I’ve been printing pretty successfully with an Ender 3 V2 with a CR Touch Auto Leveling Sensor for several years now. However, today when I went to level the bed, I found that auto leveling absolutely would not complete. The probe appears to get “stuck” at around the third test node. The head finishes on one node, moves up the z axis, moves to the next node and then just… sits there. The LED in the sensor starts flashing red, and the GUI states that leveling is complete. I’ve tried it over and over, but it keeps failing very early in the leveling process. Sometimes, the probe will kick out briefly midair, but there will be no z-axis movement.
At first, I thought this must be a hardware issue and maybe the motor that moves the probe in and out had failed, but I ran a probe test from the menu and it functioned perfectly.
I’ve tried doing a quick manual level of the bed to make sure nothing was way off. I’ve tried unplugging the sensor (at the sensor, not at the board). I’ve tried turning it off and on. I’ve tried adjusting z-offset.
Does anyone have any idea what’s going on? I have no clue where to go from here beyond throwing the whole printer out and starting over, but that seems like a bad solution.
There’s a short video showing the issue at this link:
I just started having the same problem as of last night. A print completed, tried to proceed to the next part, and the leveling process wouldn’t complete at the beginning of the print. Checked all the wires nothing seems out of the ordinary, Z access will not go down in the menu, only upwards…however the first time I tried the auto leveling process, it DID go down so that rules out a wiring or motor issue. The only thing I can think of as you are saying is the touch sensor…starts to do the leveling process, but the light just flashes red and it gives up, the Z access doesn’t go down any farther and the little prong doesn’t extend… Looking for a solution as well as I’d like to complete the project I’m working on. Very frustrating. Have reached out to support as well to see if they have any ideas. Creality Ender 3 Neo V2 My extruder looks slightly different than yours, but the touch sensor looks the same.
I have been experiencing a similar problem with my ender-3 s1 pro. Creality support have suggested i unplug and plug back in the CR touch connecting cables. Not hopeful but will try.
Had the same issue a while back, turns out the device is really sensitive to printing with inserted magnets, and around the same time I was printing a bunch of items with some seriously strong magnets. These would then pull the tip out, down into the print crashing and slightly bending the tip. I was super careful to avoid crashing it normally, but was unaware how magnetic the tips were.
End result, I tried everything I could find, but it was bent and even a hair off center is enough to ruin the device. Had to replace it and be extra careful to tape it up so it won’t pop down mid print when using magnets, which is about every 3rd print these days.
Replace it and move on. If you’re looking for something with replaceable parts, only option I know of is the BLTouch which has replaceable plastic heads.
OK so I did a little more fiddling with the printer tonight, checked the wiring again, still seemed ok, but with the printer on, I very carefully grabbed the touch sensor with tweezers, and pulled the probe down and back up a few times manually…the light changed from red to blue. I did this a few more times, and ran the leveling process and it started working again! I’m not sure if this will be a permanent fix but for anyone else, this may be worth a try, just be very careful not to force the sensor or bend it when doing this. Printer is currently printing right now, so crossing fingers it was just something stuck in there.