If you’ve considered buying a 3D printer, you’ve probably also considered the cost of the 3D printer controller. While 3D printers themselves have become more accessible in terms of price, the convenience of a 3D printer-controller combo is still a major consideration. But the good news is that there are many different controllers that fit a wide range of budgets.
Here, we’ve rounded up the best 3D printer controllers to help you find the right one for your needs.
Read on to learn more.
Our Editor’s Best 3d Printer Controllers Reviews
- Effortless 3D Creation: Start your 3D printing journey with just one click using our smart app, perfect as a beginner 3D printer for kids and home use; compatible across iOS, Android, and Windows platforms for a seamless experience; voice commands make it accessible and fun for all ages
- Precision and Speed: Achieve professional-grade, kids 3D printer with 0.05 mm accuracy at speeds up to 200 mm/s; this small 3D printer features an innovative quick-release nozzle for easy changes, ensuring smooth and consistent printing every time
- Creative Library Access: Dive into a vast catalog of over 1,500 digital designs with weekly updates, perfect for a 3D printer for kids; includes 15+ themed design modules, providing endless customization options tailored for both kids and home use
- DIY Customization: Personalize your small 3D printer with printable decorations; a unique feature that makes this an ideal 3D printer for home, allowing for a truly individualized and creative look
- Monitor with Ease: The built-in camera allows real-time monitoring of your printing projects from your smartphone, ideal for a 3D printer for home use; it also automatically generates time-lapse videos for sharing your creative process, making it a perfect 3D printer for kids
- Our heater is equipped with buttons to set the target temperature ( from 10°C to 50°C). The optimal heating temperature for resin being 30°C. Some other heaters default to cooling at 25°C and do not allow target temperature adjustments.
- Use for: Resin 3D printer mini heater designed for Resin 3D printers, it is small but powerful, for use in cold weather. It helps you to heat up the resin and rise the ambient temperature. Make your 3D printer work well, save your time and Resin material.
- Professional design: Our heater is designed for long-term working, capable of running continuously 24/7. The PCB is dual-sided and wiring are professionally engineered to ensure an exceptionally long service life.
- Professionally manufactured: Our 3D printer heater built-in high-precision industry temperature sensor, accurate to 0.1 ℃. Fireproof case, high-quality power cord, all professionally designed for your safe printing.
- Small Size: Our 3D printer heater is compact, measuring 10.8 x 5.7 x 3.2 cm (4.25 x 2.24 x 1.25 inches) and weighing 117 grams. It is perfect for 8-15 inch resin 3D printers. The heater can raise the temperature from 40°F to 80°F in just 10 minutes, making it ideal for use in cold weather.
- 【Mini 3D Printers】：TINA2S - wifi 3d printer with App for beginners and kids, compact body, ready to use out of the box, fully assembled, no complicated settings to start printing, TF card and APP comes with multiple models, fully meet the printing needs of entry-level players, instantly start the perfect printing experience!
- 【Completely Intelligent】: Equipped with the new self-developed APP Poloprint Cloud, massive model library, to achieve one-click control of the printer. Print at your own pace, you can choose to print in multiple ways via APP/USB/Wiibuilder slicing software, fully open source and compatible with Cura, Simplify3d and Slicr3r slicing software.
- 【Auto Leveling & Heatable Platform】: Small FDM 3D printer has a built-in auto leveling system that eliminates the need for manual adjustments for successful printing. Features a flexible and removable spring steel build plate to reduce model warpage issues, easy removal of prints, and easy cleaning of the platform.
- 【High Precision and Speed】: Tina2s 3D Printers is a professional-grade children's 3D printer with 0.04mm precision a combined print speed of up to 200 mm/s;Replacement nozzle set included to reduce clogging problems and make printing smoother. Can be used for STEM education.
- 【Upgraded wifi 3D Printing】: Upgraded wifi module with 5 times faster file transfer speed, supporting faster and more stable file transfer for a perfect printing experience. Convenient networking design, use APP to network with one click and say goodbye to tedious network settings!
- Four-Spool Filament Dryer Box - SUNLU S4 is the first filament dryer box capable of accommodating four 1kg spools simultaneously. It is equipped with eight filament holes and PTFE tubes, meeting the demands for drying multiple filaments and enabling concurrent printing with multiple printers.
- Fast Heating & Drying Evenly - The SUNLU S4 filament dryer is equipped with a PTC heating element and a triple-fan configuration. The interior heat is efficiently circulated with three fans, making the heating process more even. Additionally, the S4 filament dry box achieves rapid heating up to 70 °C in record time. The robust 350W PTC heater is 6.9 times more powerful than the SUNLU S2, ensuring an accelerated and efficient filament drying experience.
