Hi.
I want build first LR3 and now I’m collecting parts for it.
I have question, what mainboard will be best and relatively cheap?
I thinking about mks tinybee, skr 1.3 or skr 1.4. (cheapest to most expensive)
Any of them will be enough or some of them are better for start and why?
If you do not want to mess with firmware, the SKR Pro or Rambo is highly recommended. If you want to mess with firmware the sky is the limit, just get at least 5 drivers.
It all depends on whether you ride standard or goofy…
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Well I am as big of a noob as you could be and I managed to get the skrpro1.2 board going.
It’s very reasonably priced imo. And has a lot of pictures and problems ppl have overcome etc. so lots of content and information for that one.
FYI: the Tinybee only has three endstop plugs. If you want electronic homing to square the machine, you may have some hoops to jump through. There are a couple of pins that you might be able to repurpose for the last two endstops (including touch plate). I’m not sure (with or without using these pins) if there is an available PWM pin for a laser.
On the forum, I’ve not seen any completed Primo or Lowrider builds using the Tinybee. There is one in process, but he is using FluidNC for the firmware and has not yet addressed the missing endstop connections.
There are some untested versions of the Marlin firmware maintained by V1 for the SKR 1.3. If you did not want to go with the Rambo or SKR Pro, buying a SKR 1.3 might make your path easier.
Or one of those mongo foot weirdos… 
FYI, the naming and versions are weird on the skrs. The skr pro v1.2 is newer than the skr (blank) v1.3. the Skr Turbo v1.4 is about the same age. They just change the version when they find a bug in the design. The skr pro v1.2 might be the newest of those three.
Newer boards are the octopus and the manta. But I don’t see a good reason to pick one of those over an skr pro v1.2.
Well i want use it standard at start, if it will go good way then after get some experience probably i will upgrade it if it be necessary.
I want mill wood and maybe laser in future but chances are small for this second option.
I can get this 3 boards at 25-30usd with included shipping, 1.2 variant is more expensive
Probably i will choose skr 1.3 or 1.4, what are biggest differences between? It is only updated project bugs or changed Pinout or other bigger changes?
No. The 1.3 and 1.4 are different boards. They are not updates of the Skr Pro v1.2.
Read the names, not the numbers:
- Skr Pro v1.2
- Skr v1.3
- Skr Turbo v1.4
Skr Pro is the best board of those three.
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That FINALLY makes sense! I ordered from ryan for a reason - I couldn’t make heads or tails of the board names and versions.
I don’t write it clearly previous (bad translation).
I meaned that my choice was focused between 1.3 and 1.4 (not turbo, standard 1.4) and I’m thinked about differences between this 2 models.
1.2pro is for now little too expensive, so i will choose between 1.3 vs 1.4 (both same price)
Well it depends on what you know about coding etc.
for me that was not a option as I followed the norm and it worked great.
If you don’t know how to tell what pin on the board to do what job. Or make a configh file or use platformio
I highly recommend sticking to the norm of skrpro v1.2.
If you are some kind of code wizard that has setup and built your own 3D printers or other Cnc machines that’s another story.
The other boards might be cheaper but how many hours of time will you need to put into it to make it work ?
And if you can’t get it to work who will help ?
And when/if it doesn’t work you may get discouraged bc it takes forever and you could have stuck with the norm and been running in minutes.
This is all coming from my person experience of knowing nothing coming into this Cnc world
Both will work with the same firmware, the 1.4 is just a slightly newer revision. That firmware is available, so should be workable for a beginner, though support will be somewhat more limited.
I don’t believe that the revision change from.1.3 and 1.4 have significant impact on the use case that we have. I think the 1.3 is a little more common, the Turbo has been more prevalent from what I have seen.
You can very quickly burn through extra resources and money if you are not confident in your ability to work with a less common board, so if you have doubts, a supported and tested board could well turn out cheaper, even if the initial outlay is higher. Just a word of caution.
Also consider a TFT. The SKR boards can use the touch screen ones, but a standard 12864 discount controller is still an option with V1 firmware, and can be less expensive. This is almost regardless of the main board that you choose, and will save you the trouble of needing a computer in the same place as your CNC router. Probably cheaper to order with your board, and highly recommended.
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