some sounds we like

Things are progressing nicely! After mocking up a proof of concept model, I realized that the position of the pedal is crucial to it working correctly. I then consulted my local Guitar Center’s drummer section to get some more insights into how the “real” pedals work. Turns out my original sketchup drawing wasn’t too far off the mark. I made a couple of minor adjustments to accommodate the materials I’m using, but overall it’s turning out how I envisioned it. Not having blocks of metal to work with made me realize how inadequate wood is for some of the heartier mechanical parts. the hardwood “spring block” serves two functions. One is to bind the mallet’s axel to a predictable orientation, and secondly to attach to the springs. Essentially I’m using a too-long 8/32 bolt as a set screw. After grinding down a flat spot on the axel, I torqued down on the set screw, and it snapped the wood along the grain. I recut this piece with a different grain orientation and it still the the same thing… so I ran two smaller bolts along side the set screw to reinforce the wood perpendicular to the grain, and now it’s solid as a rock.

All of the instructions I’ve seen for these DIY drumpads say to epoxy the sensor onto whatever underlaying material you’re going to use as the drum head, but I used double sided carpet tape…. mostly because it’s wicked strong, thin, and I already had it at arm’s reach when I was working on that part.

the mallet itself is a 4″ x 3/8″ bolt or something similar… with a cut piece of doubled over mousepad, wound as tightly around the head of the bolt as I could get it and then taped over… I found a handful of sample mousepads at work and figured they’d come in handy… I didn’t really have a plan for the mallet, but this worked out really nicely.

I think I can improve on the spring situation by buying one proper spring instead of using two chained together. Like all good DIY projects, my main and primary goal is to spend as little money as possible.

I’m having a harder time getting the software and MIDI to all work… Mostly the midi. The arduino software seems to be working nicely. So hopefully next update will show me happily banging on my fully functional midi drum trigger.

Anyway, I *really* love fabricating these kinds of things. Gotta love that bandsaw. It’s a pain in the ass to change the blade, but I’m back from a 1″ to a 1/4″ blade so it’s back to being more of a versatile tool.

Technorati Tags: arduino, diy, drum, e-drum, electronic, experimental, trigger