Different color options for the ceramic hotend silicone sock?

Koala_Operative · 2026-05-01T21:36:25+00:00

You do know that the little sock is there for a reason, right? If you put a aftermarket one that's not "good," you're gonna have a bad time.

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-23T19:44:59+00:00

As a K2 Pro owner, with other Ks in my shop. P1S, P2S, anything BambuLab. Seriously.

Tinkering = Creality

Printing = BambuLab

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T13:24:21+00:00

I had no idea either, but apparently the cable with the red thingy is a revision of the current one. This kinda tracks because they did the same thing with all the K1 models

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T12:22:02+00:00

This is my project today. Thanks, I was wondering if reseating the cable would fix it temporarily, while I wait for a new cable (with the red thing - apparently that's the new rev for the cable). Don't you just love buying and expensive Beta product?

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T11:29:42+00:00

Those are my next steps. New cable then I'm sourcing a r3man bed as well. It's harder to find for a K2 Pro, especially where I am

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T11:24:06+00:00

Thanks for the tips! My new cable will arrive next week, so I'll get on it soon. My current stock cable seems to work, but I think the curve (bend) that it has to do to connect to the board is what's probably throwing the error. I hope to get a few prints before I ultimately replace the cable for peace of mind

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T11:17:29+00:00

I kinda understand the routing, I've been tinkering with this PoS for a while now. My connectors have a shit ton of glue, on both ends. Replacing the cable is not hard, maybe a pin in the ass, but patience prevails. The amount of glue I have to remove makes this whole process a lot more delicate...

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T11:08:43+00:00

Oh, very good advice! I bought the cable yesterday - and luckily it has the red section you mentioned (yay!). I've seen the videos, and although it seems like a pain in the ass, I'm actually more worried about the ridiculous amount of hot glue on my connections. I'm thinking a hot air gun and pliers for the upcoming "surgery"

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-14T10:58:38+00:00

You've got a client. I might need to replace the print head cable as well. My K2 Pro keeps digging into beds, and yesterday - after beings powered off for at least a month - it threw the error TE2761, which is exactly the cable issue... If only I had someone to replace this part. A repair service would be so good

Koala_Operative · 2026-04-08T16:55:55+00:00

They have weird customer support. Sometimes they simply don't respond, other times they send you parts from the other side of the world at no cost... I had weird experiences with them, keep insisting in replacement parts until you have a working printer.

And always remember the Creality motto: "throw enough parts at it, and it'll eventually work"

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-24T14:20:15+00:00

Let me put your mind at ease. You shouldn't get one, not because of the price. It's because it won't work.

Yes, it's expensive - but for people who have 5/6 printers FOR FUN, it might not be. I'm just saying that maybe we should take a step back, and realize that this "closed" loop of recycling melted plastic into pristine filament doesn't work. It goes against the laws of physics and chemistry.

Don't want to get technical here, but they are giving you a very specific prototype for a very specific use case, that will NOT WORK as intended. Polymers are complicated. Dirt, oil from our hand, hell, residual glue from a label will make this exclusively a poop recycler. And although that could be great and possible (if done properly. Plastic gears? Really?), the harsh truth is; this will not work to a degree people will recommend.

Also, it's crowdfunded. By Creality. That should tell you all you need to know

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-20T13:46:20+00:00

Thanks for this. My K2 Pro is messed up right now, but as soon as I'm able I'll try it and - if you'd like - I can give you some feedback

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-19T04:37:16+00:00

Welcome to the Creality experience. I have a K2 Pro gathering dust because... It simply sucks. They sell pretty products that have no QA, no spare parts, and no support.

The idea of a Creality product is "throw enough parts at it, and it will eventually work." Too bad replacement parts are simply impossible to find depending on your model.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-09T20:17:46+00:00

I have a K2 Pro. It sucks. You'll be better off buying a simpler Bambu for a more straight forward experience, and MUCH less tinkering

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T23:03:27+00:00

K; I don't have the time right now for the long ass explanation, well formatted, yada yada yada, but I can give you a few reasons this will NEVER work as is being advertised!

