out below the fan. I also removed the "lowered" version of the mount, as it does not provide any advantage over the "raised" mount
5/10 - slight change to "Diamond" hotend version, as I accidentally moved the mount slightly too high to line up with the BLTouch probe
For the best result with the least support material, I recommend printing the "Diamond Hotend" version with the fan mount facing downward.
Added additional Diamond mount based on LHartmann's version with extra attachment points.