Author Topic: DIY Hihat controller and the IO  (Read 6468 times)

DIY Hihat controller and the IO
« on: February 16, 2010, 09:12:34 PM »
Glad to find this website/forum.  I built my A2E kit last year and I've finally gotten around to trying to improve my original conversion.  My biggest problem so far is my DIY Hihat controller, consisting of a light dimmer switch, mounted in a box attached to the base of my pedal.  Here's a pic http://www.flickr.com/photos/15882633@N00/3374040918/in/photostream/
Sometimes it will give an open sound even though it's closed (using BFD2) and it doesn't seem to be very precise. (drummer ability accounted for  ;D) Very annoying. 
I'm curious to see what other designs you have used/use that workfor you.  Thanks

Offline Guinness

Re: DIY Hihat controller and the IO
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2010, 11:35:45 PM »
i can't help much, but one thing popped in my head.  you're using a 120v light dimmer for a low voltage variable resistor.  That may be the reason why it doesn't behave sometimes.

Re: DIY Hihat controller and the IO
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2010, 05:02:06 AM »
you are correct guiness the light dimmer is to high of a resitence and is made for ac. lets take the fsr(force sensing resistor) when no pressure applied it reads a max resitence as you apply pressure it reduces the resitence in electrical terms lets say 1 megaohm for no pressure and 5 ohms for full pressure some of the fsrs you can get a voltage divider which is a breakout board and has a trim pot on it now with the output of the i/o it is a small dc voltage you shouldnt need a external power but were as you can use the trim pot to tune in your controlthe way phil did his  having the fsr under the pedal would work the most realistic hope this helps
the process of a thought is only stirred on by creative ingenuity

Re: DIY Hihat controller and the IO
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2010, 02:03:09 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions.  I tried following some designs I found online using a dimmer.  Most of the "dimmer-type" controllers I saw mounted the dimmer up along the hihat's body and used a cable and spring.  http://www.derksens.com/E-drums/Beatnik/VariableController.htm I eliminated the cable and spring for simplicity's sake and mounted directly to the base of the pedal with a spring to bring the slider back to hihat "open" position when the pedal wasn't depressed.  I knew when I bought the dimmer it wasn't ideal.  I had the AtoE fever and really wanted to start using the edrums.  ;D 

Anyhow, I'll start a search for an FSR and see what I find.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Thanks

Re: DIY Hihat controller and the IO
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2010, 08:05:05 AM »
Hi,
Just thought I would post my experience using a sliding pot for the hi hat controller(http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=2215). I used a 100k linear potentiometer fixed to an aacoustic hi hat stand with the trigger IO, it worked but not satisfactorily. I spent a lot of time tweaking the module and BFD2 and whilst i got it pretty close I found that it was not particularily smooth in transitions through the hi hat close to open. I am not saying that if more time was spent tweaking and setting it up i may have been able to get further improvement. I have now bought a second hand FD-6 for £22 (GBP) and I am very pleased with the result, I could use it with an acoustic stand but this would mean cutting bits of my pearl HH stand and I am not sure i want to do this.
I now get a smooth transition between closed, 1/4, 1/2 , 3/4 and full HH sounds. I did need to configure BFD as per the instructions  in this thread http://www.vdrums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45034, and then I set up  what midi CC the various sounds are within BFD.
Finally I can say that I am happy with the Trigger IO Hi Hat, not exactly like an acoustic one of course but I feel it is as close as I am going to get.
Hope that helps someone cause I know how frustrating I found it.