- Auto Humidity Control - The SUNLU FilaDryer S4 incorporates a high-precision humidity sensor, displaying real-time interior humidity. Even when the filament dryer is in standby, it will automatically activate when the interior humidity reaches or exceeds 50%, preventing secondary moisture exposure. Thus, it can also serve as your filament storage box.
- Easy to Use - The adjustable temperature range is 35°C to 70°C, with a setting time from 0 to 99 hours. This 3D printer filament dryer features a large touch screen, providing a tablet-like operation experience. It also comes with pre-configured temperature and drying time settings for commonly used filaments such as PLA, ABS, PETG, as well as PA and PC. This reduces setup complexities and enhances your user experience.
- Universal Compatibility - The SUNLU S4 filament dehydrator is compatible with PLA, PLA+, PETG, TPU, ABS, PA, PC, Nylon, and other high-end 3D filaments. It works perfectly with all standard filament diameters: 1.75mm, 2.85mm, 3.00mm.
- 🌟 Compact & Versatile: Our Mini Heating Module easily fits most LCD 3D printers, providing a convenient solution for resin-based 3D printing enthusiasts
- 🌡️ Wide Temperature Control: Freely adjust the heating temperature, catering to your specific printing needs，Maximum power up to 200W
- 🔧 User-friendly Installation: Hassle-free setup without drilling or modifying your 3D printer's casing; neat and tidy cable management
- 🤫 Quiet Operation & High Performance: Low noise operation paired with 2 powerful dual-bearing fan , ensuring optimal efficiency
- 🔥 Powerful, Safe, & Reliable: Our module features a independent controller for fast heating, built-in overheat protection , and a durable design
- 【32 Bit 3D Printer Motherboard】BTT SKR V1.4 control board adopts 32-bit 100MHz ARM-class Cortex-M3 series LPC1768 main control chip. It comes with Marlin firmware 2.0, and also supports to run Klipper with BTT Pi v1.2 or CB1+Pi4B.
- 【Wide Compatibility】SKR V1.4 is the is the upgraded version of SKR V1.3, it is compatible with most FDM 3D Printers in the market such as Ender-3/Ender-3 V2/Ender-3 S1, CR 10 etc. It supports TFT2.4/TFT2.8/TFT3.5 touch screen and also LCD2004/LCD12864 screen; And compatible with TMC2208/TMC2209/EZ2209/TMC2208/TMC5160 stepper drivers.
- 【DIY-friendly】 BIGTREETECH SKR V1.4 is an ideal cost-effective control board for those 3D DIY enthusiast. It reserves I2C, SPI and WiFi interface. When use the WiFi module, you can use BTT Writer for firmware flashing, serial port debugging and so on.
- 【Reserved DC Module Interface】Reserved DCDC Mode V1.0 power module interface to supply power to TFT panel, BL touch and Neopixel(also reserved RGB light bar supporting Neopixel scheme).
- 【Other Interfaces】Dual Z-axis interfaces to eliminate the trouble of external drive expansion module; The thermistor interface is protected by a capacitor and a varistor to enhance the resistance of the interface. There are 4 fan interfaces on the board in total: 1-way CNC fan and
- Product Package: This kit includes BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V3.0 Control Board with Interface Cable, which can perfectly compatilbe with ender3 v2 screen
- Interface Cable: The single-line marking indicates the direction in which the plug is inserted into the Ender-3 V2 screen socket, please keep it the same direction as the notch of the socket. The dual-line marking indicates the direction in the which the plug is inserted into the SKR Mini E3 socket, please keep it the same direction as the notch of the socket
- SKR Mini E3 V3.0: Adopt STMicroelectronics' latest G0 series main control chip STM32G0B1RET6; Increase the heat dissipation controllable fan to reduce the printer temperature when the device is working
- SKR Mini E3 V3.0: Redesign the drive heat sink, strengthen the drive heat dissipation capacity, and greatly improve the heat dissipation performance; The PC communication USB interface is upgraded from Mini USB to Micro USB B, which is more adaptable
- Output Power Supply: Increase SPI output port +3.3V power supply, external SPI sensor power supply voltage +3.3V and +5V are optional, support the motherboard to directly supply power to peripherals
- Using 32-bit 100MHz ARM-class Cortex-M3 series LPC1768 main control chip, the performance is greatly improved
- Equipped with highly modular open source firmware Marlin 2.0, which is convenient for users to DIY and secondary development
- Support 2.4, 2.8, 3.5-inch color touch screen, support LCD2004 screen, LCD12864 screen; Upgrade configuration firmware through SD card, simple, convenient and efficient operation
- It can supply power to TFT screen, BLtouch, Neo-pixel by plugging in an external DC5V power module; in addition, I2C, SPI, WIFI interface is reserved to facilitate customer DIY
- On-board TMC driver SPI working mode and UART working mode, and the on-board DIAG function pins are convenient for customers to use, eliminating the complicated wiring process, which can be used by simply removing and inserting the jumper cap; Functions such as continuous power on, material detection, shutdown after power off
- 32 BIT MICROPROCESSOR: Built in ESP32 DOWD V3 chip, for Xtensa core 32 bit LX6 microprocessor, supporting clock frequency up to 240MHz.
