MKS Gen V1.4 is made by a Chinese manufacturer Makerbase. MKS (Makerbase) are manufacturers of 3D Printer controller boards (also known as mainboards) that run Marlin, Repetier, and other firmware.
MKS Gen V1.4 Overview
This is an 8-bit control board for your 3d printer with an Atmel Mega 2560 microcontroller.
This board was designed from the RAMPS 1.4 Schematic so many of the pins are the same when configuring your Firmware of choice.
MKS Gen Stepper Compatibility
The board supports Stepper Drivers up to 1/16 microsteps such as A4988, DRV8825 and TMC2100 drivers.
MKS Gen 1.4 Fan Wiring Connection
The MKS Gen 1.4 comes with limited connections for your 3d printer’s extruder fans, board cooling fans, and part cooling fans. This connection is for your 3d printer’s cooling fan as it kicks on after your first layer has been completed during the print.
But what about the Extruder Fans?
You might be asking yourself how to connect the extruder fans, at least that is what happened to me. I reached out to King at makerbase and he suggested connecting them to the secondary input voltage connector. But then I thought well that would mean the fans would always be on which is not ideal or power friendly.
So I searched for a better way and I found that you can use a relay or even better a MOSFET Driver Module!
These little guys make it easy to add low-amp hardware and control them with the signal pin. Simply wire these to the secondary power input on the board, wire up the fans, and then connect the signal pin to a free digital pin. Then modify your firmware configuration to activate the pin for the extruder fan power.
These support up to 24v which makes them a great and affordable choice.
Smart Controllers (Screens)
MKS Gen 1.4 supports many Smart Controllers and Touch Screens. They have their own line of touch screens which are pretty nice.
USB and SD Card Compatibility
The MKS Gen 1.4 board does not come onboard SD or USB KEY connectors. What’s pretty awesome about the MKS TFT Touch Screens is that they come with integrated SD and USB Key connectors!!!
Most other TFT Screens and Smart controllers come with an SD Card Slot Standard, just be sure whatever you are choosing has that feature should you want to use it.
Summary
Makerbase’s Gen 1.4 is a great cheap 3d printer controller. I really like how easy it was to set up and is directly compatible with Marlin Firmware (the best!).
You can find the datasheet for this board here: MKS Gen Datasheet
Makerbase has also come out with a 32-bit ARM microcontroller board line, MKS SBase. Be sure to check it out with Marlin 2.0.
Also if you need help setting up Marlin Firmware check out this great guide for beginners.
So you put the solution in the write up but never laid it out. What pins do i need to connect to what do i need to change in marlin. How do i wire this thing up ect… Any help would be apreciated.
Hey Ray,
Are you referring to adding the MOSFET for extra fans?
Check out this post: https://3daddict.com/marlin-custom-fan-pins/
Let me know if this helps…
Hi, I am making a project for school with the MKS Gen 1.4 microcontroller board.
I need a digital output signal to take out of the microcontroller.
The code I wrote in the Marlin Firmware trying to set put a the digital pin 1 from digital TRUE to digital FALSE with a 1 second delay is as follows:
void loop() {
digitalWrite(1,LOW);
pin_salida=digitalRead(1);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
MYSERIAL.print(“Pin_Salida LOW = “);
MYSERIAL.println(pin_salida);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
delay(4000);
digitalWrite(1,HIGH);
pin_salida=digitalRead(1);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
MYSERIAL.print(“Pin_Salida HIGH= “);
MYSERIAL.println(pin_salida);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
MYSERIAL.println(“…………………………..”);
delay(4000);
What I am trying to do is just to put the pin D1 of the board in 1 and then to 0.
What I get when I uplode it to the board is that the pin 1 is always in 1 (2.6 V).
I tried using the pins D40 and D44 but none of them worked, in this case the digital output was always in logic 0 (1 V).
The question is regarding which pin of the microcontroller I can use to get a digital output signal and how I can address it from the Marlin Firmware code.
Thank you very much.