Aion Refractor build

[gordo]

In an earlier post I noted that a buddy wanted a Klone project and although I've built a number of them, the King Slayer being my most used, this was a cheezy way of breaking out of the norm and ordering a kit.  Aion's Refractor had caught my attention early on because I've already built up a number of the Lab Series Preamps and a crapload of other Aion boards.  I wanted to see where the state of the "kit" builds was at.  Given Kevin's attention to detail, and the sheer stones of pushing out kits I was intrigued.

I thought it might be interesting to document how one of these goes together, since most of us do this sort of thing from scratch.  It's a nice way to get a noob addicted to the hobby ("introduced" is SO pedestrian...this habit is so vicious) and a good lesson on how production pedals are done.

The VFE builds here introduced the concept of separating power, I/O, and switching from the mainboard.  Till this point it wasn't even on my radar given the fact that I've had to repair a bunch of Tech21 pedals that introduced the concept of loading connectors into the chassis and then laying in and soldering the board onto them.  Not a fan.  It's a brutal process to get the thing apart.  Granted, it has radically improved my de-solder skills.  Still...modularizing separate functions as Peter at VFE has done allows same (or similar) boards to be reused, with different parts count, to accomplish a number of different projects.  At the end of the day though, the downside of this approach is that:

• Multiple circuit boards have to be made
• Those circuit boards might take up critically needed space within the enclosure to accomplish what they need to do
• Mainboard overcrowding to make up for the lack of space (see above)

Kevin's approach, while similar, is to separate the switch (board mounted connectivity), I/O  and Power (chassis mounted but board connected), and the mainboard (pot mounted) and connect them with connectorized ribbon cables to make the building process as streamlined as possible.  Dreaded (at least for lazy guys like myself) offboard wiring is nil.

More to come...

[cooder]

Very cool, looking forward to what you will share with this. Always interesting to look at different approaches and get new angles. Cheers!

[Bio77]

I was excited about the 125B boards when Aion announced them.  However, separating the power section to the switching board means you can only use a 3PDT.  I still order the 1590B boards because I like to add soft touch/relay switching. 

[gordo]

Nice detail is the slot cut holes for the 3PDT, I/O and power jacks.  Another nice touch is an onboard slide switch (12 holes on the right side of the board) to choose between true or buffered bypass.



The hardware assortment.  Taiway switch and nice looking stuff across the board.



This is an idea I hadn't seen till now.  Kevin refers to these as castellated holes.  The front three legs of the dual pot sit in the front edge of the board.



Square holes?  Please, I have enough problems with round ones.



Cool resistors.  This will mark the first build I've ever done where it doesn't look like I got all resistors at a rummage sale.  I won't be making a habit of this so I'd better take a lot of pictures.



And of course the money shot.  This is the same as the Lab Series group buy chassis, so no surprises here.  I had PPP do a custom color version of the chassis for my first Lab Series build because...well hell...how often do you get to build a Lab Series pre (I'm an owner of a real L5 and an unabashed Moog/Lab cheerleader).  The point being that this is a pricey proposition at best so makes the price of the kit pretty reasonable.



So sorry if this sounds like I'm a sales guy for the company but I'm stoked to see one of "us" break off to do something a bit different, even different from BYOC, which is, I suspect where a lot of builders got their start.

[gordo]

Bio77, in this case it's only the power connector so no probs substituting a soft touch/relay setup (my personal fave).

[Bio77]

That stuff does look nice!

Bio77, in this case it's only the power connector so no probs substituting a soft touch/relay setup (my personal fave).

I was actually wondering about this for Klons in general.  My understanding was that the three resistors on the foot switch were important for the buffer.  In the case of a relay switch, can you just take them out? 

[gordo]

Good question. I'd have to think you could go pin for pin on a relay board for the dpdt portion of the bypass and then directly wire the led to the relay board. I haven't looked at the schematic yet but suspect the 4pdt switch on the switch board installs the buffer at the input jack. With the battery compartment space there would be plenty of room for a relay board. Then again, if you're building a kit you're probably not thinking of mods this complex.

[Bio77]

Good advice, thanks for that.

Sorry to hijack your thread.  I wasn't implying adding a mod to the kit.  It would be a shame to add a headache to what looks like a super fun build.

[gordo]

Wrapping this one up now that I'm back in the house.  We've (the wife, the dog, and I) been camping out in a hotel room while the hardwood floors were refinished.

This proved to be one of the tensest builds I've ever done.  Not because it was difficult, it was a breeze, but I knew if I buggered it up I'd look pretty stupid.  Thankfully it fired up straight away.  Whew...

All the parts for the boards (jacks, switches and connectors) had integrated mounting pins with corresponding drill holes in the pcb.  So parts would snap in and align themselves perfectly.  I imagine the idea is that unless you were a moron or not bothering to read the very thorough docs (and I resemble both of those remarks) it was almost impossible to get a parts misalignment.  Check out how perfectly the DC jack sits in the square cutout.





I don't use batteries in my builds but I wanted to assemble this as an absolutely bone stock build so put the battery snap in.



Very happy with the pedal and was a cool view of how a DIY can go together with details and techniques that most of us DIYers wouldn't bother with.  Plus...it's a great sounding Klon...

[nzCdog]

Nice!  Not a hint of 'rummage sale' looks there... Came together really well 

[Bio77]

She's a beaut!   I really like those red resistors.

[Bret608]

I'm glad to see one of these wrapped up too, as I was curious to hear an experienced DIY-ers thoughts on how these kit builds go. It is a beauty! Do you know what brand those resistors are? I'd love to use some in the future just because they look awesome...

[gordo]

I don't but really need to find out.  I agree, I think they look really nice.  I've never seen a Taiway 3PDT before either and it's really nice.  Shorter lugs and it has a very soft snap action when you click it.  It's very quiet.

[cooder]

That came out super tidy and pro! Thanks for documenting it! Seems like a very well thought out kit indeed!

[Boba7]

What an impressive build, truly impeccable, bravo!