I have this Homing Alarm issue that I can’t get resolve, and figured after two years, thought it’s finally time to try and get some help for it. I use the little Aufero AL1 laser with the Ortur Rotary Chuck (YRC 1.0). The combo works fine (a nice little package), but I can’t seem to find a way to get rid of this homing error or the red light when I first turn on the laser.
Homing Settings: When I first setup the machine, I found a setup video that said to turn off Soft Limits ($20) and Homing Cycle ($22) in the Machine Settings panel. But then whenever I’d start the laser, the red light on the mobo would flash (I couldn’t use it with the light flashing). The only way I found I could get rid of the ‘flashing’ light was to do a reset ($RST-*). The light would stay solid red, but at least when it’s solid red I could continue using the machine. Then later I found other instructions that said to leave the Homing cycle enabled. That got rid of the flashing light (changed to solid red instead), but now the machine wants to home at startup and then gives the Alarm-9 message in the Console.
I also have Homing turned off in the AL1’s ‘Devices’ settings. But again disabling homing in the Machine settings triggers the ‘flashing’ red light again. I’ve never been able to use the AL1 with the rotary without the red light being on (I don’t get the red light at all when I use the laser without the rotary).
Anyone have any suggestions of how I can resolve this? I can work with it this way, but it just bugs me that I can’t figure out how to resolve it. Seems there ought to be a way.
jkwilborn: Yes I understand the rotary doesn’t have switches. That’s why I initially disable homing.
misken:
Yes, Auto home is DISABLED at start up (in the lasers ‘Devices’ settings. But as I stated, if I disable it in Machine Settings panel ($22) I get the blinking red light.
I don’t think I follow though when you say 'if you enable homing in the ‘FIRMWARE’…. By ‘firmware’, are you referring to the toggle in the MACHINE settings panel? Where else would I enable/disable it OUTSIDE OF Lightburn?
Question: Once the Rotary is ENABLED in LightBurn, why wouldn’t Lightburn automatically disable homing? Seems it’s asking for it (via the red blinking light) when I have it disable becasue when blinking I CAN’T use the laser, but I CAN use the laser when it’s enabled–just with the SOLID red light.
Based on Google AI: "For the Aufero AL1, a continuously lit red light on the motherboard indicates that one of the machine’s safety features has been triggered." But LightBurn won’t let me use the laser when I disable the homing (in the Machine settings).
Just thought if this… Maybe the SOLID RED light is just the way it should it. The red light is just INFORMING ME the safety feature (Homing) is disabled.
The rest of the Alarm-9 message states:
“ALARM:9
Homing fail. Could not find limit switch within search distance. Defined as 1.5 * max_travel on search and 5 * pulloff on locate phases.”
So maybe I’m trying to fix something that isn’t really broken?
This is because the Rotary has no Home switch and is capable of infinite (well within the limits of the software) travel capability. If the Rotary is connected, you must turn off Home enable. You must then turn off anything that tries to initiate the Home cycle on power up to eliminate the Alarm 9.
The Rotary uses the Yaxis, but can go well beyond the Yaxis travel limits set by software and hardware. To use the Rotary after powering up, Jog it to about half of your max Yaxis travel and use Current Position as the Start Here: choice. This effectively puts your Y-position in the middle of the workspace.
Don’t forget to switch everything back when you disconnect the Rotary.
Edit: This may be redundant info. It appears others type faster than I do!
Thanks MikeyH for the suggestions. I understand all that and positioning isn’t a problem. I can use the laser and rotary just fine (and I use current position). As I stated in my original post, It’s just the red light that I’m trying to get rid of.
Since the laser works fine with the steady red light, I’m now thinking it’s just more of an ‘informational’ alarm in this case rather than an actual error alarm. But was hoping someone with a similar setup might be able to clarify.
