Hi all,
I read a lot on the forum on the 3d printing topics. Now I am done printing it all (including core on the first try, I was not expecting that 
). Now I found a local shop (I live in Hungary) who has a few Bigtreetech boards, and I’d like to have your feedback on them in terms of compatibility with the MPCNC design and possible limitations.
The choice which I believe would work for sure is the SKR 3. It’s also the most expensive. Then they only have SKR Pico 1.0 and the SKR Mini E3.
Pico and Mini apparently don’t have 5 independent drivers, and SKR 3 seems like a beast (overkill or good choice for future proofing?). I intend to use the MPCNC mostly on hard wood, and aluminium. I’ll probably also play with pens and cutters, but that’s not the primary goal.
Any thought or advice?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Anthony
It has to be the SKR Pro 1.2 that is recommended by Ryan and sold in the shop, for the others there is no compatible firmware. There are people here that got an Octopus running, but it is not the norm, so if you are starting out you should get one that works.
Maybe you could also get a Jackpot, the new board designed by Ryan himself, still from the European group buy of jackpot boards.
Without five drivers, you will need to wire your motors in series/serial. Series/serial wiring precludes dual endstops for squaring the machine, and you might give up some torque at higher speeds like in rapid (non-cutting) movements, and for laser engraving.
The big question concerning boards is the firmware. V1 only maintains firmware for a limited number of boards. In the BTT line, they only have firmware for SKR 1.3, SKR Turbo, and SKR Pro 1.2. The SKR Pro 1.2 is the board V1 sells in the store. For all other boards, you will have to figure out compiling and configuring the firmware for your board and stepper driver and possibly a display. There are individuals on the forum that often help people configure Marlin for their board, but getting it working is not a sure thing.
You might search the forum for any board you are considering to see if there is a topic dealing with configuring the firmware for that board.
Thank you for your quick answers.
Maybe I should have also written a bit about my background and aspirations in that build.
Difficulty is not a show stopper, especially if there is learning involved. I am an engineer by trade, but I work with software and signal processing. I am looking forward to that build to tinker and learn about the guts of a CNC. For once I can play with full atoms, not only electrons
So my question was more on the hardware limitations especially in the operation of the machine. These boards are advertised for 3d printer upgrades, so not so easy for a neophyte like myself to spot how well they are suited to the MPCNC design.
So the loss of torque mentioned is a concern, but not so much the firmware compilation, especially with the support of the great V1 community.
So with that out of the way, I understand that pico and mini would negatively impact the performance of the build, and the skr 3 would be suitable, but require specific configuration and compilation. Is that correct?
One last question: is there a benefit to the higher compute power of the skr 3 compared to the pro 1.2 in the context of a MPCNC build? (And/or other features that I would have missed)
Since the board only converts gcode into signals, I think it might actually run on a potatoe. 