Improved CTC A10s Electronics Enclosure for Stand Alone Conversion

When I bought my first 3D printer, I wasn't sure whether or not a new hobby would suit me.  I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something I wasn't sure what kind of use I'd get out of, but I wanted something large enough for printing big stuff.  The Creality CR-10 was the machine I wanted, but I wasn't willing to part with $450 for it at the time.  I ended up buying the cheapest CR-10 clone I could find, the CTC A10s.

The CTC A10s was hands down the poorest built machine I've encountered to date, but it was the printer I had.  Since I purchased the A10s in 2019, I've replaced every component except for the frame itself, and the machine has evolved into a really nice printer.

I had converted my A10s to a “stand alone” configuration years ago.  Eliminating the big black box electronics/display enclosure worked extremely well for me.  The previous iteration of my CTC stand alone kit is at:    https://www.printables.com/model/551251-creality-upgrades-for-ctc-a10s-electronics-enclosu

My first stand alone conversion for the CTC A10s is here:  https://www.printables.com/model/537236-ctc-a10s-electronics-enclosure-v2-stand-alone

A year ago, I bought another CR-10 clone, the Sunlu S9 Plus.  While the Sunlu S9 Plus was made from much higher quality components than was the CTC, I was not at all happy with the configuration of the S9 Plus, I began adapting and installing parts to make the S9 Plus more like my heavily modified CTC machine.  Here's my Sunlu S9 conversion kit:  https://www.printables.com/model/1268577-sunlu-s9-plus-to-creality-cr-10-conversion

Once I had my Sunlu S9 Plus configured to my liking, I'd decided to roll a few of those changes back into my CTC.  I was never especially happy with the electronics enclosure I'd designed for the CTC, but I really liked the design I made for the Sunlu.  The extensions I'd made to raise the CTC for its stand alone conversion looked awful when compared to the TPU feet I'd designed for the Sunlu.  I printed a set of the TPU feet I designed for the Sunlu and installed them on the CTC.  I then decided I wanted the electronics enclosure on the CTC to have the same look and feel to that of my Sunlu, which is what precipitated this package.

I'm posting this design as a “Draft” model, and have printed all these parts but have yet to install the new electronics enclosure, lid, and PSU brackets.  The fan in my power supply is obnoxiously loud and I have some on order.  My intent is to install the remaining parts when my fans arrive since I'll need to remove the PSU then anyways.  Since the new enclosure sits 12cm more forward than my old enclosure, I will likely have to extend some of the wiring as well.  I don't want to place my CTC in a torn down state until I have everything handy to complete the install.

I included a photo of the Sunlu S9 Plus's configuration to show how the CTC will more or less look with the new enclosure installed.

Everything in this package prints easily as modeled in the STL's with no need for supports.  I did flip the lid upside down to print it because I chose to add a fuzzy skin to the enclosure that matches the textured PEI build surface I'm using.  Since the enclosure mounts upside down from how it's printed, nobody will ever see the cover, but I'll know it's pretty.  :)

The electronics enclosure in this kit is 52.5mm deeper than the one I made for the Sunlu S9 Plus.  My CTC came stock with an unbranded Anet mainboard and 12v PSU.  I'd installed an external MOSFET for the heated bed to prevent the wire terminals for the heated bed from decoupling.  As with other 12v machines I'd upgraded to 24v, I just left the extra MOSFET in place.  The added depth of this enclosure is for accommodating that superfluous MOSFET.

The electronics enclosure should fit any main board that is a direct replacement for a Creality Ender 3 board.  I've currently got a Creality 2.4.7 board in my CTC, but my Makerbase boards all use that same form factor, so I'm assuming any drop in replacement Ender 3 board should fit.

Having dealt with overheated stepper motor drivers in the past, I did include two openings for 4010 fans on the lid that are situated directly under the heatsyncs for the drivers.  My CTC is currently running 24v's and I'll be installing two 24v 4010's wired parallel, but as I've mentioned with my other enclosure designs, two 12v 4010's in series will work also.

Once my CTC's rebuild is complete, I'll post updated photo's.

These parts are designed to fit my CTC A10s, but since the frame layout is identical to that of the original Creality CR-10, they'll probably fit a slew of other machines.

UPDATE 06182025:  I finally had the opportunity to move all the electronics of my CTC to it's new happy home so I added a few recent photo's.