Solid Purchase for Intermediate/Advanced Users
For CANable USB to CAN Bus Adapter
Here's my review, followed with some feedback for possible improvements:
HARDWARE: The fit and finish for the assembled board is quite excellent. The silkscreen is reserved for labels that the user needs to know (pinouts, the function of LEDs, etc.) and doesn't show the part designators, which is kind of a nice touch. The solder joints all look textbook (correct amount of solder, good reflow settings, etc.). The micro USB connector also wisely has two tabs that go into the board for mechanical strength and looks like it will be fairly robust.
SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE: I wasn't able to get the stock CANable firmware to work with can-utils on my setup (xubuntu in a virtual machine) despite following the instructions. However, the candleLight firmware worked instantly and it was very simple to flash it following the instructions on the CANable website: https://canable.io/getting-started.html#alt-firmware
FEEDBACK ON POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS:
SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE: 1) Documented API/drivers for Windows, 2) Windows compatible Python library, 3) support for Busmaster. These would really push this up to be my hands-down go-to CAN-USB adapter. I'm fine with running linux in a VM for myself, but I have a need for a CAN-USB adapter that customers can use to configure devices themselves with a GUI and update device firmware via a CAN bootloader without having to use linux or spend hundreds of dollars on a CAN adapter.
HARDWARE: The only hardware suggestions I have is 1) to include labels for the jumper pins on the bottom side of the board as well as the top that includes some sort of boxing to indicate which jumper position does what (this understandably may be difficult to do given the small size of the board), and 2) mounting hole features like the isolated version has would be nice to have, although it's understandable that they're not included to maximize the number you can get out of the panel.
