Aion Binary

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Aion's take on the darkglass duality is surprisingly tasty. DG just isn't my brand so I've never built the ever popular preamps so I felt this would be the closest to something I'd like of their designs. How metal can a fuzz be? Not too metal for me, evidently.

I have 4 places for fuzz on my board, all for different purposes. I keep a favorite, one with a blend, an octave type, and a screwball. Right now, these are a lofran, bad mofo(dam ezekiel), fuzzyfox, and a spotted dick. This may well take the Ezekiel's spot. Sounds very very good into the ts50 pre I posted earlier today. Both ends of the duality knob are great but I found myself drawn to leaving all the knobs at noon and it just feels weird to play a fuzz with no knobs maxed out. Benefits of freeing oneself of gain knobs. Easy build. Great filth. Good times. Thanks for watching.

 

[!obey]

I hate resurrecting old threads but what they hay.... it's no important enough for me to start a new thread

I've some trouble with my recent build (v1.1) and noticed that the build docs currently at the aionfx site don't seem to be accurate. I have the same build as you.
Basically, I need to debug but component locations match yours but not the docs. No luck reporting through the aion website.

Anybody got a doc or pic of the board in the post ABOVE, with has the caps/resistors in a different order?

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I just double checked and as per usual, I deleted the docs after successful testing. I'm sure someone here has it though.

 

[Silver Blues]

I just checked my docs and my unpopulated board and indeed I have the same situation as you (board as pic above, but doc different - good eye). What is it you're trying to debug?

 

[!obey]

my problem: blend & vintage fuzz work fine but no sawtooth fuzz. replaced ICs with no improvement but haven't gotten to the audioprobe stage yet; realized there was a mismatch between board/doc when outlining the audio path on the board. the problem likely doesn't involve the components i circled, but I can't determine the audio path once the board is populated
if your board is unpopulated, could you please post a pic so we can see the silkscreen?

 

[Route14]

my problem: blend & vintage fuzz work fine but no sawtooth fuzz. replaced ICs with no improvement but haven't gotten to the audioprobe stage yet; realized there was a mismatch between board/doc when outlining the audio path on the board. the problem likely doesn't involve the components i circled, but I can't determine the audio path once the board is populated
if your board is unpopulated, could you please post a pic so we can see the silkscreen?

I have the same board layout as you and mine seems to be working fine. If I remember correctly the first versions of this board had the pot rotations backwards for the Filter and Blend knobs. In order to get the best spitty gatey fuzz sound I rotate the Duality knob fully clockwise and the Filter and Blend full CCW. I'm sure the different board layout was just to correct that issue and all the values and schematic remain the same.

What happens when you rotate the Duality knob to the Fuzz side? Any sound at all?

Kevin is usually really good at responding to questions. He just ran a sale so he's probably backed up. It's just him so occasionally it takes a little to get a response.

 

[Kroars]

my problem: blend & vintage fuzz work fine but no sawtooth fuzz. replaced ICs with no improvement but haven't gotten to the audioprobe stage yet; realized there was a mismatch between board/doc when outlining the audio path on the board. the problem likely doesn't involve the components i circled, but I can't determine the audio path once the board is populated
if your board is unpopulated, could you please post a pic so we can see the silkscreen?

I’ve got a couple at home. At work now, but can upload a couple photos tonight. If you don’t hear from me by 8:00pm, feel free to send a message.

Upon further inspection of your pcb picture and the build post, it looks like they just switched R28 and C1 (among possible others, I just concentrated on the portion you outlined). Yours should be fine, even if it’s different, as long as you follow the silkscreen. I’ve built A LOT of Aion boards and have never had an issue. Just like PedalPCB, they’re the two pcbs companies I trust the most. I think your audio probe suggestion my be the next step. Have you gone over the board to make certain all resistors/caps are correct. Resistors especially. I’ve built hundreds and hundreds of pcbs and I’ll still catch my self putting in a wrong value every once in a while. Typically I’ll catch it before boxing, but every once in a blue moon I’ll find it after it’s boxed.

Lastly, feel free to post a couple photos of your build. There are a few eagle eyed folks in here that can spot an improper value lickity split.

 

[!obey]

What happens when you rotate the Duality knob to the Fuzz side? Any sound at all?

yeah, that's it. the one fuzz (vintage, i think) just fades to silent as the knob is turned CW instead of introducing the other (the diode-clipped path i think). filter, blend, level working a-ok.

I’ve got a couple at home. At work now, but can upload a couple photos tonight. If you don’t hear from me by 8:00pm, feel free to send a message.

Upon further inspection of your pcb picture and the build post, it looks like they just switched R28 and C1 (among possible others, I just concentrated on the portion you outlined). Yours should be fine, even if it’s different, as long as you follow the silkscreen. I’ve built A LOT of Aion boards and have never had an issue. Just like PedalPCB, they’re the two pcbs companies I trust the most. I think your audio probe suggestion my be the next step. Have you gone over the board to make certain all resistors/caps are correct. Resistors especially. I’ve built hundreds and hundreds of pcbs and I’ll still catch my self putting in a wrong value every once in a while. Typically I’ll catch it before boxing, but every once in a blue moon I’ll find it after it’s boxed.

Lastly, feel free to post a couple photos of your build. There are a few eagle eyed folks in here that can spot an improper value lickity split.

aion is great! i've had only time to built a few from there, mostly because my needs are served here. (e.g. spent a lot of time/$$$ building a blueshift, but it's ultimately my stereo ppcb unison that gets all the use)
will try to post a picture, but my phone camera is junk and will mosdef be blurry. i'll go over it again before wasting more of y'alls time.

but i do appreciate it. having to write stuff out -- thinking in language -- is helpful to me, instead of just staring at the board.

 

[Feral Feline]

I like resurrected old threads, 'cause there's always stuff I've missed, like this thread.
Writing stuff out works well for me in some cases, !obey, but posting pics is always helpful, too — you should open your own thread when you do post pics.



@Mentaltossflycoon , you have exquisite taste in fuzz. (though I haven't heard the fuzzyfox).

Since the OP is from '22, what's currently on you board?

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

@Feral Feline currently on the board are the lofran, curds n whey, MB gastank, and I've been swapping between a cleric and persica in that last spot. Chuck's bass klone is also on there still. Been putting my modded-for-bass black eye on my upright a lot and it's gggnarly.

 

[Silver Blues]

if your board is unpopulated, could you please post a pic so we can see the silkscreen?

Sure thing!

 

[Kroars]

Sure thing!
View attachment 52466

Oh shoot! I forgot to post mine…. I just checked and it’s the same as this one. Thanks!