Aion Deep Blue Delay: delay is almost nothing

[broomhandle]

I finished a AION Deep Blue build. Once completed, the dealy only has on setting, and you can really only hear it fully cranked. The other 2 knobs do nothing. At 1st i thought it might be a grounding issue hitting the elec caps. any thoughts?

will post a pic.

[bluebunny]

any thoughts?

Sure.  Go here. 

will post a pic.

Please do.  Both sides of the board, ideally.

[broomhandle]

[broomhandle]

photos attached. was without power for awhile in Cali.. hooray.

I can get pics of the underside of the board.

my thought was maybe the caps were being pushed and was cutting out. but playing it with the bottom off. it has the issue. with the bottom screwed in, pushing the caps. It cuts out the delay altogether.

[vigilante397]

A picture is worth a thousand words, but in pedal debugging voltages are worth a thousand pictures Can we get voltages on the ICs of your build?

[Kipper4]

Voltages are key.
However it could be a mounting issue. i.e. The board or pot is shorting on the screw on case bottom.
If that is the case a more stable mounting is needed in the first place.
Consider this.
Also a quick and nasty solution is a foam or plastic layer on the underside of the case bottom between the pcb and base would prove or disprove.

[willienillie]

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/electrolytic-radial-low-profile-16v-1-f-100-f/

[broomhandle]

I have tape on the base of the board to stop any shorts from touching the bare metal. but maybe it is possible it is going thru the tape. But the issue is there even using it without the base.

I will get volts of the IC. They did come from tayda elc.

[vigilante397]

I will get volts of the IC. They did come from tayda elc.

I've had mixed experiences with Tayda PT2399 (although their SMD PT2399 have been consistently good for some reason), but there have been enough good ones from there that I won't assume it's bad.

[anotherjim]

Those jack socket spring contacts look very close to the case - they bend out (down) when a plug is inserted and could short the signal. Also, don't rely on having good mechanical contact between the socket body-case to carry the ground return circuit - use a wire to the other jack ground lug.

[broomhandle]

The jacks do look close, but they are not touching the case.

could you rephrase this? I am unsure what you are talking about. sorry:

"Also, don't rely on having good mechanical contact between the socket body-case to carry the ground return circuit - use a wire to the other jack ground lug."

[vigilante397]

could you rephrase this? I am unsure what you are talking about. sorry:

"Also, don't rely on having good mechanical contact between the socket body-case to carry the ground return circuit - use a wire to the other jack ground lug."

The ground lug on your output jack is not wired to ground. There is still an electrical connection through the case so the sleeve of that jack is technically connected to ground, but it's recommended to connect both with wires.

[anotherjim]

Just so. Although there have been many commercial pedals with sockets only grounded by the case fixing, it's not best for reliability and another bit of wire is no cost/trouble for us (but adds up of course if production numbers go in the thousands).

Delay troubleshooting is easier if you can isolate the delayed sound. This design has a fixed amount of clean/dry input signal mixed into the output. If you pull out any one end of R3 (22k) from the pcb, you can disconnect the dry signal and whatever you can now hear from the output has to be from the delay chip.

[broomhandle]

could you rephrase this? I am unsure what you are talking about. sorry:

"Also, don't rely on having good mechanical contact between the socket body-case to carry the ground return circuit - use a wire to the other jack ground lug."

The ground lug on your output jack is not wired to ground. There is still an electrical connection through the case so the sleeve of that jack is technically connected to ground, but it's recommended to connect both with wires.

I think what you are saying is this (photo attached) should also be grounded? to get the jack from not shorting the circuit. correct?

I have built about 7 AION pedals. I am 4 for 3. I am still a novice for building. I do feel like I have shorting/ground issues with the other 2. I have a rat and a Klon that I built, that work., but sometimes get knocked and do not work... I figured ground as well... Troubleshooting is something I am still working on. In no case am I a pro at this...

[vigilante397]

I think what you are saying is this (photo attached) should also be grounded? to get the jack from not shorting the circuit. correct?

Yes, exactly that.

Troubleshooting is hard. I've been doing this for a little while now (6 years as of next month), not to mention I have a degree in this stuff, and I hate troubleshooting. I have a bin full of completely stuffed boards "to troubleshoot." Most of the time I end up scrapping them for the parts just so I don't have to deal with troubleshooting.

That being said, voltages will tell us A LOT. If you can get us some voltages I'm confident we can help you get this sorted.

[broomhandle]

Cool, i have time to mess with these on weekends. So should all of these jacks have that 2nd ground? The instructions in AION do not have that 2nd ground.

I will get Volts of the IC chips.

[bluebunny]

So should all of these jacks have that 2nd ground?

It's about the cheapest insurance policy you'll ever buy.   

[broomhandle]

[broomhandle]

I figured it out. So it is shorting out on my pots. It works with it pulled out.

So, I have been using this green tape to stop it hitting the base. Any other thoughts? I have those clear caps from small bear. But they are expensive to just buy alone. Any other ideas for covering the cap and the base?

thank you guys for the help.

[broomhandle]