I am a baby boomer who loves tech. Right off the bat, I am not getting anything for writing this article. I am doing this because I wanted to voice my thoughts about Creality’s Sonic Pad and perhaps other products in the future.

So why this review now after two years of using the Sonic Pad, I have been 3d printing for 5 years and in that time, I have made some upgrades to my setup but one always eluded me and that was Klipper. Kipper from research was able to, with a bit of tinkering, would enable me to speed up my printing, enable me to follow a print whilst not having to keep physically checking that all was well and send the Gcode from my desktop PC in my study to my printer upstairs. There were several reasons this was a bit of a reach for me, but the two headliners were the price of the necessary Raspberry Pi which went through the roof due to the availability due to production not keeping pace with demand. The second and perhaps the most challenging for me is my technical ability.

Then in 2022, I believe, Creality Sonic Pad entered the market, and at £125 or thereabouts it appeared as a solution to my needs. The Sonic Pad is a Klipper control unit, it’s plug and play, compatible with my Ender 3 S1 Plus and Ender 5 pro and I didn’t need to mess around with the not beginner-friendly option of Klipper. So far, many boxes are ticked for me. I read reviews and Reddit’s with the usual negative remarks “It can’t do this” and “It can’t do that!” of keyboard warriors. But the overall reviews in the 3d media appeared to be fairly favourable and so after a few months of putting it aside and planning I took the plunge.

The Sonic Pad has a 7” screen, with a resolution of 1024 x 600. The body has what I would describe as a chunky rugged aesthetic about it with a built-in kickstand, which can be removed. The whole device weighs in at a mere 46g. 4 USB ports, 2 on the side and two on the back which enable it to control 3 printers and a camera from the device, on the back also an RJ45 socket for hooking up to a LAN network and a socket for a sensor. Also in the box are the requisite power leads, and a G-sensor for setting up your printer. Klipper comes pre-installed, or a version of it with a choice that I have only just found out about of Mainsail or Fluidd.

When the sonic pad arrived, I was both excited and nervous, nervous because I’m prone to costly mistakes when it comes to IT. But I had little to worry about following instructions in the PDF manual, which I have to say with Creality at the time was a comprehensive guide.

To install Klipper firmware on your printer, such as the Ender 3 S1 Plus or Ender 5 S1, follow these steps:

1. Insert USB thumb drive into the designated USB port as prompted on-screen.

2. Power on the printer and connect the USB cable between the pad and the printer.

3. Choosing my printer from the time of buying, list of Creality compatible printers.

4. Flash my Ender 3 S1 plus printer with the Klipper firmware.

5. Connect the printer to the Sonic Pad. Follow the on-screen guide to complete the setup.

6. The entire process typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

7. The longest steps involve the sensor for which for some bizarre reason you needed to print out on your printer a mount before blu tacking it to your printer bed setting your Z offset, manually levelling the bed, and performing an auto-level, which is significantly quicker than the stock version."

You then need to run a series of calibration checks, PID and temperature tuning, which did seem daunting, and perhaps the part I found the most challenging. But a quick Goole and Ricky Impey came to the rescue with his Beginners and Intermediate guides on YouTube which has to be said took all the fear out of the process. I’ll put the link here.

https://www.youtube.com/@RickyImpey/playlists

Then it was back down to the study where I began the process of getting my desktop to talk to the Sonic Pad through my slicer. Then my first remote print. I went with a few simple prints that were necessary to follow Ricky’s tutorials.

It became very clear that I was going to need a camera to view my prints, but that is a whole other article for the future.

Two years have now gone by, and I will say thank you to the Creality Team I would be lost without my Sonic Pad. There have been a couple of software upgrades which have been brought into the fold mainly in the Creality family. Having said that you are able with a little effort to connect many 3d printers They have also released the root directory so that users can play with the Sonic pad and its software to their heart's desire. Thanks to the open-source nature of Klipper and the ability to access the root directory, which users were requesting regularly means that the community has created config files for guidance in setting up your particular printer.

I have had a couple of issues, but as I alluded to in this article operator error is the cause and not the Sonic Pad per se, and yes with the experience curve comes the “Oh I wish I could do that” but my experience has led to finding work arounds.There are now competitors like the Flsun’s Speeder pad and Bigtree Tech Pad 7 neither of which I have any knowledge of and to be honest I am super happy with the Sonic Pad.

The future of the Sonic Pad? This is where the community gets involved and your skill base and Creality have moved on with other projects, yes there have been software updates but little else as 3D printing enthusiasts are posting various tweaks but to be honest that is a rabbit hole I’m not keen on going down.

Conclusion:

The Creality Sonic Pad is essential for owners of compatible FDM printers, offering significantly enhanced print speeds without compromising quality. Its straightforward setup and calibration process, along with the built-in accelerometer for fine-tuning input shaper and acceleration, make it a standout choice.

For users with multiple printers, the Sonic Pad proved to be a smart investment, supporting up to four printers or a combination of two printers and two cameras on a single pad. The integrated Web UI adds convenience, allowing real-time monitoring and adjustments—an advantage not found in standard Marlin firmware printers.

I give the Sonic Pad a solid 9 out of 10. New printers now come with WIFI and Bluetooth but for those of us who haven’t the money to update every 2 years or so the Sonic Pad offers impressive enhancements to my print speed and quality, easy setup and calibration, versatile support for multiple printers, and the added convenience of a Web UI for real-time management. The only potential drawbacks might be specific compatibility issues for non-Creality Printers.