AION Gale, no sound when ON

[acdc-angus]

Hi,

I'm here to debbugging my pedal. It just doesn't sound. The LED light up right and then no more sound. I didn't know it was a Simon & Garfunkel mod 

Anyway, I checked, every Electrolytics, Diodes and the NSL-32 are in the good position in the good place, no swapped resistors values, I use 9V adaptor and no 9v battery etc.

I use the Input/Output Module Kit from AION too.








Here's the DC values I got when everything on 0



Here's the documentation of the kit :
https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/gale_documentation.pdf

[idy]

Welcome to the forum.
We will want voltages for both ICs.
Best approach is audio probe. Easy to make one. Must have.
You seem to say in bypass you hear your sound?
Vactrol not important yet. Even if it is bad/wrong you will still get signal, just no compassion/limiting.

[ElectricDruid]

Welcome Angus!

Firstly, thanks very much for taking the time to really provide all the info - we've got a schematic, full documentation for the project, pinouts with voltages added, and photos of the board. Nice work! How to make friends and influence people!! Almost no-one manages that on their first try, so thanks again for the effort.

Looking at the voltages, the op-amp looks fine. Pin 3 is low, but that's typical when R2/1M is loaded by the meter. So there's nothing untoward there I don't think. The LM 386 I'm a lot less familiar with, so perhaps others can step in. On the face of it, it seems to be ok. At least, supplies are where we expect them, inputs are both the same, and the "gain" pins 1 and 8 aren't connected externally, so they're at whatever potential the internal circuitry thinks is appropriate! Seems ok to me.

Your soldering looks pretty tidy too. I can't spot anything that concerns me dreadfully. Again, nice work.

That leaves more basic failures. Could the volume pot be bad? Is that vactrol in the right way around/up? There are no markings on it at all, which seems a bit odd. What type is it? Often they say which end is LED and which is LDR, and the LED end needs the cathode or anode marking somehow.

Failing that, I'd generally suggest a problem with offboard wiring, but in this case there really isn't any, so you'd be hunting for a bad joint somewhere as the only way that could happen. Could the 3PDT switch have been fitted 90 degrees wrong if it has PCB pins, or would that have been impossible?

I hope some of these ideas get you a bit further. Good luck!

[acdc-angus]

Welcome to the forum.
We will want voltages for both ICs.
Best approach is audio probe. Easy to make one. Must have.
You seem to say in bypass you hear your sound?
Vactrol not important yet. Even if it is bad/wrong you will still get signal, just no compassion/limiting.

The voltages are already in the first post.

Don't have audio probe, only multimeter. Bypassed it sound trought it yes.

[acdc-angus]

Welcome Angus!

Firstly, thanks very much for taking the time to really provide all the info - we've got a schematic, full documentation for the project, pinouts with voltages added, and photos of the board. Nice work! How to make friends and influence people!! Almost no-one manages that on their first try, so thanks again for the effort.

Looking at the voltages, the op-amp looks fine. Pin 3 is low, but that's typical when R2/1M is loaded by the meter. So there's nothing untoward there I don't think. The LM 386 I'm a lot less familiar with, so perhaps others can step in. On the face of it, it seems to be ok. At least, supplies are where we expect them, inputs are both the same, and the "gain" pins 1 and 8 aren't connected externally, so they're at whatever potential the internal circuitry thinks is appropriate! Seems ok to me.

Your soldering looks pretty tidy too. I can't spot anything that concerns me dreadfully. Again, nice work.

That leaves more basic failures. Could the volume pot be bad? Is that vactrol in the right way around/up? There are no markings on it at all, which seems a bit odd. What type is it? Often they say which end is LED and which is LDR, and the LED end needs the cathode or anode marking somehow.

Failing that, I'd generally suggest a problem with offboard wiring, but in this case there really isn't any, so you'd be hunting for a bad joint somewhere as the only way that could happen. Could the 3PDT switch have been fitted 90 degrees wrong if it has PCB pins, or would that have been impossible?

I hope some of these ideas get you a bit further. Good luck!

The vol pot seem reading good values.
Yes I build and mod amps on y free time, so I don't know why a pedal supposed to work, doesn't...

The 3PDT switch can't be soldered 90°, only 180 and I tried, is doesn't work better either.

The NSL-32 is in the right position (Negative/White Dot on the right).

