ROKO SN04-N sensor. The above came with my Anet A8 Prusa i3 kit (actually

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ROKO SN04-N sensor.

The above came with my Anet A8 Prusa i3 kit (actually I paid an extra $15 for it) to enable auto-leveling. It’s a little blue sensor with a red LED.

You’re supposed to be able to plug it into the Z-axis sensor spot on the board. When I do so, and test it, the red LED doesn’t light up.

I suspect it’s because the board provides 5 volts through the Z-axis sensor socket, but the ROKO states 10-30 volts to operate. others have said that it CAN work with 5 volts, but not reliably.

I could easily route 12 volts to the sensor, but then I’m worried that the board might burn out if I don’t use something like a logic level converter. But that’s going to cost over $10 – so I’d rather buy a new sensor that’s compatible.

UNLESS… any of you have had success getting this sensor to work with your setup.

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This is a common issue. You do need greater than 10V to operate it, but also need a logic output of 5V. What we do is hook the power up to your 12V and then create a voltage divider using a 10K and 15K resistor to drop the logic voltage back down to 5V at the end. @Thomas_Sanladerer made an awesome video on this way back: https://youtu.be/EcGFLwj0pnA

Those resistors shouldn’t cost more than 50 cents.

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@Griffin_Paquette Thanks for the tip and the link. I’ve done a lot of electronic tinkering, so that part is fine… a little nervous about doing something wrong and screwing up the board. Will have to see if I can work up the courage. Thanks again!