Creality Sonic Pad and Alternatives

Knowledge Base
1

Creality Sonic Pad

Background

  • The Creality Sonic Pad is thought to be a “one-stop” solution for Klipper
    • A SBC running Klipper along with Moonraker, Fluidd, Mainsail and KlipperScreen
    • A touch display being controlled by Mainsail / Fluidd running in Kiosk mode with some additional interfaces that look exactly like KlipperScreen but without any released sources (!)
  • At the date of writing this, the Sonic Pad:
    • Uses a very outdated and modified Klipper version
    • Moonraker, Fluidd, Mainsail are equally not recent and also modified

Support

  • The Klipper project is in no way affiliated with the Sonic Pad nor are the modifications endorsed
  • There is no official support out of the project for this
  • The modifications are causing a crippled klippy.log that makes proper diagnosing anything between cumbersome and impossible
  • The old Klipper version will cause issues with various popular macros
  • Issues or potential bugs will not be followed up unless it is proven that the same behavior is occurring on the original, pristine Klipper main-line as well

Bottom Line

  • If anyone in the community is able to help on certain issues, the help will be provided
  • Probably nobody from the staff here will dig into this too much
  • The quality of the used components (Soft- and Hardware) and the resulting user experience is completely at the responsibility of Creality
  • Issues are best reported to the Creality staff
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2

Bigtreetech Pad 7

For anyone who is searching a “one-stop solution” for Klipper, consider the Bigtreetech Pad 7 as an alternative to the limited Creality Sonic Pad.

Noteworthy differences are:

  • Running pristine sources for
    • Klipper
    • Moonraker
    • Fluidd / Mainsail
    • KlipperScreen (slightly modified version shipped but pristine version possible)
  • Fully compatible to the update mechanism of the above mentioned products. You can always upgrade to latest version without the need to wait for a new firmware release by Creality
  • Fully compatible with all guides and information around Klipper and its ecosystem
    • No crippled klippy.log that makes diagnosing issues a pain
  • Based on easily accessible Linux OS that allows all sort of tinkering / customization should you need it
  • Upgrade possibilities with Raspberry Compute Modules, e.g. CM4, to increase computing power
    • Also compatible to the respective Linux flavors available to the CM4

Disclaimer

The above is my personal opinion based on the available information and the (miserable) support experience here regarding the Sonic Pad.
It is neither endorsed nor objected by Creality and / or Bigtreetech.

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