[antonis]

The 3PDT switch can't be soldered 90°, only 180 and I tried, is doesn't work better either.

May I discern some potential cold-joints and some excessive flux on 3PDT switch pads..??

[acdc-angus]

The 3PDT switch can't be soldered 90°, only 180 and I tried, is doesn't work better either.

May I discern some potential cold-joints and some excessive flux on 3PDT switch pads..??

No cold joint all over the pedal every joint are shiny and continuity everywhere. I didn't take off the flux when I inversed the 3PDT to 180°. Wasn't working before and no flux either.

PS: Someone know why I have to answer 5 questions and captcha everytime I post or try to edit a message? It's super annoying

[idy]

The captcha thing is 'cause you are new. they try to keep bots off. It will get better!

Sorry I didn't see the separate screen capture for the other IC. The opamp is looking good like Druid said.

An audio probe. The sound goes in and dies somewhere. You want to know where. You will find out in a few minutes with a probe. Hard to "see" a fault in the signal path.

[acdc-angus]

The captcha thing is 'cause you are new. they try to keep bots off. It will get better!

Sorry I didn't see the separate screen capture for the other IC. The opamp is looking good like Druid said.

An audio probe. The sound goes in and dies somewhere. You want to know where. You will find out in a few minutes with a probe. Hard to "see" a fault in the signal path.

Any good schematic to build an Audio Probe?

Thanks

[idy]

just a probe with a capacitor to block dc, value unimportant. You attach the cap to the center conductor of a cable, and solder an aligator clip to a wire solder to the shield, which is ground. The other end has a 1/4" jack or whatever you need to plug into your testing amp. You use the free end of the cap, maybe attached to a nice probe, to listen to various points where the audio should be.

You also need a way to "inject" a signal. A favorite is a looper pedal, but anything that will send a sound in to the pedal is OK. Phone. CD player....computer....

http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/
shows two ways to do it. It is kid of neat to have the cap secreted away, it but doesn't matter.

[acdc-angus]

just a probe with a capacitor to block dc, value unimportant. You attach the cap to the center conductor of a cable, and solder an aligator clip to a wire solder to the shield, which is ground. The other end has a 1/4" jack or whatever you need to plug into your testing amp. You use the free end of the cap, maybe attached to a nice probe, to listen to various points where the audio should be.

You also need a way to "inject" a signal. A favorite is a looper pedal, but anything that will send a sound in to the pedal is OK. Phone. CD player....computer....

http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/
shows two ways to do it. It is kid of neat to have the cap secreted away, it but doesn't matter.

Ok so I need to put the probe on every solder joint?

[idy]

Not every joint, we follow some common sense and the schematic.
First you check the input jack. Sometimes there is something bent there and a short. If the jack is OK we go to the footswitch. Is the sound there? How about the input of the board?
Now the schematic. Does the sound reach:
IC1 pin 3? Pin 1?
how about IC2 pin 3? Pin 5?

Those are the "active" components in the signal path. Once those are good we can ask about the "side chain" doing the compression...

[antonis]

What idy said about sigbal tracing..

[acdc-angus]

Ok so I found it I guess.

It's between C6 output to R8 input. No sound on the R8 but it sound on the C6. I'll try to resolder it

[acdc-angus]

Yes that it, I think the link between the C6 and R8 is broken in the PCB. Doesn't work and if I put a jumper on it it works !

[idy]

Done like a champ!
congratulations, problem solver.

[Vivek]

Dear Antonis,

Why do you expect the signal to be heavily clipped after the first IC ?

[acdc-angus]

Done like a champ!
congratulations, problem solver.

Yes, I made an external link then. "Bad" first experience with AION. But it's working now.

[idy]

Sometimes a "missing" trace is the fault of a designer, sometimes it is a "damaged" trace attributable to the assembler. Very easy to scratch, also removing components roughly often pulls out "eyelet" connecting both sides of board. The hazards of "reworking." (Don't) Ask me how I know....

[acdc-angus]

Sometimes a "missing" trace is the fault of a designer, sometimes it is a "damaged" trace attributable to the assembler. Very easy to scratch, also removing components roughly often pulls out "eyelet" connecting both sides of board. The hazards of "reworking." (Don't) Ask me how I know....

It's a brand new board. The trace was there, but probably broke somewhere... The small caps leg between both parts help a lot  Now it sound awesome ! Thanks, because I didn't know about the Audio Probe