Preliminary exploration of a retired Geeetech A10 has gone well so far, enough that I felt confident discarding the control panel I did not intend to use. Before I tossed the control panel in a box, I verified each of the motors could move via jogging commands. But before I can toss more complex commands at the machine, I need a way to reset the machine to a known state. In machine tools this is called a "homing" operation, and this 3D printer do so via the G28 Auto Home command to set each axis to their end stop switches.

Problem: While the X and Y axis still had their respective end stop switches, this machine is missing the Z-axis switch and I wanted to whip up a quick hack to test the machine capabilities. If it works, I'll revisit the problem and spend more time on a proper one. If it doesn't work, at least I haven't wasted a lot of time and effort.

The existing X-axis end stop was buried inside the mechanism, but the Y-axis end stop is visible. I was surprised to see a circuit board with several surface mount components on board. Unlike most of my other 3D printers, the end stop mechanism isn't just a pair of wires hooked up to a single switch, there are actually three wires.

Geeetech A10 Y endstop

I removed the Y-axis switch to probe the circuit and search online. It appears to be close but not quite identical to the RepRap design, and had a few additions like a LED and its associated current-limiting resistor. The LED is a nice indicator of switch toggling status, but it is not strictly necessary. This end stop boiled down to a switch that directly connects the normally open leg to common, and a resistor between the normally closed leg and common.

Once understood, I grabbed a micro switch waiting in my parts bin (*) and created a free form wire soldering job for the test attached with double sided foam tape. (Picture up top.) The foam tape did not hold position well enough, so additional structure support was added in the form of blue painter's tape.

Geeetech A10 Z endstop hack with tape

Hacks upon hacks, it's hacks all the way down.

But it was good enough for G28 Auto Home to succeed, which opened the door for more tests to verify this 3D printer chassis could still execute motion control commands coordinated across all three dimensions. Once I was satisfied it is working well enough for further tinkering, I revisited the power hack to make it more reliable.

(*) Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.