Troubleshooting Aion FX's Intersound IVP pedal

[Nolen213]

I am attempting to build this pedal, though I knew it was a margin call if I was up to the challenge. Now I got problems. The Bypass led turns on. In bypass mode, the guitar still works. When the pedal is on, the sound drops out completely. I did attempt to cut the traces for the two send/return outs (which was an optional mod for the pedal). I am not confident I did that correctly. The IC's and transistors are the correct parts. I have voltage readouts for the IC;s (though I don't know how to calculate what they should be. Any help you guys could offer would help. I can provide any information I haven't. Thanks for the help.



IC 1 (leg 1: 0 volts, 2: 0, 3: 0, 4: -15, 5: 0, 6: 0, 7: 15, 8: 0)
IC2 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5: 0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC3 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC4 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC5 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC6 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC7 (1:15, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0, 8:15)
IC8 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:-15, 5:-2.4, 6:0, 7:-13.8, 8: 15)

 

[PBWilson1970]

I can't offer any help as I'm a more "paint by numbers" builder but I'm building one of these in the near future. I hope it's an easy fix for you.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Why aren't you asking on Aion's forum? Oh wait, they don't have one! They just push you off onto the DIY forums. Aion wasn't kidding when they said this is a project for an advanced builder. My advice: do a thorough visual inspection of every solder joint (both sides of the board) and every component value, diode & capacitor orientation, etc. Fix anything that isn't perfect. You'll need a DMM and an audio probe or oscilloscope to proceed with troubleshooting. If you substituted any parts or deviated from the build docs in any way, now is the time to tell us. I know of one guy here who built one of these successfully.

 

[thesmokingman]

here comes the tough love ... your soldering abilities aren't up for a project of this size and scope. burned wire insulation, melted cap corners, sloppy wiring, inconsistent solder application ... you hit every benchmark of bad work that may doom a lesser build but instead we have one of the more complicated aion boards and you probably don't have an audio probe to start tracing the signal path.

 

[fig]

Hi,

This wont solve everything but your LED leads are touching.



Best of luck with the pedal.

 

[JamieJ]

+1 for the audio probe. In my experience big build like this can have a few different issues and tracing the schematic to see where signal doesn’t pass.

Inspect the board as well for any cold joints - some of your pots look like they could be cold.

 

[Nolen213]

Thank you guys for the help. I have never used an audio probe befor, but they seem pretty straight forward. I will try that and report back.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

To piggyback on what @thesmokingman said, there are numerous things that could go wrong with a build like this, and there are too many little things that I see in your pictures that could be the cause of your issues to be able to start narrowing it down for you. Probably not what you want to hear, but I’d recommend putting this one aside for a while and just forgetting about it until you’ve got a considerable number of successful intermediate builds under your belt. After that, then you could revisit this to fix up the bad joints, replace the burnt wires, and swap out the damaged components, as well as go through the whole signal path with a probe. This is a notoriously difficult build.

 

[zgrav]

I agree this project was not easy. I took my time and care on double-checking part values before soldering. Cleaned the board with IPA before installing pots and did a close visual inspection and touch-up on the solder connections, and slow assembly after that. Was quite relieved to have everything work properly the first time I powered it up.

 

[Stickman393]

Imma gonna be the voice of positive vibes:

If you don't break anything, you ain't learning. Sure, you took on a project that was challenging. I'm gonna give you props for that. Nobody hones their skills by building a million fuzz faces.

This is an opportunity for you to advance your skills even more: build yourself an audio probe, learn to follow the signal path from the documentation, and see what you can find.

Also, if you find yourself struggling, set it aside in a place where it won't get banged around. Build some more. Come back to it later.

I took a look at the schematic, and I can't say that I see anything that immediately strikes me as odd in your voltage measurements. BUT...I could be way off base there, simply because the circuit is...well, unusual for a pedal. Not much in the way of DC offset in the signal path. Huh.

 

[mdc]

There's an extremely thorough thread on DIYS in which a guy is trying to build a full IVP on veroboard, lots of potentially useful information to be found there regarding voltages, etc. It should at least give you some benchmarks against which to compare your own readings.

 

[djmiyta]

Definitely second the "Set it aside and come back to it later." Too often rushing to finish and play with my new toy does it set me back further when it doesn't work the 1st time and sadly its most often an overlooked mis-wire or bridge or cold joint actually I'd say out of many many builds with some, complete failures, others are abortion survivors that function just fine but just don't look pretty but 80 to .........to ...lets say 91-3% of the time my problems have been 1 of those 3 or a combination depending on how quick I rushed it.
I remember my very first build pushing the leads thru cardboard n solderin' wires and stuff ................. so check your work again and if that doesnt find something wrong I'd suggest to check your work again and if that doesn't work I'd suggest check your.... ahhhh you probably get it
good luck