MKS TFT28 Colour Display Control Panel

As 3D Printers have advanced and gotten smarter with improved functionality and more options for how the user can interface with the machine, we are seeing quite a growth in brands like MakerBase and BigTreeTech, who are dedicated to taking standard components and improving them in more than just a few ways. This MKS TFT28 Colour Display Control Panel is designed by MakerBase, and is made to fit a very wide range of different 3D Printers, from the Creality Ender series through to the original RepRap Prusa i3 based printers.

The TFT28 offers more than just advanced functionality it also offers a fair amount of customisation as well, with the option for users to choose from various themes, create their own buttons, and actually interface with the g-code live for a whole new level of user-control. And in addition to a range of awesome features both new and old to the 3D Printing scene, it also offers built-in wireless functionality, compatibility with both Marlin and Smoothieware firmware, and even has the ability to turn some 3D Printers off after prints so as to save power and prevent unnecessary heat output.

In amongst all of the really awesome features of the MKS TFT28 Panel, in our opinion, one of the coolest has to be the fact that you can create your own custom buttons on the user interface that each perform specific custom actions, and this is directly linked to live g-code. As such, you can create some simple buttons that get your hotend or bed to specific temperatures for certain filaments, or you can create your own auto-homing or positioning buttons, OR you can even push this further and create unique buttons that perform tasks such as:

• Filament changes or motor disabling, so that you can access these options with a single click rather than finding it through the menus.
• A print-removal button that sends the gantry to the back, lowers it and then sweeps the print off of the bed with pure mechanical torque – As seen in this Awesome Make Anything Video.
• A button that sends your extruder to the side to purge or brush, in case it has gotten slightly blocked up or dirty throughout the print.

Of course, the other features of the MKS TFT28 are still fantastic, and deserve a lot of attention, but we just found that we had the most fun in building our own custom menus that really suited each of our styles. And while some of us love cluttered 3D Printer Displays with never-ending functionality and buttons galore, others enjoy a more simplistic menu layout with only the essential buttons on display below the temperatures and other print stats.

Please Note: The MKS TFT28 Display Panel features two optional power inputs of 5V or 12V, and is selectable with an onboard jumper and four dedicated pins. If you are using this panel in conjunction with a RAMPS 1.4 Shield setup, you will need to set this configuration to 12V by placing the jumper over the two top pins, and then provide power via the external 12V input. Alternatively, if you are using this panel alongside MKS Base, MKS SBase, MKS SMini or MKS Gen_L boards, you can set this jumper to 5V by positioning it over the two leftmost pins, which will then ensure that this panel gets powered directly from the controller board rather than from the external 12V input.

Additional Resources:

• If you’re eager to see more about this awesome controller panel before buying it, Teaching Tech has done an excellent MKS TFT28 Installation, Setup and Review Video on YouTube, in which he installs the MKS TFT28 onto an Ender 3 before exploring some of the cool features, aesthetic options and other great details. He also has a link to a nice print to fit this display panel into the original Ender 3 Display Mount, so be sure to check his description for a Link to the TFT28 Print.

This is the awesome video mentioned above: