Aion Comet issue: Please help a noobie out :D

[egisseur]

Hi all,

My thanks for reading this thread, I hope you will be able to help me out. As I'm new to the pedal building world perhaps I making a very silly and easy to fix mistake, so please forgive me if that's the case

I've finished only but one pedal and that works great. Unfortunately when finishing up the Comet (by Aion) I noticed there was no sound when the pedal is engaged. When in bypass I get my clean sound but when I engage it all sound is gone. The led works and when I'm reading the voltage I do seem to get a reading from the components.

I tried looking only for a finished example to see if there were any wrong components but I have not been able to find one.

An image of the current setup is added and Build documentation can be found here: https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/comet_documentation.pdf

As I said, I'm new to the whole thing so if there is anything I can do to check or troubleshoot feel free to point me in the right direction.

Thanks and I look forward to your reply!

[FSFX]

First thing to check is whether you have your jacks wired correctly and whether you just have your input and output reversed. We have all done that at some time.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Read through this post and reply with the requested info:

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=29816.0

[bartimaeus]

FSFX's suggestion is my first thought. if the jacks are backwards, the pedal will still work fine in bypass mode.

but without a photo of the other side of the board, it's hard to say.

you may have a short between two traces, you may have a cold solder joint (bad connection) on a pad, you might be shorting some components with the backs of the potentiometers. or you could have simply forgotten to solder one pad.

i see some solder joints are a bit weak even on this side, "PCB OUT" for example is only half covered.

[egisseur]

​Hi guys,

Thanks for the quick reply! Great to see that these forums are this active. I'm sure I'll be learning a lot hanging out here.

I also got a reply on another forum providing simular troubleshooting steps. When conducting the checks you mentioned I noticed some very tiny rogues wires from the 9v were hitting gnd... I cut them clean and it worked!

Thanks for the input on how to properly start a troubleshooting thread. I'll make sure to give all appropriate info next post.

Regards from the Netherlands!

[egisseur]

FSFX's suggestion is my first thought. if the jacks are backwards, the pedal will still work fine in bypass mode.

but without a photo of the other side of the board, it's hard to say.

you may have a short between two traces, you may have a cold solder joint (bad connection) on a pad, you might be shorting some components with the backs of the potentiometers. or you could have simply forgotten to solder one pad.

i see some solder joints are a bit weak even on this side, "PCB OUT" for example is only half covered.

Thanks for the feedback. I see your point, as it was only my 2nd pedal I'm sure my soldering need practice. Some might need a little thickning. For reference the backside.

I'm glad it was a quick fix.

[bartimaeus]

FSFX's suggestion is my first thought. if the jacks are backwards, the pedal will still work fine in bypass mode.

but without a photo of the other side of the board, it's hard to say.

you may have a short between two traces, you may have a cold solder joint (bad connection) on a pad, you might be shorting some components with the backs of the potentiometers. or you could have simply forgotten to solder one pad.

i see some solder joints are a bit weak even on this side, "PCB OUT" for example is only half covered.

Thanks for the feedback. I see your point, as it was only my 2nd pedal I'm sure my soldering need practice. Some might need a little thickning. For reference the backside.

I'm glad it was a quick fix.

glad you got it working so quick!

overall, i think you're using the right amount of solder already. you just need to make sure it forms a solid connection and covers the pad fully. to do that, you need to adjust the position of the iron when you're soldering to make sure the solder covers the full pad. best of luck!

[bluebunny]

Did no-one say "welcome" yet?  Welcome! 

Another tip: if you have the option to set the temperature on your iron, turn it up a notch.  It may sound counter-intuitive, because you quite-rightly might be concerned about damaging components.  But - with practice - it allows you to get in and out quickly when you make a joint, and the solder will flow more readily and make a good, reliable joint.  Have a practice with a spare piece of perfboard.

Here's to the next build.  And the next...  (Hotel California, and all that...   )

[egisseur]

Thanks for the welcome and the tip! 

I already noticed I preferred the iron on the hot side. I was however a bit sceptical putting it much higher then what I have now (using the MLS-48, 200 > 400 degrees). I run it on the first red indicator. I'll make sure to try it out next time!