Bowden Defeating Toolhead Strain Relief

I recently installed a direct drive extruder kit that was previously sold by Comgrow for the Creality Ender 3 on to my CTC A10s, which is a Creality CR-10 clone.

The "Comgrow Ender 3 Direct Drive Extruder Kit" was sold on Amazon for a short time, just after Sovol acquired Comgrow.  The kit included a complete tool head, carrier with POM rollers, inductive bed level sensor, 24 pin ribbon cable, and even an unbranded Sovol 32 bit silent main board, all for the price of $50.  Amazon has been out of stock for this kit since July 2024, and I really don't expect to ever see them again, but here's the link to the kits I purchased:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRKS7XK9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Those kits install a Sovol SV06 planetary gear direct drive extruder on to a Creality Ender 3 machine.  I was able to install the kit in its entirety on to my Tronxy XY-2 Pro, which is a slightly bigger machine than the Ender 3, but was able to run the ribbon cable out from the back of the machine so that it could still print effectively at the 260mm ceiling of the machine.

Being a fan of the SV06 extruder, I wanted to install these kits on to my two largest machines, the CTC A10s and the Sunlu S9 Plus, which are both Creality CR-10 clones capable of printing up to 300mm X 300mm X 400mm.  Unfortunately, the 24 pin ribbon cable included with these kits are for a Creality Ender 3 machine, and are nowhere near long enough for the 400mm ceiling of those machines.

Having previously installed a bare SV06 extruder on my Anet A8 Plus with a custom carrier I designed, and using the Anet's factory cabling for the extruder & hotend, I thought I might similarly bypass the break-out board and ribbon cable from the Comgrow kits all-together.

Anytime you upgrade a Creality style Bowden fed machine with a direct drive extruder, there will be the opening where the Bowden extruder and stepper motor mounted on the left side carrier.  That opening is a pretty decent location to cable tie the toolhead harness for strain relief, but it's a bit of an eye sore IMO.  I remixed the strain relief part I made for using the ribbon cable at the toolhead end so it could clamp the CTC's factory wiring in place there, and designed a 10mm tall cover that fits over the Bowden's stepper mount while providing strain relief for that part of the cabling.  The toolhead clamp is kinda niche and specific to the Comgrow extruder/hotend carriage, however, the second part can be used for strain relief on pretty much any Creality style machine that's getting a direct drive upgrade.

UPDATE 11072024:  I added a version 2 of the “Bowden_Defeat_Cable_Strain_Relief” part.  Version 2 intends that the M3 screws come up from beneath the old extruder stepper motor bracket and has cut-outs for holding the M3 nuts up top, making for a much easier installation since the nuts no longer have to be held in place while tightening the screws.