If you havin’ Z-homing issues, I feel bad for you, son…
I got 99 problems and a pin was one.
Sorry… it’s late and it was my brain firing.
Okay the real bit I wanted to drop here though for future travelers with z-homing issues. Normally it’s the build plate being misaligned or something sticking in the gap for the back z-tower. But I had a z-homing issue that was not anything completely obvious.
I’ve been running this printer for 1,654 hours as of this message and I’m coming up on 2 years ownership. This was a new one for me.
I thought there was some kind of obstruction at the top since the bed never bumped the nozzle… well I was right. But it actually turned out to be the silver sleeve around right vertical rail guide. I noticed that the one on the right was pushed up above the black plastic assembly that connect the bed to the right rails. The left side’s little silver tube was flush with the black assembly. I looked all the way down to the bottom trying to figure out what the hell could have taken it “out of battery” the way a slightly misaligned slide on a handgun will prevent it from firing.
Lo and behold, there is a recess in the base of the print volume to help accommodate the rail guides when you’re sending the bed all the way to the deck. I’m printing some spartan armor and I haven’t done anything large enough recently to warrant the full use of the volume. Turns out, I found a little pin from a costume build I did last back in December! It was PETG, so it laughed at the bed rail guide tube and was the source of it being pushed out of battery.
The solution: I painstakingly did the dance of using a needle nose to fish out the debris down there. Once clear, I sent the build plate all the way to the deck, one step at a time, via the on screen manual Z hops. You cannot hold the button here as the printer will be freaking out about “You haven’t homed Z, do it now?”… press the back arrow, then press OK to reselect the Z hop and sent it down a step again. Rinse and repeat the OK>DOWN>BACK steps as many times as it takes to firmly seat it on the deck. Then I took a flat head bit screw driver and gave it a firm couple taps with the heel of my palm, and it reset it back into place. Instant happy z-home afterwards.
Hope it helps someone! Pics attached for references, sorry I didn’t think to take one showing it out of battery, but just picture the silver tube protruding up further than what you see in the pic (flat head is touching this piece).
Happy printing!