Creality K2 Combo – Intermittent Auto Bed Leveling / Strain Gauge Issue

Flagship K Series Creality Flagship K2 Pro & K2
1

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing an intermittent issue with my Creality K2 Combo and wanted to check if others have seen the same behavior.

Issue:

When starting a print, the toolhead moves near the poop chute and stays there, and Auto Bed Leveling does not start. In some cases, a “Foreign Object Detection” message appears, and sometimes the Cancel button becomes unresponsive, requiring a power cycle.

Behavior:

Happens mainly at print start / ABL

Issue is intermittent (sometimes works perfectly, sometimes fails)

Often occurs when the toolhead is near the poop chute position

Reseating connectors at the back of the toolhead can temporarily fix the issue

After reseating, self-test and ABL may pass, but the problem can return later

What I’ve tried:

Replaced the strain gauge sensor (improved behavior initially)

Factory reset and followed Creality Wiki troubleshooting

Verified nozzle cleanliness and no bed obstruction

Checked toolhead PCB visually (no visible damage)

Unplugged/replugged strain gauge connector

Allowed proper warm-up time before printing

Despite this, the issue still returns occasionally.

Current suspicion:

This looks like signal instability in the strain gauge circuit, most likely due to:

A loose or marginal connector

Or a toolhead cable / harness issue, especially since cable movement near the poop chute seems to trigger it

I’ve already opened a case with Creality Support and it’s under engineering review. I’ve also ordered a replacement toolhead cable and will only consider PCB replacement if the cable doesn’t fully solve it.

Questions:

Has anyone else faced this on the K2?

Did a toolhead cable replacement permanently fix it?

Any confirmed connector retention issues on the toolhead PCB?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

2

This is a very reasonable question, and the confusion is understandable.

Although OrcaSlicer does support Creality printers, it is not functionally equivalent to Creality Print, even though Creality Print is based on Orca. Creality Print is a Creality-specific fork that adds proprietary hooks into the printer firmware and ecosystem that do not exist in upstream Orca.

What you are seeing with the extra dialog in Creality Print (CFS slot selection, print calibration, etc.) is not a slicer setting. That dialog is Creality Print triggering Creality’s own pre-print routines at send time. Those routines include automatic bed leveling and calibration, and they are invoked outside of the sliced G-code itself.

When you send a job from OrcaSlicer, that Creality-specific send-time layer is not present. The printer therefore runs only what is explicitly defined in the start G-code. That is why auto bed leveling does not occur, even when the sliced G-code appears identical.

In short:

  • Creality Print automatically enables firmware-level routines at print start.
  • OrcaSlicer does not have access to those proprietary controls.
  • Identical G-code does not guarantee identical printer behavior.

If you want the same behavior in OrcaSlicer, you must explicitly add the appropriate bed leveling command to the start G-code. If you prefer not to modify start G-code, Creality Print is the better tool for initiating calibration routines.

Also note that bed leveling is not required before every print. The printer stores the measured bed mesh and typically only needs re-leveling after meaningful changes, such as a build plate swap, nozzle change, or power cycle.

Nothing is wrong with OrcaSlicer. You are simply bypassing Creality’s additional control layer when you use it.

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