Built an OrcaSlicer test build with native K2 support — LAN auto-discovery + live CFS filament sync. Looking for testers before upstream merge
Hey K2 owners — I've been working on getting proper native K2 support into upstream OrcaSlicer, building on top of imammedo's PR #13291 (which adds Creality Print as a host type). Two follow-up PRs are open and I've put a Windows test build on the workshop site so K2 owners can try it without compiling.
What this build adds on top of upstream Orca
- LAN auto-discovery — click Browse... when adding a Physical Printer (host type = Creality Print) and your K2 / K2 Plus / K2 Pro shows up in ~5 seconds. No more typing IPs. Uses DNS-SD because K-series firmware announces itself under a per-device unique service name that OrcaSlicer's normal Bonjour browser can't match.
- Live CFS filament-slot sync — click the AMS-sync icon and Orca queries the CFS over WebSocket, reads the slots (vendor, brand name, type, colour, RFID pressure-advance), and matches them to the correct brand-specific filament preset. No more "Generic PLA" placeholder when you've actually got Hyper PLA loaded.
- 191 K2 filament profiles imported from Creality Print v7.1.1 — brand-specific presets (eSun PLA+, Polymaker PolyTerra, Hyper PLA, etc.) for K2 / K2 Plus / K2 Pro show up in the filament dropdown straight away.
- Klipper web UI as the Device tab — instead of the empty Bambu-only panel, you get your installed Klipper web UI on port 4408 (Fluidd on stock K2, Mainsail if you've swapped it) embedded in the slicer: camera, console, gcode files, macros.
Download + test
Single Windows zip, portable, ~154 MB, no installer:
https://harktech.co.uk/tools/orca-k2/
Verify with Get-FileHash against the SHA256 on the page (or against the companion .sha256 file).
Quick test path:
- Extract anywhere, run orca-slicer.exe (Windows will SmartScreen-warn — More info, then Run anyway; it's an unsigned binary).
- First-run wizard: pick K2 / K2 Plus / K2 Pro.
- Menu, then Add Physical Printer, set Host Type = Creality Print, click Browse... next to the URL field. Discovery dialog opens with your K2 listed.
- Sidebar, then AMS-sync icon. CFS slots populate.
Known limitations
- Windows only for now. Linux build is on the to-do list.
- End-to-end tested on a K2 Combo (F021, fw v1.1.260206). K2 Plus / K2 Pro should work, but I don't have one to verify — feedback from those owners is what I'm most after.
- Wi-Fi client isolation on some routers (mesh systems especially) will block mDNS. If discovery finds nothing, that's the first thing to check.
- Test build, not for production. May have rough edges inherited from the base PR.
How to help
The whole point of this is to gather real-world test signal so the OrcaSlicer maintainers can merge it with confidence. If you try it, please drop a one-liner on the relevant PR — "works on my K2 Plus" / "CFS sync missed my third slot, here's a screenshot" / etc:
- CFS filament sync — https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/pull/13744
- LAN discovery — https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/pull/13752
- The CrealityPrint host (the base everything stacks on) — https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/pull/13291
Source
AGPL-3.0, full diff on my fork: https://github.com/grant0013/OrcaSlicer/tree/harktech/k2-discovery
If you'd rather build from source than trust a binary off a small site, that's the branch — two commits, both reviewable.
Happy to answer questions in the thread.