Octopus Pro: still the better choice for a CANBus setup (and any other complex scenario) ?

[vorondesignlover]

Hello to all,
I'm preparing to build my first Voron 2.4 R2 350mm with CANBus and the top rated mods the community recommends (Rapido V2 UHF PT1000, high voltage motors, Galileo 2, Beacon, ADXL345).
I'm stuck with the choice of the right control board. Recently I've even opened a thread, but at that time I used a Fly Gemini V3 as a standard of measurement and people quickly recommended to stick with Octopus due to the limitations.
However, as soon as I had chance to get more into this I had to face limitations even with Octopus. I found an alternative board and I decided to open a new thread particularly focused on CANBus.

Problem is that the Octopus does not support native CANBbus (CAN-FD). Communication can only occur through an USB adapter or RJ11. Not sure what of the twos is worse.
Even the Max EZ variant still uses a XH2.54 Pin interface which, if I have understood well, is not going to be any better than the other two interfaces. I also checked Manta M8P V2 which seems to use the same XH2.54 Pin interface.

A friend from the community said that now 2240 drivers should be the way to go instead of 2209. I'm not sure they're intended to also replace 5160 (voltage seems limited to 36V). While I was looking for CANBus boards I was surprised to see this one from Mellow:



If i connect one to Octopus I feel like I'm going to lose most of the benefits.

So, while I was looking for boards I found Mellow Fly Pro X10 wich is going to cost pretty much the same as Octopus (included the Super Pro):


The bad news is that seems to run a customized (and closed source) version of Klipper. This is usually more than enough for me to abort and look for something else, but I wonder if I should do an exception and close an eye. I'm focused on CANBus and didn't checked the other features, but I expect many great features unlocked and work very well when paired with their CANBus board.

What you think, guys? Is there a better approach or some other board I missed out?
It appears to be that most of you use BTT, so I must admit I don't feel safe with this route.

Thanks

 

[NoGuru]

I just quickly looked at the Mellow Fly Pro X10 "that's a mouth full" and the specs look pretty good.
If you pair it with a CM4 PI I think it can be a good board. I like the vertical drivers for cooling as well.

I don't see how Klipper could be closed source for this. You will just install it on the PI and assign the PINS needed for communication.

 

[vorondesignlover]

Well, I had to go deep into this and I'm pretty much at the conclusion that "Yes, the Octopus Pro seems to be still the best choice".

• CAN-FD is not supported in Klipper (and probably will never be), it will fallback to CAN 2.0. Only works on REPRAP which is a firmware I've excluded from the beginning due to the numerous downsides.
• The real utility of FD in real world practical scenarios is highly opinionated.
• Octopus Pro v1.1 has been upgraded with XH2.5, no need for EZ Max for this
• EZ Max is more for beginners which means less open to user mods. Given that Mellow and BTT are direct competitors with their products very close in term of specs, I would expect a similar approach even on Pro X10. I still have to build my first printer, so I don't have the right technical knowledge and experience for a deep and advanced comparison.
• Unfortunately issues with closed source code in Mellow boards appears to be real:
  • 

In the other thread you recommended 2240 drivers instead of 2209. I've just discovered that even BTT has their own SB2040 CAN board with 2240 onboard driver. It also include a CAN cable which allows a direct connection to the XH2.5 interface. This is not a valid reason to choose BTT over Mellow, but given that the latter is closed source and run CAN 2.0 anyway, I would be more oriented with BTT.
What I've previously stated also applies for CAN boards: I still have to build my first printer, so I don't have the right technical knowledge and experience for a deep and advanced comparison.

Thanks