Fingolfen
Well-known member
So this is my second build of the AionFX Sapphire board. The first one is a vanilla BD-2 Blues Driver, but I decided to go ahead and try out the Galaxie mod as well to compare them. I think I like the Galaxie mod better...
It's always a bit disconcerting when you have a board finished to see so many... well... holes in the PCB still open, but that's the way this particular one works. The diodes are all gone, one resistor is gone, two capacitors are gone, and some of the resistors are replaced with capacitors (and vice versa!). You really have to be fairly careful as there are so many substitutions from the base build. Honestly I sort of wish there were just two separate BOMs for the two versions so you don't have to keep referring back and forth. By and large I used all modern components for the resistors (Yageo) and capacitors (WIMA, KEMET, Nichicon) - though there is one Panasonic thrown in for color. I did use genuine through-hole 2SK184-GR transistors rather than the SMD conversions you can get from AionFX.
The wiring follows the normal AionFX arrangement with a daughter board and four of the six wires between the main PCB and daughter board populated. I'm still using ribbon cable for these as it seems the easiest route and the hookup wire for the jacks.
As this is a Boss clone, it follows my general trend for these in terms of the enclosure art. This is my "new version" of the art with the black field at the bottom to mimic the rubber pad on most Boss pedals and the "Steggo Craft" instead of "Waza Craft". Since this was the "Galaxie" mod, I decided to have some fun and use a "Galaxy Class" inspired name for the pedal.
I will be making at least one more of these for a popular Blue and Yellow benefit (presuming it is still going) with a different enclosure... so stay tuned!
It's always a bit disconcerting when you have a board finished to see so many... well... holes in the PCB still open, but that's the way this particular one works. The diodes are all gone, one resistor is gone, two capacitors are gone, and some of the resistors are replaced with capacitors (and vice versa!). You really have to be fairly careful as there are so many substitutions from the base build. Honestly I sort of wish there were just two separate BOMs for the two versions so you don't have to keep referring back and forth. By and large I used all modern components for the resistors (Yageo) and capacitors (WIMA, KEMET, Nichicon) - though there is one Panasonic thrown in for color. I did use genuine through-hole 2SK184-GR transistors rather than the SMD conversions you can get from AionFX.
The wiring follows the normal AionFX arrangement with a daughter board and four of the six wires between the main PCB and daughter board populated. I'm still using ribbon cable for these as it seems the easiest route and the hookup wire for the jacks.
As this is a Boss clone, it follows my general trend for these in terms of the enclosure art. This is my "new version" of the art with the black field at the bottom to mimic the rubber pad on most Boss pedals and the "Steggo Craft" instead of "Waza Craft". Since this was the "Galaxie" mod, I decided to have some fun and use a "Galaxy Class" inspired name for the pedal.
I will be making at least one more of these for a popular Blue and Yellow benefit (presuming it is still going) with a different enclosure... so stay tuned!
