So I recently got the somewhat common failure “touch_off_encoder Axis: Xerror:1” I did not find much help on the topic, but found many others had similar problems. So I restarted the machine, unhooked power, I reset settings, and did the G28K and came up with the same error. While replacing a $100 encoder is possible, it was not the solution here.
As it turns out, the inside of the arc-droid was quite dirty from all the cutting I’ve done. As a result, the steel shavings had made their way inside the unit. It appeared that the X-Axis Encoder, being only 5mm from the steel bottom plate, was quite close to that ferrous debris - whereas the Y-Axis encoder was elevated much higher. It turns out that the motor magnet attracted these steel shavings and since the encoder board was in between the motor magnet and the shavings, the steel shavings were intercepted by the encoder board. Now this circuit board is not conformal coated, yet the replacement encoder I purchased was. Either way, this ended up shorting out pins on the processor board on the encoder, and caused the fault.
I cleaned the shavings from the board with a mild nylon brush (Gentle!), protected it with some double sided tape (all I had), cleaned up the entire unit, reassembled, and blocked the lower portion from potential metallic ingress - and it was able to home the unit just fine.