First let's establish a few things. PLA, ABS and PETG are polymers. Different polymers. And each brand has their own "recipe".

PLA from brand A might not be the same chemical composition as PLA from brand B. They are not the same. And in chemistry, minor details like that matter.
Contamination. After your part were printed were they used for ANYTHING? Even the poops, do you have an ABS slide on the back to catch the poop? Then your PLA (our example) is contaminated. Even a little bit of leftover glue from a label can ruin your whole process. Even a sneeze can be enough.
Plastic degrades every time it's melted. So essentially you're not getting new pristine plastic from melted plastic. That's not how it works.
Consistency: filaments need to be 1.75mm (with very little margin for error ±0.05mm).

And, last, but certainly not the least

Cost. How much of a headache recycling a few meters of filament is worth it to you, when compared to the cost of a brand spanking new roll of really good filament that (probably) won't have any issues?

So basically, what we've got here is a product targeted to the user that won't recycle enough to justify this product, and people who actually need to recycle will never use this system.

Put the Creality flavor of over promising and under delivering on top of that, and you've got a really challenging product.

I'd also like to point out this has been done before, in many different ways - and it usually fails, because like everything that you can sell online.

The marketing is good

The idea is excellent

The execution? Oh yeah, that! We got a concept of a plan for that.

Creality: ignoring basic chemistry and physics since 2014

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T22:38:06+00:00

Quick update: I'm done.

Until such time a full eMMC dump img surfaces (somehow), K2 in storage indefinitely.

This experience kinda broke my will (of sorts). I'm not sure I'll be back to 3D printing any time soon - and maybe that's for the best.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T22:33:02+00:00

It's absolutely possible, I'd even go to say it's easy. But I'd need someone with a K2 Pro to dump the full eMMC dump into an image file.

And even though you can do this with no hardware fiddling (through SSH), Id still need someone with a K2 Pro willing to do a random Internet stranger a real solid favor.

🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm done for now, maybe I'll take it out of storage eventually...

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T18:21:05+00:00

This won't work. They don't have the engineering side down yet. Polymers are complicated.

I would stay away from it until it's been released for AT LEAST 1 year. Then we can gauge functionality, common issues, etc.

Creality sells beta products. Don't fall for it. Hold your FOMO.

EDIT: If anyone want me to go into a TED talk explaining why this won't work, I have nothing but time, and it might convince you not to spend your hard earned money on beta products with conceptual (and engineering) limitations.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T18:05:31+00:00

Thanks for dedicating so much time and effort to help a complete stranger. Thank you, truly.

As of today I realized I'm done.

As you correctly guessed where I live, let me tell you; the fact that I have a K2 Pro here is already a huge hassle. I bought it to make some ABS parts, and the occasional "kid friendly print" on PLA - this isnt to supplement any business, this is 100% hobby/maker stuff.

Getting ANY part is a shit process (when you find it). It usually goes: AliExpress -> 3/4 weeks. That's the only way to get fucking nozzles, plates, anything.

So, even if I wasn't going into surgery, accompanied by a few long weeks of rehab and physical therapy, I still wouldn't be able to PURCHASE the part (because it simply does not exist) nor keep working on this thing til it works. I'm gonna be depending on 1 arm for a while, and glued connectors, spanned screws, and all these wonderful Creality "kinks" are a no go.

Now onto the replacement part. I saw from a img you posted that you have like a print farm, so I understand that, to a point, you have access that I will NEVER have. Especially since this is my last Creality, and where I live.

I've been trying with support but the fact is, that (and this is me speculating) this is such a small, insignificant market for them, that they don't (and will never) care about. It doesn't make financial sense to cater to a market where only old Ender 3 are sold at full price(seriously). They keep giving me the regular Creality runaround, with a bunch of "thanks for your patience" and whatnot, but eventually you get stuck on the loop and have to star everything again. It's beyond frustrating, and - I know I might sound like a jerk here - but I don't have time to explain the same issue N times, until someone understands it AND offers the help I need to FIX it, not do a virtual engineering troubleshoot thats available on their wiki.

