Im not so concerned with variable control but I would like to have a real hi-hat stand and hi-hat.
Thanks
This post is late, but I just discovered this site!
I am using a real hi-hat stand as a hi-hat pedal with my Alesis D4, in a very cheap and easy fashion: I mounted a spring (a door-stop spring that I picked up at home depot) on a piece of wood so it's electrically insulated, and used nylon wire ties to mount this spring so that the metal pedal hits the spring when you depress the pedal most of the way.
I connected the spring to the tip of a 1/4" plug, and the metal body of the pedal to the sleeve of the plug. The spring and the metal pedal become your switch contacts. Plug it into your hi-hat switch jack, and it works like a charm!
At the moment, the hi-hat stand is sitting next to a regular drum pad; I haven't gone to having the hi-hat trigger mounted on the stand yet. But I assume you can just put a real, dampened hi-hat cymbal, or a practice cymbal, on the stand with a piezo attached, just like all your other DIY drum pads, and it would work. I'm guessing you probably want to have a bottom cymbal (or reasonable substitute) mounted there as well for stability, to get the right feel.