Aion Titan - Very low output

[oldgoat]

All

My first post so please bear with me. I am working on my first non-kit build, Aeon Titan. I get sound but its at a very low volume, in order to get any distortion the volume and drive have to be all the way up. Clipping switch doesn't work, tone pot barely works.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated. Here are details:

1.Titan Dynamic Drive - Aion Fx
2.https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/titan_documentation.pdf
3.Followed layout and parts exactly.
4.No modifications or changes.
5.Negative ground circuit
6.Everything is at a low volume. Volume and Gain need to be all the way up to get any distortion. With the Volume at noon the pedal is essentially quiet, with no sound. Gain is very harsh sounding. Tone pot has hardly any effect. Clipping switch has no effect on sound. HP/LP switch work but barely. LED lights up and pedal powers up with either battery or power supply.

Battery: 8.91 v
Voltage at the circuit board end of the red battery lead = 8.75
Voltage at the circuit board end of the black battery lead = 0

Q1
D = 4.033
G = 4.033
S = 4.047

Q2
D = 4.044
G = 4.042
S = 4.045

IC1A
P1 = 4.044
P2 = 4.044
P3 = 4.036
P4 = 0

IC1B
P5 = 4.035
P6 = 4.047
P7 = 4.047
P8 = 8.07

D1
A = 8.71
K = 8.50

D2
A = 4.018
K = 4.035

D3
A = 4.034
K = 4.033

D4
A = 4.029
K = 4.025

D5
A = 4.025
K = 4.023

Not sure if this is relevant and/or helps, but I also tested the pots. Gain had 4.034 across all three pins. Volume and tone was 0.0




Thanks to everyone in advance!

Oldgoat

[aion]

There are a few suspicious solder joints. The square pad of the top germanium diode, right below the far-right pad of Tone, seems to have a stray bit of solder that could be shorting it to ground. The input wire looks a bit sketchy as well where it meets the main board. And possibly the top pad of the resistor to the right of the HP/LP switch.

I would make 100% sure those pads are not shorting against anything, potentially reflowing the solder, and then check the bottom of the board very carefully for more of the same. If the top side has three potentially sketchy spots then I would say chances are high it's a soldering issue as opposed to a component or wiring issue, though it may be somewhere other than those three spots.

[idy]

Welcome to the forum, Goat.

Aion is right, cleaning up soldering might do it.

The voltages on the diodes and Qs are not important, those are all just clippers. We can argue about the way the MOSFETs and their neighbor diodes are configured, but none of that matters now..

The voltages on the IC are picture perfect. Thanks for posting those.

The voltage on the gain is right, it is between two Opamp pins with that mid-voltage. The other two pots are "after" caps that block DC, so 0 is good.

But your sound is getting lost. If re-touching the solder doesn't do it, you might make a signal probe (instrument cable with alligator lip to ground and cap to hot at one end.) Does the sound reach pin 3 of the IC and come out louder at pin 1? does it sound clipped after hitting the diodes and reaching pin 5? Does it get louder again at pin 7?

People here love pictures. Not so much of the family or Ms Goat, but of the insides of the pedal, pcb both sides. It's what gets many of us up in the morning, another tangle of wires and botched soldering to gloat over. Sherlock Holmes and the Hum of the Baskervilles.

[oldgoat]

There are a few suspicious solder joints. The square pad of the top germanium diode, right below the far-right pad of Tone, seems to have a stray bit of solder that could be shorting it to ground. The input wire looks a bit sketchy as well where it meets the main board. And possibly the top pad of the resistor to the right of the HP/LP switch.

I would make 100% sure those pads are not shorting against anything, potentially reflowing the solder, and then check the bottom of the board very carefully for more of the same. If the top side has three potentially sketchy spots then I would say chances are high it's a soldering issue as opposed to a component or wiring issue, though it may be somewhere other than those three spots.

Aion - Thank you for the input. I re-soldered the input wire, reflowed both the square pad on the germanium diode and the resistor (R8). Still having low volume from the pedal. I also went over the bottom of the board and did not see any shorts. But would you recommend that I reflow everything?





Thanks again!

[oldgoat]

Welcome to the forum, Goat.

Aion is right, cleaning up soldering might do it.

The voltages on the diodes and Qs are not important, those are all just clippers. We can argue about the way the MOSFETs and their neighbor diodes are configured, but none of that matters now..

