BigTreeTech SKR Pro 32bit Controller for RepRap 3D Printers

We’ve come a long way in the industry of 3D Printing, starting from the most basic Prusa i3 machines that barely even looked like the modern versions do nowadays. However, while we might get nostalgic from time to time, we certainly don’t miss those days, especially when we consider all of the amazing modern upgrades and features that are available for almost all of the different 3D Printers on the market. This is why we’re so excited with the BTT SKR Pro Controller Board from BigTreeTech, as it’s a truly impressive upgrade that not only provides its very own set of powerful benefits, but also allows for even more expansion as well.

In terms of its own unique features, the BTT SKR Pro offers a beefy 32bit 168MHz Cortex-M4 CPU, giving it more than enough speed and power to handle almost anything you want to do in 3D Printing, and has enough expansion ports to cater to almost any upgrade you can think of. This is coupled with an incredible level of compatibility both for Stepper Drivers and other 3D Printer Upgrades, and even offers two extra extruder ports for 3D Makers who want to experiment with tri-colour printing, multi-material printing, or even multi-axis extruders. These and many other features are then complemented by a beautiful and efficient design, with high quality components and a layout that actually focuses on both effectiveness as well as user experience.

What are the Key Features of the BigTreeTech SKR Pro Controller?

With so many cool features built into this board, as well as loads of room for further expansions and upgrades, it’s hard to pinpoint just a few of the key aspects that make this board so amazing. However, we must admit that there are a few that stand out from the rest, and really do well to differentiate this board from the rest of the amazing boards in the BTT SK Motherboards Range. These are very focused on functionality, and as such, we feel that these are the most beneficial features that the BTT SKR Pro Controller offers:

• Supports 6 Stepper Drivers – With 3D Printing getting faster, more efficient and more precise, it’s no surprise that we’re finally seeing controllers that offer more than just the basics, with the BTT SKR Pro offering support for up to 6 stepper drivers, catering to both a second and a third extruder. This means that you can finally print in tri-colour, in multiple materials, or in other unique ways by utilising an extra axis for more extruder control. And if that wasn’t enough, this board also offers dual outputs for dual-z setups, compatibility with a wide range of Stepper Drivers, as well as support for both UART and SPI in addition to Step/Dir.
  
  
• Expansion Ports for Any Upgrade – When looking at the BTT SKR Pro for the first time, it’s easy to see that this board was built for ultimate upgrade and expansion compatibility, with ports and pins strewn all over the board for various components. In fact, if you can think of an upgrade, there’s a high probably that the BTT SK Pro can support it, and this is proof in the fact that it even offers expansion ports and pins designed for future upgrades that haven’t been introduced to the market yet. These awesome ports and pins ensure that the BTT SKR Pro is not only ready to handle whatever upgrades you throw at it, but will also be quite future-proof, especially when coupled with the powerful high-speed processor.
  
  
• Dedicated Power Lanes for Major Components – If you’ve been involved in 3D Printing for a while now, you’ll understand that heat generation has always been a bit of a hassle, with some boards behaving quite dangerously when presented with the perfect storm of certain conditions. And while we’ve never had one of our models burn a table or cause any serious damage, these kinds of potential problems are always a genuine concern. This is why we’re so happy to see better, more effective ways of delivering power to the major components, with the SKR Pro being a great example. On this board, instead of all of the power coming in through a single input, the power lanes have been split so that you can supply dedicated power to the stepper drivers, the heatbed, as well as the board. And while this doesn’t necessarily add to print quality or 3D Printer functionality, it dramatically reduces the temperatures apparent on the board, which in turn reduces potential dangers associated with those temperatures, and certainly does provide genuine peace of mind.

Please Note: This board can operate on both the main DC power input as well as USB power, and you need to choose between the power inputs by using a jumper over the 3 onboard pins labelled “IN | VCC | USB” in order to avoid causing unexpected damage. However, it must be noted that this board cannot actually print from USB power, which means that the USB power select is primarily just for interfacing with the board when setting up or flashing firmware.

Additional Note: It’s important to realise that this board does not come with Stepper Drivers included, so if you don’t have any spare stepper drivers, be sure to check out the stepper driver compatibility of this board below, and then consider getting a few drivers from our dedicated Stepper Driver Category.

Additional Resources:

• With this board being quite a complex model compared to most, we highly encourage you to take a look through the official BigTreetech SKR Pro GitHub Page, where you can find the user manual, resources for installation and setup, as well as some handy extras.
  
  
• Next up, this is the fantastic BigTreeTech Thingiverse List, which offers awesome STL files for enclosures that incorporate the BTT SKR Controllers and BTT Displays into popular 3D Printers, with designs that cater to all kinds of machines, styles and tastes.

Finally, if you’re eager to enjoy a more visual demonstration of this board, check out this great video by Edward Braiman, in which he takes a look at the key features on the BTT SKR Pro V1.1, while also quickly taking you through the basic setup process and testing. Bear in mind that we stock the V1.2 board, although the differences between these two board versions are minor, and this video is still great for both the SKR Pro V1.1 and the SKR Pro V1.2:

As one of the rising stars in the world of 3D Printer Component Research and Development, BigTreeTech have certainly hit the ground running, entering the market in 2015 and spending their early stages primarily learning, researching, testing and developing, before producing some truly impressive results. From simple but effective upgrades to standard parts, all the way through to completely custom parts that no other brand offered at the time, BigTreeTech now have an incredibly diverse range, with almost no area of 3D Printing being left out.

Some of BigTreeTech’s most notable additions to the world of 3D Printing include the SKR Motherboard Range for numerous different 3D Printer models, the awesome TFT Touch Display Range with fancy features like dual-mode operation, as well as their very impressive Stepper Driver Range that cater to all tastes and preferences under the sun. And of course, to top it all off, BigTreeTech also have a sister company named BIQU, and we must admit that they have been producing some pretty impressive (and low price) 3D Printers, with the BIQU B1 possibly becoming a new rival to the Ender 3.

Of course, it’s easy to see that BigTreeTech are modern masters of 3D Printing R&D, and while we do still have a lot of different parts that we want to test out from them, so far we’ve been extremely happy with what they’re capable of producing – all while fitting into same kind of hobbyist budget that they used to operate on as Makers and Tinkerers themselves.