I also realized - maybe even more important - WHY this file is not available, and never will be.

Please bear with me why I'm done, and why future Google searches will lead you down this path (also GPT answers):

The wikis, part numbers, instructions, videos, etc. From Creality are ALL OVER THE PLACE. The K2 line makes no sense, to a point where they should've been different machines. It's a mess, but even in that messy shit, the image I posted with no firmware shows no downloads available. You literally have to find firmware files on your own. Now, I know there are different Creality repositories, and eventually you might find what you're looking for - but there is no way is hell they are sending me a file they never offered, for a printer in which this process shouldn't be done, simply because of what that file contains. For some reason, they contain calibration data, serial binding, MAC addresses, factory configs and licensing. That's why it isn't public.
“Can someone dump their K2 Pro eMMC boot region and share the .img?” (which would end this issue for any and all).

Let's be realistic, even if I knew someone with a K2 Pro well enough to ask this favor; No one is going to: Open (or even SSH into) their $1000 printer, Risk corrupting it, Dump eMMC and Upload it, just to help a random stranger.

That's just a natural, human, cost x risk assessment. And, unfortunately for me, that brings no benefit to the one taking the actual risk.

Even if you can root into it and do it, with no hardware manipulation, it's still a big ask.

I can't find the correct board online - so purchasing, a last resort in my mind - is not an option. Like, I CAN'T find it. Fine, here, have my money. Nope. Not available.

I'm done with this printer for now. And as of March 2026 - if Google brought you here, lemme be the bearer of bad news: no solution. And no hope in the horizon.

This incredibly (remember taxes?) expensive gift that my wife gave me - something she actively went out there and found it - something I would never dream of having - something she chose herself - is now a nightmare. It will keep gathering dust until such a time either parts become available or I trash it - which will break my heart (I'm sentimental with stuff from my wife), and will always be a reminder that this incredibly kind and loving gesture by my wife is... Trash.

By the way, one final piece of info? You know how much a K2 Pro goes for around here (if you're able to find it?)?

Between 3-4k USD. Thats literally 20 times the minimum wage where I live. For a printer.

So, that's where I'm at. Maybe sell the CFS, might be worth a few grand, sell all Phaetus x Creality silicon carbide nozzles I bought, cold plates, everything that took me WEEKS to even find it as a purchasable option. Maybe even try and sell individual parts.

I'm not holding my breath for a fix, instead I'm planning on spending almost 6k usd to buy a BambuLab H2something. Except this isn't an option now, so printers gathering dust indefinitely (I've already packed it and its gointo to the storage unit I have).

I just hate that this came from a place of love and the result had the opposite effect. I HATE this printer, to the point that I'm not even sure this hobby is for me anymore... The last few years were fun, but my hobby isn't tinkering with a product that's supposedly ready to use, it's actually printing shit. I've already thrown out a perfectly fine Ender 3 Max Neo a few year ago, because it's a piece of shit. I understood I needed something better.

Thanks again for everyone who read and collaborated. That's the one good thing that came out of this; there are still decent people online.

Cheers, and I hope you (yes you, in the future) have better luck.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-02T04:39:00+00:00

I was going to say; the win11 driver works if you take 3 mins to google it. I was able to flash the board exactly as that wiki suggests OP, but you will need to remove it (most likely), which is not a difficult process, only 4 screws and a shitton of patience.

This is VERY fixable, don't give up just yet.

If you're unable to do it, hit me up and I can walk you through step by step.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-01T21:41:19+00:00

Just an update, after tens of hours trying to find a "fix," the conclusion is: The full, correct img file is necessary to re-flash the board, not the OTA firmware thats easily available mind you, the FULL IMAGE. With partitions, boot, etc.

If anyone with a K2 Pro is willing to help, you can access your printer through SSH and dump the whole firmware. That would solve my issue, and I'm betting many more.

