Arion - SAD-1 Stereo Analog Delay

sevinisthenumber · Post by **sevinisthenumber** » 21 Sep 2009, 03:11

Heres my old Arion SAD-1. Anyone know what its based on....? Very cool pedal.

Dirk_Hendrik · Post by **Dirk_Hendrik** » 21 Sep 2009, 15:59

sevinisthenumber wrote:Heres my old Arion SAD-1. Anyone know what its based on....? Very cool pedal.

eeeh, based in the SAD1? following the standard building blocks for an analog delay: Preemphasis, compressor, filter, delayline, expander, deemphasis?

Paul Marossy · Post by **Paul Marossy** » 22 Sep 2009, 01:52

The Arion SAD-1 was like the 2nd or 3rd guitar pedal that I ever owned. I always liked it a lot. That was about 1988 when I had my first one.

AFAIK, it's not based on any other pedal. It probably was designed directly from the application notes for the IC chips that it uses. I have a page on it at my website if you want to learn a little more about it. http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompbox ... nSAD-1.htm

sevinisthenumber · Post by **sevinisthenumber** » 22 Sep 2009, 02:54

Wow! Once again you amaze me Paul!
Do you have a PCB layout for DIY?!!!!

gena_p1 · Post by **gena_p1** » 23 Sep 2009, 17:20

+1 filter stage and you get boss dm-2/aquapuss

jefcon1 · Post by **jefcon1** » 03 Nov 2010, 14:55

I am trying to locate a replacement pot for and Arion SAD-1 Delay pedal. It is for the 'Repeats' pot. The value is 100KC. I've found a couple dead end threads started where others were trying to locate pots for Arion pedals.
Has anyone here found a source and part number for these?
What are the options if I can't find the pot?
Can I use use any 100KC pot and wire it to the PCB since it won't fit the footprint? Since the original pots have such long shafts, it looks like it might be possible to mount a shorter shaft pot to the housing and wire it in. Has anyone here done this?
Is it possible to repair the existing pot? It functions when pushed in, which seems to fit with the same type of failure others have had with Arion pedals.

jefcon1 · Post by **jefcon1** » 03 Nov 2010, 15:32

My apologies. It looks like I posted this in the wrong area.

Flanged · Post by **Flanged** » 09 Mar 2011, 22:03

One of the sweeetest sounding analog delays ever IMHO

ZombusWoof · Post by **ZombusWoof** » 11 Mar 2011, 15:24

[quote="jefcon1"]I am trying to locate a replacement pot for and Arion SAD-1 Delay pedal. It is for the 'Repeats' pot. The value is 100KC. I've found a couple dead end threads started where others were trying to locate pots for Arion pedals.
Has anyone here found a source and part number for these?
What are the options if I can't find the pot?
Can I use use any 100KC pot and wire it to the PCB since it won't fit the footprint? Since the original pots have such long shafts, it looks like it might be possible to mount a shorter shaft pot to the housing and wire it in. Has anyone here done this?
Is it possible to repair the existing pot? It functions when pushed in, which seems to fit with the same type of failure others have had with Arion pedals.
[quote]

I've had this delay since I was a teen way back in the 80's. It is still my favorite analog delay and has a proud place on my main board.

These can be had fairly cheap, around $40. Why not just buy a used one, maybe one in poor cosmetic condition, and use it as a parts board?

jorgezorro · Post by **jorgezorro** » 11 Mar 2011, 22:59

ZombusWoof wrote:...
These can be had fairly cheap, around $40. Why not just buy a used one, maybe one in poor cosmetic condition, and use it as a parts board?

Are the Rocktek pots interchangeable with Arion? They look similar.

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... &p=134716&

The Rocktek Flanger has a 100kC pot. The Rockteks can also be had for cheap.

Flanged · Post by **Flanged** » 16 Mar 2011, 21:08

ZombusWoof wrote:
jefcon1 wrote:I am trying to locate a replacement pot for and Arion SAD-1 Delay pedal. It is for the 'Repeats' pot. The value is 100KC. I've found a couple dead end threads started where others were trying to locate pots for Arion pedals.
Has anyone here found a source and part number for these?
What are the options if I can't find the pot?
Can I use use any 100KC pot and wire it to the PCB since it won't fit the footprint? Since the original pots have such long shafts, it looks like it might be possible to mount a shorter shaft pot to the housing and wire it in. Has anyone here done this?
Is it possible to repair the existing pot? It functions when pushed in, which seems to fit with the same type of failure others have had with Arion pedals.

I've had this delay since I was a teen way back in the 80's. It is still my favorite analog delay and has a proud place on my main board.

These can be had fairly cheap, around $40. Why not just buy a used one, maybe one in poor cosmetic condition, and use it as a parts board?

I think you might use a 100k pot and wire it to the PCB easily.

Or maybe you might buy another SAD-1 (I have 5! yes, they are cheap here in Europe too. Cheap until some rockstar has one of these in his pedalboard!)

Flanged · Post by **Flanged** » 16 Mar 2011, 23:03

If anybody knows how to mod an Arion SAD-1 to increase the 350ms delay time, I started a dedicated topic:

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 11&t=12560

thanks!

snofla1900 · Post by **snofla1900** » 31 Aug 2015, 16:00

Recently I bought his Arion Stereo Delay and it has a problem it works fine with a battery but not with ( 12V Boss supply ) attached. The diode in the psu is okay.

And I was wondering if it were possible to shorten the delay time : shortest is now 50 ms and I would like to have 28 ms. Is this just changing one resistor for another ?
The delaychip is a Mn3205.

Yazoo55 · Post by **Yazoo55** » 15 Aug 2017, 13:07

I have just built the Arion SAD-1 and it's not quite right. It is difficult to tune in the bias voltage for the MN3205 and the Repeats pot is only usable for about 30% of its travel. After that the pedal goes uncontrollable.

One of the puzzles is why the voltage to the MN3102 timer chip is dropped through 2 diodes. This affects the VGG voltage supplied to the MN3205. In my build, I measure 9.1 volts on pin 5 of the MN3205 (Vdd) but 7.35 volts on pin 8 (Vgg) - as supplied from pin 8 of the MN3102. This difference seems to match a 2 diode voltage drop. The datasheet for the MN3102 states that the "most suitable Vgg voltage can be obtained when the MN3102 is used with the same supply voltage as BBD". It also recommends that Vgg be 14/15 of Vdd.

I also checked out the schematic for the Boss DM-3 which is a very similar circuit. In the Boss, both the MN3102 and the MN3205 get the same Vdd voltage.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Yazoo55 · Post by **Yazoo55** » 16 Aug 2017, 15:06

I just decided to go ahead and modify the power supply to the MN3205 chip. I added a BAT41 diode in series with the 2 1n4148 diodes to drop the VDD voltage to pin 1 of the MN3102 to 7.5 volts and lifted the pin 5 leg of the MN3205 so that I could solder a jumper lead from pin 1 on the MN3102 to give it the same 7.5 volts. It is a definite improvement. I can now set the trimpot to control the Repeats pot.

My one gripe is that there is still some distortion. I should mention I am using the V3205 Coolaudio clone of the MN3205.

The schematic is here:http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/di ... 0SAD-1.gif

Arion - SAD-1 Stereo Analog Delay [schematic]