yep, some progress.
I found a cheep kids drum set on salvage from musicians friend for about $40. So i packed away my pearl set to go with the more compact kids set, which also came with some really cheep, but perfect for DIY electric cymbals! and lots of other hardware also, all in all it was a much better deal than i originally thought.
so far i have split the 13" floor tom to make a 13" snare, and 13" floor tom. From the kid set i dumped the 8" tom.. its tiny and i used the hardware to mount the old 12" snare as a mid tom. all in all i still have a ton of work to do on the kit, but i will post some pictures once i get the chance.
I'm currently in the middle or preparing for my MCAT which i take May 22nd so I haven't had much time for hobbies.. or my girl friend for that matter lol but i will be back to work on it soon.
Still debating using the cake pans and a reflection plate within the drums also, but we'll have to see which is easier because i already have triggers made from the ones i had in my pearl set and they seem to be working well.
so for the practice cymbals them selves. I have an interesting idea that i tested and it seems to work well. To make them dual zone I'm using your choke design, but I'm using pop cans for the aluminum flashing. Its super thin and with a little sanding its been a great conductor. The only problem i think i might have is if the practice cymbals flex upon striking to the point that the initial momentum causes the plates to connect and short the circuit.
One way i think around this is to use either a sandwiched cymbal (Thicken them um so there's a little less movement, or make sure the material between the plates is thick enough and doesn't have so much of an open space as to transfer the movement through out the whole switch rather than just the top layer, but i haven't been able to try it just yet.
As for single zones though they work great, hi-hat feels flimsy, but its workable for now i think.