BIGTREETECH TMC2208 V3.0 UART Mode Stepper Motor Driver with Heatsink for SKR V1.3 MKS GEN L Ramps 1.4/1.5/1.6 3D Printer Control Board(Pack of 2pcs)

Great product ! I prefer these 2208’s over the 2209’s all day long. Solid performance and great product. While not as quite as advertised these stepper drivers do perform. Once installed and tweaked (google is your friend) solid performance all the way around. The instructions are hard to follow but give you a starting point. Don’t be afraid to dive in and get the settings for your setup.

These drivers will do what most people probably want a 2208 driver to do, and that is to make your stepper motors MUCH quieter than the standard A4988 drivers on many 3D printers. However, I took off two stars from the review because I only received one cable, which didn't allow me to hook up both drivers to UART in the configuration I was expecting. Also, while the drivers did ship with 2 of the 3 solder pads jumpered via what is presumably a tiny 0-Ohm resistor, I couldn't get UART to function so, following a video, I attempted to solder the other pad such that all 3 were connected (per several videos) and wound up almost immediately de-soldering the pad itself from the board. As such, I am now stuck using these in drivers in standalone mode. I wouldn't have even given them 3-out-of-5 if I couldn't still use them as standalone, but the fact that they did make my printer AMAZINGLY quiet compared to the old A4988s warranted at least an average rating. (I did contact the seller in regards to the missing jumpers, since I only got one cable with 2 wires and not the bundle as is seen in the photo, though I have not yet heard back from them.)

These drivers have a generous thermal area for the heatsinks which is great. However the solder jumpers on the bottom of the board which must be bridged to set to UART mode are very small and positioned between the connector pins and a chip resistor. You would need soldering experience, a micro tip soldering iron and a 'helping hands' with a magnifier to do the work. I had all of this and only managed to jumper three of the four boards I purchased. On the first one I tried, I burned off the small solder pads before I could get them bridged. Will have to run that one in standalone mode.Other brands on Amazon appear to also require the solder bridging for UART mode, but they look like they have larger pads and they don't jam a chip resistor right next to them.UPDATE: Note that the description says 'UART Mode' but they don't come that way. The manufacturer BIGTREETECH does make a UART version with the jumper pre-installed but this item is not that. Kingprint should offer both versions here. Another seller does offer both and you pick which one you want. I would recommend you go elsewhere if UART mode is what you want.