- POWERFUL AND VERSATILE: The main board adopt ESP32 WROOM 32U module, embedded core 32 bit high speed MCU, the clock is up to 240MHz. And integrate , Bluetooth module, update firmware through USB, can connect and web page to control printing.
- SUPPORT VARIOUS SCREEN: This is a 3D printer main control board with onboard ESP32 , supports for Marlin2.0 firmware, in addition to ordinary LCD2004, 12864 screen, also supports for MKS MINI12864V3, and for MKSTFT serial screen.
- 8M BYTE CHIP: In addition, the module has a built in 8M byte Flash memory chip, which provides effective for more application scenarios.
- BACK EMF : VEXP has designed a circuit for the back EMF generated by the stepper motor, which greatly reduces the damage to the motor driver.
- ★ Latest CNC Shield Expansion Board V3.0 ★-CNC shield board is updated version 3.0, which is suitable for CH340G Shield 3.0 version compatible with for ArduinoIDE, GRBL 0.9.
- ★ Professional 3D printer CNC Kit ★ This is a professional 3d printer DIY kit with multiple types of modules or components you need. It is a great assortment set for starters and professionals.
- ★ Premium Quality ★ Each part of this Logrunner 3d printer conk kit was made of premium material. These components can be used in a wide range of application.
- ★ DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver with Heat Sinks ★ High quality stepper motor drive with 4 Aluminum Cooler, running within 2.5A current (Maximum), compatible with for ArduinoIDE software and hardware.
- ★ Good after-sales service. We'll respond within 24 hours for any questions.
Best 3d Printer Controllers Buying Guide
Before choosing the best 3D printer controller you should consider following options:
1. RAM Memory: RAM memory is the fastest form of computer memory. It acts as a temporary storage location for the operating system and program files a computer uses.
For 3D printer controllers, RAM memory is used to store information while programs run. It is important that you purchase a 3D printer controller with enough RAM memory to run the programs you will use.
If you are planning to print large, complex objects, you will need a 3D printer controller with at least 1GB of RAM memory. If you are using your 3D printer controller for simpler 3D printing jobs, 512MB will be enough.
2. Flash Memory: Flash memory is a non-volatile storage medium. This means that it can store information even when the power is off.
The information stored in flash memory is used to control the printer’s functions. 3D printer controllers with more flash memory have a higher level of customization.
If you are new to 3D printing and are unsure what settings to use when printing, a 3D printer controller with a limited amount of flash memory may be best.
3. ROM Memory: ROM memory is a non-rewritable form of computer memory that holds an operating system and program instructions.
For a 3D printer controller, ROM memory is used to store the operating system. A higher amount of ROM memory allows the 3D printer controller to run more efficiently and with fewer errors.
A 3D printer controller with 512MB of ROM memory is recommended for new users. Experienced users may find that a 3D printer controller with 1GB of ROM memory is more than enough.
What else you should know about 3d printer controllers
1. What are the different types of 3D printer controllers?
There are three main types of printer controllers:
1. Stand-alone controllers: These controllers are typically dedicated to a single printer and are not connected to a network. They are typically used for lower-end printers.
2. Embedded controllers: These controllers are built into the printer itself and are used for mid-range and high-end printers.
3. Networked controllers: These controllers are connected to a network and can be used to control multiple printers.
2. What are the benefits of using a 3D printer controller?
A printer controller is a device that helps manage printing jobs and sends them to the appropriate printer. It can be used to monitor the progress of print jobs, track printer usage, and control access to printers.
3. What are the features of a 3D printer controller?
Some features of a printer controller may include:
-The ability to connect to and control multiple printers simultaneously
-A user-friendly interface for managing print jobs
-Support for a variety of printing technologies (e.g., inkjet, laser, thermal, etc.)
-Advanced features for managing color printing, paper size and orientation, and other print job settings
4. How does a 3D printer controller work?
A printer controller is a device that connects a printer to a computer. It allows the computer to send data to the printer and receive data from the printer.
5. What are the limitations of a 3D printer controller?
Some printer controllers only work with specific types of printers, so if you change printers you may need to also change the controller. Printers also require specific types and amounts of ink or toner, which the controller may not be able to accommodate.
Conclusion
On the market, there are numerous best 3d printer controllers. Hopefully, the list of the top ten best 3d printer controllers will save you time researching and deciding on the best one for you.