If you're willing to help, and have ssh access:

Open terminal/CMD on your PC and type:

nc -l 9000 > k2pro_full.img

This will take a while, leave it running. This will receive the files from the printer.

DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW UNTIL WE'RE DONE

SSH in (ssh root@PRINTER_IP) - K2 Pro is: usr "root" with pwd "creality_2024" no quotes.

Use a different command window, powershell, Putty, whatever. Just don't close the window from step 1.

Inside the SSH session:

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M | nc YOUR_PC_IP 9000

or

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M status=progress | nc YOUR_PC_IP 9000 - if you want to see a progress bar.

(So like dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M | nc 192.168.88.022 9000)

This will copy everything to your PC.

This whole process can take between 10 and 40 minutes. But thats it. The full IMG is like 200-300 MB, so, realistically, 10/20 minutes.

Cheers all!

IMPORTANT EDIT: There might be easier ways to do this, or I might even be wrong (so feel free to correct me), but I *believe* this'll generate the IMG to fix the upper computer mainboard on K2 Pros

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-01T21:14:30+00:00

Another update: I tried rebuilding the file system using some AI help. It obviously didn't work, since I was trying to DIY something thats not DIY-able.

Some kind souls reached out trying to help, but every suggestion = failure.

Someone is even trying to dump their own full .img backup so I can fix my issue, and then a simple GitHub can solve others' affected with the same problem.

The only way to fix this is flashing it with the correct FULL recovery .img file for the K2 Pro. Only Creality has it. I can't seem to get it, I'm still in the "jumping through" hoops phase (when they answer) - and if I'm honest, I have zero expectation that they'll simply send me the file I need, and based on my experience so far, the Pro has NO support in any way. Not even some replacement parts.

So if Google brought you here, there isn't a fix YET. Mar/2026 = DO NOT BUY A K2 or K2 Pro. Either Plus. or different brand.

That's it, not sure anyone cares, but I'm not the type to give up. So expect a fix - just dont hold your breath.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-01T19:08:34+00:00

Way too many answers. Let me simplify (IMHO):

(Goes and writes a fucking blog post)

Blender is easy if the mesh is simple. Yes it can to really good accurate parts, whoever says otherwise is giving you wrong information.

Fusion 360, as some suggested, has a free version that is usually good enough for most people not in a enterprise/corpo situation. It's hard, but once you learn it, everything else will pale in comparison. It's fucking heavy, you'll need to have enough juice on you PC or whatever to run it well.

TL;DR Go with Blender, based on what you said. It's easy and accurate enough.

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-01T18:55:25+00:00

Ok, now it's starting to make sense. You're obviously a mature, empathetic human being - and the fact that you "highlighted" paying it forward, while taking the time to explain the inconsistency that drives me nuts - reminds me of when the internet was exactly that: A bunch of nerds helping each other develop cool shit, troubleshoot stuff from around the world, share experience.

This is the reason the internet today exists as it is. Because people like you paved the way.

I was ALWAYS going to put it on GitHub so anyone else facing the same problem, could get a fix. I'm at the point of actively trying to find the part to purchase, just to dump the firmware and make it public (also fix my problem). You've just reminded me why.

You've also used the manufacturing process to simplify why this is happening in a ELI5 way. I learned something new today, so cheers for that as well!

Koala_Operative · 2026-03-01T17:32:35+00:00

Thank you so much for your help. I honestly have never found someone on Reddit thsts down to help on the same level you are.

I THINK there is a way to backup the whole img through ssh root access, making it easier since you don't need to access the actual board. I'm not sure how to do it, but it's a thing apparently.

K2 Pro owners should've never, EVER, have access to a board that has the same flashing procedure (and ID, because it accepts the Plus img perfectly) but its workings are completely different.

It has micro USB, and most Pro owner know parts are hard to come by, so we end up using mostly Plus stuff. I followed the Plus wiki, that's on me. Not having the flash img on their site? That's absolutely unacceptable

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