Low Output - Aion Durandal

[johnnyc77]

Hi all. I built the Durandal and am getting less than unity with all knobs cranked. Has anyone built this pedal? If so could we chat about build issues? Mine works as it should, but the volume is unusable.

 

[neiltheseal]

I have built one and it has normal volume levels. Got any pics of your build?

 

[johnnyc77]

Hey! I will take them tonight. I checked every component, reflowed, twice...I'm wondering if I burnt my op-amp.

 

[johnnyc77]

Hey! I will take them tonight. I checked every component, reflowed, twice...I'm wondering if I burnt my op-amp.

 

[Feral Feline]

...I'm wondering if I burnt my op-amp.

I see you've socketed it.

Do you have a spare good op-amp? If you do, don't put it in just yet — you don't want to fry the spare op-amp if there is indeed a fault somewhere. Measure the voltages you're getting on the pins and report back.

Another way to check to see if you killed the chip:
If you have another working good build that takes that same type of op-amp, you could check to see if this build's IC is fried by putting it in the other known-good build.





Ahem... Now to address the elephant in the enclosure:
You do you, but ... when you use teal-blue wiring for your grounds when nearly everyone is using black for ground... your wiring is a tad confusing. There's good reason electricians, gas-fitters, architectural-technologists, plumbers and other trades-people have to follow standards-codes....

 

[johnnyc77]

I just followed the build document....black for ground, ok. What is standard for signal? I'll try what you suggested to see if the op amp is fried, thanks for helping.

 

[Feral Feline]

Sorry, @johnnyc77, I see now your wiring is green, kinda — it looked like a funky blue on my phone earlier.

Following the diagram is good; green-as-ground is also common in housewiring?

I had to look this up...

This doesn't follow what I've seen for DC-powered devices, of course.

Colours I've seen in DC devices are:
Positive DC = Red
Negative DC = Brown
Ground = Black
Signal / Data = Orange, Purple, Yellow, other

I just always associate red+/black- 'cause battery snaps or pre-wired LEDs, for example, always have red wire for positive and black for ground.


Some pedal-builders do use one colour of wire for their whole build, but say you use white for example ...all in/out wires are white, the power is white, the ground is white, switch-wiring is white — that would drive me nuts when trying to troubleshoot my build.

So I guess it doesn't really matter, but I try be consistent from one build to the next — red positive DC, black negative, signal white, purple or yellow.

I'm just a novice pedal-builder trying to figure out the hobby.

 

[johnnyc77]

I did measure some low voltages. 4 and 8 were correct, 0 and 9v. 5, 6, 7, were 4.5v, but 2 and 3 were around 3v. I'm going to remove the opamp tonight and check the pins alone.

 

[szukalski]

Is pin 1 of the IC in the socket? It looks like it didn't quite make it in.

 

[johnnyc77]

Hey guys, thanks for the support. It made me find the problem(s). I has the wrong type of caps in 2 locations. I thought that if the value was close, they would work. They didn't. I also was shorting the output to the chassis. No bueno. Once I got it to work, it was glorious.

 

[Feral Feline]

Awesome!
Well-sleuthed.

I'm betting those caps weren't as important as finding the output to ground.

So, now you can mark your thread "SOLVED". Somewhere in your OP should be a link, or maybe you have to click on "Edit" to find "SOLVED" — I forget how to do it, 'cause I never solve any of my own problem-builds.


Congrats on your build!