BIGTREETECH SKR Pro v1.1 32-bit high-Frequency 3D Printer Control Board,Support TMC5160,TMC2208,TMC2130,TFT28,TFT32,TFT35,12864lcd ect.

I am building a Lowrider V3 CNC from V1 Engineering and this forms part of that build. I have done the 3D printing part of the build and gathering all of the necessary parts. Whilst I haven't put everything together yet, after my initial research and inspection of this, I am very happy. I will update the review once I have completed the build.

The board is generally good quality with decent features and reasonable price. Unfortunately, some of these boards have issues with endstops not working properly. I had to solder extra pullup resistors to get the endstops to work. Other wise great product.

Let me start by saying that I'm a controls engineer in an engine CNC plant. I have my first 3D printer, a Creality Ender 5 that I've tried several boards on. The stock board works and nothing more - and it's loud. I first switched to an MKS Gen L with TMC2208 steppers and a fanless power supply - Wow, huge difference in noise levels. Then i jumped to a Duet Maestro (Genuine, not a clone) and it's an awesome board - ticks almost every box of mine except being able to customize, change steppers, etc. After that I bought an SKR v1.3 - great board that forced me to learn Marlin 2.0 since it's 32bit. I never installed it because I learned about the SKR Pro before i got around to installing it. This SKR Pro was a bit of a challenge because of how new it is and there's not the same wealth of info like there is for say the Gen L. At first, I though my SKR Pro wasn't working because I couldn't see the SD card when I connected the board to my computer with a USB cable. Kingprint reached out to me right away and answered my questions and pointed me in the right direction. I still haven't connected this board to my printer because I'm happy enough with the Duet. But, I've got the firmware all configured and have tested it with steppers, LCD and thermister as well as the Wifi module. I'm collecting parts for a major overhaul and will install the Pro then - I'm really looking forward to that. The overhaul will include the SKR Pro V1.1, BL Touch, Hero Me fan shroud on an E3D V6 hotend. BTW - I've looked at touchscreens several times and I still come back to the RepRap smart controller 12864 as the easiest, most useful and sensible display of all - especially if you're using Octoprint anyway. Bottom line on the SKR Pro V1.1 - -Buy from Kingprint, they're great to deal with -It's the most versatile and configurable board out there -supports up to 6 steppers, 3 hotends, 3 fans -32bit **Update** I have the board installed and began testing on my Ender 5. I had to go into Marlins' pins file and remap the endstop pins so they would work as X_Max and Y_Max instead of X_Min and Y_Min due to the location of the Ender 5's limit switches. I homed all axis and then moved them to their extents but discovered they were travelling too far. (2x too far). I changed steps per mm from 80,80,400, 415 to 40,40,200,210 and it seems to work but is only a mask IMO. I am using TMC2208 V2.1 but have ordered v3.0 to use UART without extra wires. That might have worked with the V2.1's but I read about the firmware changes required after ordering the V3.0's - Oh well, we'll see

I bought this board for dual z-axis stepper drivers and I wanted to be able to add a second extruder later on. I now can level the gantry with bl touch. I am currently watching my first print come off the machine and the board really seems to perform! I'm very happy with the the board. I don't have anything bad to say about the board itself. The challenges were in mounting and firmware for me which should be expected for this type of update. I have mine mounted on the left side in the rear on a flat panel exposed for now as I deal with wiring. I'll mount it proper once I get all the bugs out. I would recommend github desktop If you don't already have it. It is very helpful getting the code you need and showing you the changes you have made from stock.

I'd like to start out saying this board has AMAZING potential. Maybe in a few years, it will have reached that potential, but as of right now, there are virtually no internet guides on setting it up and no help except for the poorly translated instructions provided by the company. I had no troubleshooting help, and the company's support wasn't any help either, completely ignoring my email for more than 2 weeks now. On the first board I tried, the X-motor port seemed to work fine, but the others failed to get output at all. After I got over some initial stumbling blocks and wrote some marlin code. (hint, the instructions are blatantly wrong and if you follow them, you will not get your code to compile. Hint 2. don't download visual studio, start out with Atom with the platformIO extension) I sent my board back and asked Amazon to replace it, my replacement arrived and I continued my testing. I had the random idea that maybe I had my stepper drivers plugged in backwards this whole time and that would explain my motors not working. FUN FACT: if you plug in the drivers backwards and turn it on for even a second, it will fry your entire board and the entire thing will be rendered useless. I don't want to downplay the potential of this board. It has a seriously impressive list of features. Maybe in a few years, this comment will be obsolete, but someone who actually knows what they're doing needs to pick this board up and create a comprehensive internet guide and the company has some interesting bugs it needs to work out. (like, i don't know, maybe having a breaker trip when you plug in the stepper drivers backwards instead of frying the entire board?) If you know what you're doing, I think you have a shot at making this board work really well, but if you're new to anything Marlin or 3D printers like I am, this board is not for you.