The voltages on the IC are picture perfect. Thanks for posting those.

The voltage on the gain is right, it is between two Opamp pins with that mid-voltage. The other two pots are "after" caps that block DC, so 0 is good.

But your sound is getting lost. If re-touching the solder doesn't do it, you might make a signal probe (instrument cable with alligator lip to ground and cap to hot at one end.) Does the sound reach pin 3 of the IC and come out louder at pin 1? does it sound clipped after hitting the diodes and reaching pin 5? Does it get louder again at pin 7?

People here love pictures. Not so much of the family or Ms Goat, but of the insides of the pedal, pcb both sides. It's what gets many of us up in the morning, another tangle of wires and botched soldering to gloat over. Sherlock Holmes and the Hum of the Baskervilles.

idy

Thank you for your suggestions and explanations. I did reflow and resolder the problems that Aion pointed out, and went over the front and back of the board looking for other problem areas, but still having the low output issue. My parts for the signal should arrive tomorrow so will give that a go. Attached pictures of the back and front of the board.

Thanks again!

[ToneRangerAudio]

I would also double check your resistor values and make sure you didn't accidentally throw something with large resistance in the signal path like a 1M-2M2, which is usually a pull down resistor. That can definitely affect the volume. I'd also try replacing the IC and volume pot. Usually if the IC is dead you won't get anything, but there's always a small chance that's the culprit. I haven't looked at the schematic for this circuit, but I'm assuming the volume pot is right before the output stage, so try replacing that as well. Overheating pots is definitely a thing and can cause problems if you're not careful.

Let me know if any of this helps!

[ElectricDruid]

Don't start trying to replace the volume pot without having done some audio-probing first. Getting pots out of a PCB with plated through-holes is not easy and not something you want to do "just in case".

We can test whether the volume pot is the problem by audio-probing the "max" end of it and the wiper. If you've got full volume at the max end and nothing at the wiper even when it's turned up, then the pot is faulty. But in this case, I would be very surprised if everything else is working and you have good signal as far through the circuit as that.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Build doc lists R2 as 470K. Looks like you put a 10K in there.....

[duck_arse]

People here love pictures. It's what gets many of us up in the morning, another tangle of wires and botched soldering to gloat over. Sherlock Holmes and the Hum of the Baskervilles.

also welcome. we desperatly need to see photos of your in out jacks wired. a miswired jack often produces the low volume symptoms. do you say you have good bypass sound? also, we want to see the parts on that little breakout board, please.

[aion]

Build doc lists R2 as 470K. Looks like you put a 10K in there.....

Yeah, that definitely has something to do with it. It doesn't look quite like a 10k, maybe 11k (brown-brown-black-red if reading from the left) but could also be a 1.2k if read right-to-left. Definitely not 470k or anywhere close, though. At 11k it will cut the input signal by 50% right off the bat, and at 1.2k it would cut roughly 90%.

[oldgoat]

Build doc lists R2 as 470K. Looks like you put a 10K in there.....

Yeah, that definitely has something to do with it. It doesn't look quite like a 10k, maybe 11k (brown-brown-black-red if reading from the left) but could also be a 1.2k if read right-to-left. Definitely not 470k or anywhere close, though. At 11k it will cut the input signal by 50% right off the bat, and at 1.2k it would cut roughly 90%.

Thank you both! Yes that's definitely the wrong value, have a 470K on order. With the wrong resistor in R2, its probably best I go and verify the values on the others.

Welcome to the forum, Goat.

Aion is right, cleaning up soldering might do it.

The voltages on the diodes and Qs are not important, those are all just clippers. We can argue about the way the MOSFETs and their neighbor diodes are configured, but none of that matters now..

The voltages on the IC are picture perfect. Thanks for posting those.

The voltage on the gain is right, it is between two Opamp pins with that mid-voltage. The other two pots are "after" caps that block DC, so 0 is good.

But your sound is getting lost. If re-touching the solder doesn't do it, you might make a signal probe (instrument cable with alligator lip to ground and cap to hot at one end.) Does the sound reach pin 3 of the IC and come out louder at pin 1? does it sound clipped after hitting the diodes and reaching pin 5? Does it get louder again at pin 7?

Great recommendation on the signal probe. Put one together so will give it a go today and see what I can find out.

Thank you to everyone for the sharp eyes and all knowledge! Will post back after the above is done