Aion Comet has no sound

mth5044 · January 31, 2016, 12:58:44 AM

I think C8 is just camouflaged in with the board? This may be stupid, but I know aion only mentioned Q1 and 2, but did you also include Q3. If you're saying your voltages look good, then it may be time for a audio probe.

Also, is C11 a polarized cap? In your pictures it looked to be tantalum, which have directionality and need to be installed the right way.

aion · January 31, 2016, 08:27:40 AM

Right, Q3 as well. I added it to the docs but didn't mention it here, so just want to make sure that is abundantly clear!

Linac Guy · January 31, 2016, 09:11:07 AM

Thanks for noticing that Q3 was missing just soldered it in. Can I just flip C11? Or should I put the WIMA box cap that in yesterday's mail in?
Since I'm going to have to remove it from the enclosure I will clean it up and replace some of the green wire with other colors.

thanks everyone! What a great group!! I will take better pics with my camera this time and not my phone.

Linac Guy · January 31, 2016, 07:33:55 PM

Hi All,

Ok, I removed the tant cap and replaced it with a WIMA box cap and I also changed several of the wires to something else but green

I have posted 2 new pictures at this link http://imgur.com/a/u019t

so, I plugged it in and I get some sound and then press the foot switch and get a lot of sound, But.. the LED isn't working any more so I don't know if its on or off. Also the Vol, Tone & Dist knobs have no effect when I turn them. Since "NO" LED came on I tried it then pressed the foot switch and tried them again.

I re-measured the voltages and they are the same as last time and the case is still grounded YEAH!!
measured across the LED leads (with pwr supply in) getting 9.3v Is that ok?

Not sure where to go from here, Ya'll have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank You for your patience with this is, it is AWESOME!!
.

jez79 · January 31, 2016, 09:29:15 PM

What about your DC jack?
Hard to tell from pics, but are there three lugs?
Maybe soldered to the switched lug instead of the direct lug?
LED in backwards?

mth5044 · January 31, 2016, 11:09:10 PM

Is C8 a polarized cap as well?

Linac Guy · January 31, 2016, 11:21:12 PM

There used to be 3 lugs.... This morning before I started de-soldering things to take the board out. That center lug broke while try to get the wire off so I soldered to what was left of it. You think that's ok?

It was backwards! I had to de-solder it because i put it through the top of the enclosure when I built it. in other words I forgot it and it was all assembled so I wasn't taking it apart since I could feed it through the top. Good call, just put it in correctly and it lights up.

Linac Guy · February 01, 2016, 07:27:25 AM

@ Matt, just replaced c8 & c9 with the Wima box film caps. Got to go to work so I will plug it in this afternoon when I get home and see if that did anything.

I also went through and checked the bottom side solder joints and touched thm with the iron (read that in a troubleshooting thread on here).

Thanks

bluebunny · February 01, 2016, 09:14:36 AM

Quote from: Linac Guy on January 31, 2016, 07:33:55 PM
measured across the LED leads (with pwr supply in) getting 9.3v Is that ok?

If you've got a whole 9.3V across the LED, you probably fried it. Make sure you have a resistor standing in the way of all that juice.

bluebunny · February 01, 2016, 09:19:21 AM

...which would be surprising, since Kevin's build doc has an on-board CLR (4K7).

Linac Guy · February 01, 2016, 09:43:38 AM

Hi bluebunny,

It still lights up so I'm assuming it's ok but I could be wrong. Just measured it again and getting 0v w/ switch off and 3.0v w/ switch on.

Going to plug it into the guitar and amp since I have sometime (traffic hasn't gone down). Let you know shortly how it goes.

Thanks

Linac Guy · February 01, 2016, 10:07:30 AM

All,

It WORKS!! In bypass I hear the guitar through the amp, with switch pressed its amplified and when I turn the pots the volume changes.

BUT nothing changes when I toggle the SPDT switch for the clip.
Any ideas?

Off to work I go
Bobby

Linac Guy · February 02, 2016, 08:37:33 AM

Hi all,

I wanted to thanks everyone who helped me with getting this pedal to work!
Thanks mth5044, bluebunny, jez79, Aion and last but not least duck_arse! Awesome group!!

I have one last issue with the pedal. The clipping switch isn't working, when I toggle up or down I hear a "pop" from the amp but the sound is the same in all 3 positions (I don't hear a change in sound). Should it be a noticeable change?

Thanks

aion · February 02, 2016, 09:01:59 AM

Awesome, very glad you got it going!

For the clipping diodes - they make more of a difference on high gain settings so test it with the gain way up. You should definitely notice a difference between the 1N914's and LEDs (especially in output volume), but the middle position and LED positions will be very close to each other since the clipping threshold is so high. There will probably be a pop either way, so that is normal, but it shouldn't be loud, just a little click.

Linac Guy · February 02, 2016, 09:15:41 AM

thank you, I will give it a go when I get home tonight.

Linac Guy · March 05, 2016, 03:51:19 PM

Hey Guys,

Sorry but I could use some help with this pedal again. I took a working pedal and wanted to mod it (BAD idea).

Here is the link to the project and documentation
https://aionelectronics.com/project/comet-boss-ds1-distortion/

Pg.3 Big Muff Mod @ the bottom of pg.3 of the documentation.
It was only 3 components (100n cap, 2-1n914). I only had to de-solder the power wire to the DC plug to get the board out to work on it.

After the "mod" I put it together and all I got was just a hum/fuzz/noise sound out of the amp when switch pressed. In by pass it works great.
In my wisdom I figured if I undo the mod I can go back to a working pedal. So I removed the 3 components and it is the same as it was with the mod. Real bummer!

I checked all grounds and they are good.
IC voltages are same as when working
1-3 = 3.12v
4 = 0v
5-7 = 3.12v
8 = 9.4v

Not sure what I did but I definitely messed it up somewhere.

The board looks the same as it did with the last picture I put on Imjur but if you would like a new one I would be happy to upload one and post the link.

Thanks

aion · April 06, 2016, 06:03:37 PM

If you don't mind posting another set of pics, that would help a lot - it's probably not the board itself, I'm guessing there's something else going on as a side effect of removing & reinstalling the PCB.

Linac Guy · April 06, 2016, 06:20:29 PM

All,

Here is a new link to pictures of this project that I just uploaded to Imgur.

http://imgur.com/a/qBgPX

I am using a set of alligator clips (yellow wire) for the power... so I don't have to keep soldering and un-soldering it to take it out of the enclosure. The connection appears to be good because the LED powers on solid and bright when the stomp switch is pressed.

Any help would be grateful, If you need anymore info please let me know and I will post it ASAP!.

Thanks
Bobby

aion · April 12, 2016, 02:04:01 PM

At this point, since it was working before, we can safely say it's either something really bizarre or something really basic. What I would do is go back through and touch every solder joint with a fresh dab of solder (making sure it melts in a liquid-y way and not dry). I'd also resolder all of the wire connections in the same way. The way the problem is described, I doubt it's related to the modded components themselves, but something more procedural, e.g. during removal and reinstallation of the PCB.

jez79 · April 13, 2016, 12:02:23 AM

Soldering of switch? That center lug doesn't look like it took and where is the top lug?
Send pic of front and back of board if possible

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Aion Comet has no sound