So I’ve been getting this random homing issue where the Z homing sensor would seemingly stop working for no apparent reason. It would work when I manually checked the sensor using a steel straight ruler, I could see the red light go out on the sensor and the light would go from green to red on the F1 screen. But whenever I tried to jog or home it would not detect the little arm on the z slider.
After several hours of troubleshooting and research, and testing different positions of the little metal tab manually by unscrewing it and manipulating it by hand, I couldn’t figure it out. After a bit of time, it would always start working again for no apparent reason.
Then by accident today, I happened to have the z axis all the way up in the home position and the tab was in the sensor with red light on, and I reached across for something with my arm and I noticed the light went off. I pulled back and the light came back on. I did it again and once again the light went off. I figured out the shade from my arm was helping the tab on the z axis to trigger the sensor. I always assumed the sensor was some sort of metal inductive thing that detected the metal arm. Apparently it’s a light sensor though. In the afternoon, when the sun hits the front of my house, the sun must hit that sensor at just the right angle that the arm isn’t blocking the light or something. I closed the garage door and problem solved.
I’m going to design some sort of shade to 3d print that I can attach to that homing sensor bracket. Just wanted to share though in case it helps someone else.
