Biqu is stopping SKR Pro production soon

Looks just like the Octopus I wonder which is the original.

There’s one feature of the octopus that would probably convince me to spend an extra $20, which is separate motor power supply terminals that allow up to 60v. The maximum voltage on the mks is 28v.

I wonder which is the original.

The github repository info says the octopus repository was created 2 months prior to the mks monster8:

BIGTREETECH Octopus “created_at”: “2021-05-13T02:20:32Z”
MKS Monster8 “created_at”: “2021-07-29T09:39:04Z”

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whoa only 50 bucks!

Actually only 10, it is on sale right now on Amazon. 59 bucks.

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Okay I finally got a solid answer. These are Biqu’s longer term supported boards with 5+ drivers.

skr 1.4, skr 3, and skr 3 EZ, octopus, skr pro, MANTA M5P, MANTA M8P

They have decided to keep the SKR Pro on for a while, still not exactly sure how long. They kinda said, for me, but they are not being clear.

The benefits I am seeing of the octopus is it about the same price as the skr pro, can use the ESP32, more ports, more table endstops?, better CPU.

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Not sure if it fits your overall design goals but I just got my LR3 working w/ Skr mini e3 v3

Cheaper than an Octopus - I think I paid like $85 for both the board and the tft35-e3 on Amazon; board by itself is like $45 and I’m sure much cheaper when purchased direct from China in bulk.

Only has 4 stepper drivers but the Z driver is multiplexed to two channels for dual Z already so it was a non-issue for me. Sensorless homing was really easy to set up - just a few jumpers and maybe 2 tweaks in marlin (extruders 0 and the sensorless homing stuff in the advanced config file).

Relatively painless, pretty cheap. Works like a charm for me

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4 drivers does not allow for autosquare or autolevel as we need them

Do not use both z ports, they are typically wired in parallel (=no power), you need series. If your Second z Port came with jumpers on it is series. Best to double check the docs for your board.

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I agree octopus currently is one of the better if not the best choice, especially if esp3d is a requirement.

I think it’s interesting times right now for 3dp hardware, with all the success seen by klipper. A lot of board manufacturers are putting effort into designed for klipper, with some offering 10drivers for stuff like voron. I see this as the long term future of 3dp… just a matter of time before on-board planning fw is a thing of the past for 3dp. OTOH, that would likely mean marlin might take a separate path, with a primary focus on cnc like grbl (unless klipper takes over cnc, which I doubt will ever happen).

edit: Along similar lines… knowing that voltage helps when it comes to certain cnc operations, those new fysetc HV 5160 drivers are very interesting. Boards that support that are probably too expensive, but such hardware could lead to some curiously fast mpcnc’s I think… at a lower budget than doing it the way I did with dm542t drivers.

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I am not a fan of those drivers. 1a, 1.4a, 1.9a. To big of a step to take advantage of fine tuning.

Input voltage helps but there are diminishing returns. Running at 24v is already accelerating fast and pretty amazing rapids, but the step to 48v will not be as “big” as 12 to 24. Current wise, the 2209 are already plenty powerful for you large nema 17’s.

With CNC’s using lasers more often we might see klipper take a bigger part…but we will see.

GRBL is very solid in terms of cnc, the boards just cost to much and most people want screens. FluidNC has a very solid possibility to take over. It just needs a few extremely inexpensive boards to flood the market (like the ramps did).

I hear that… haven’t actually tried 24V on my rig went straight from 12 to 48, so missed on the 24V goodness. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Bart’s modular 6-pack design is nice, but a more integrated setup would be cheaper to mass produce. Most of the cheap options (esp uno etc) have fundamental flaws that make them unsuitable, and for often trivial reasons. It wouldn’t be that difficult for the community to develop a decently manufacturable solution here. I’m not much of a PCB industry guy, but if there’s interest I’m willing to help on the pcb design. I think starting with one of Bart’s open source schematics would make it sorta easy to do… just need to vote on what features/pins are needed etc.

The octopus is a nice board and should work really well. The only concern is since it’s STM based and not ESP32 like you would be nice to maintain FluidNC compatibiity. Being mainly a 3d printer guy I would love to see Klipper “CNC’d” but Ireally doubt it’s going to happen.

There are lots of GRBL ports of STM boards, it does not have to be FuildNC. The ESP32 itself is pin limited so STM opens up a lot more IO.

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Curious what’s the current thoughts on which board would likely be good to buy today for a mostly stock LR3 with a future full of Mods, BTT Octopus?

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Still the SKR Pro, I have not messed with the octopus yet. The only things better about it are the ability to use an esp32, and the endstop circuit seems more robust. When the holiday is over I will verify with them again what the production schedule is looking like, they just released another octopus board an “EZ” version. While normally I would not be interested in a ten driver board, if the cost is the same and IF the EZ drivers are easier and don’t need a pin bent I might go that way.
Learning from the other thread the boards are still pretty intimidating to some, trying to make that easier.

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The regular Octopus board doesn’t need a bent pin on the drivers to disable diag/sensorless feature. There are spots for jumpers on the Octopus board to enable the sensorless feature, and they are absent (disabled) by default.

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I like the look of the octopus board. This thread has my itching to order one for my 3d printer.

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Awesome! Those ez drivers look real eazy-e now! Hmmm can’t wait to see the price difference of the octo vs octo ez and drivers.

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hold off, I might have one if I switch to the EZ

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Well… Now I’ve also seen the Manta M8p with the CB1… That would clean up so much of my 3d printer from the current pi/radds setup.

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Ordered an Octopus 1.1, couldn’t resist anymore.

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