Does anyone know how to solder cables?
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mshilarious
Banned
I use a RS iron, RS solder, and I breathe in the fumes! Fortunately I don't do this for a living.
Davenhurst
New member
On a similar theme.....i recently turned my practice drumkit into a set of trigger pads by embedding piezo speaker elements in the foam. There are five pads, each connecting to a to a box with five 1/4" mono inputs, and five outputs (just to keep things tidy). What i'd like to be able to do is alter the volume of each independently before the signal reaches the drum module. Can i just add five potentiometers to my box thang between the input and output of each? This isn't sounding very clear, i'm sorting out some pics for my website, then you can see what i mean..
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
frederic
New member
Well that depends.
Are you using the piezo elements to drigger a drum module such as the Alesis D4/D5 series, or are you hooking them to an amplifier or mixing console, seeking audio output?
Because the audio usefulness of a piezo element wrapped in foam is horrible, its going to sound like what it is, a piezo element wrapped in foam
But for driggering a drum module, or a "brain" like the old Roland PM16, it works very well.
Years ago before I bought two simmon's kits on e-bay to combine into one kit, I cut out circles out of plywood, glued the "guts" of a rat-shack cheapo piezo buzzer, and cut an equal-diameter rubber circle out of a 6'wide x 20' long (or so) rubber floor mat I found in a dumpster, using wood screws around the perimeter to hold the rubber to the plywood.
It looked absolutely ridiculous, and tactally it would annoy "real" drummers, but it triggered my Alesis D4 and my Roland PM16 perfectly... and I used the controls within both units to control the sensitivity, so some "feel" could be captured.
Now I use the same modules, but I bought two nearly complete simmons drum kits (if oyu remember those ugly, octagon electronic drum kits) as one kit, and it workks fine, dispite its very ugly.
Did I say its ugly?
heh-heh.
Are you using the piezo elements to drigger a drum module such as the Alesis D4/D5 series, or are you hooking them to an amplifier or mixing console, seeking audio output?
Because the audio usefulness of a piezo element wrapped in foam is horrible, its going to sound like what it is, a piezo element wrapped in foam
But for driggering a drum module, or a "brain" like the old Roland PM16, it works very well.
Years ago before I bought two simmon's kits on e-bay to combine into one kit, I cut out circles out of plywood, glued the "guts" of a rat-shack cheapo piezo buzzer, and cut an equal-diameter rubber circle out of a 6'wide x 20' long (or so) rubber floor mat I found in a dumpster, using wood screws around the perimeter to hold the rubber to the plywood.
It looked absolutely ridiculous, and tactally it would annoy "real" drummers, but it triggered my Alesis D4 and my Roland PM16 perfectly... and I used the controls within both units to control the sensitivity, so some "feel" could be captured.
Now I use the same modules, but I bought two nearly complete simmons drum kits (if oyu remember those ugly, octagon electronic drum kits) as one kit, and it workks fine, dispite its very ugly.
Did I say its ugly?
heh-heh.
Davenhurst
New member
I'll be triggering a drum module (i'm looking to get an Alesis DM Pro but having real trouble finding a UK dealer that stocks one). Because of the way the pads are made, there's variation in the strength of the signal from each one. Therefore i'd like to be able to adjust the volume before the signal hits the module, which i believe can be done by putting a potentiometer between each input / output. Can anyone confirm that this will do the trick?
ahicktiger
New member
Found an article
Did a little digging and found an article that I believe was the source for my "small ball on the tip" hint. http://www.recordingeq.com/EQ/req0400/cords.htm
Anyway, just to make sure everyone understood, the ball of solder is used to transfer the heat because of the increased surface area provided by the ball of solder. An iron only heats up a small area, and the ballspreads the heat a lot faster. But like someone said earlier, you better be ready, or you can really damage what you are soldering.
Did a little digging and found an article that I believe was the source for my "small ball on the tip" hint. http://www.recordingeq.com/EQ/req0400/cords.htm
Anyway, just to make sure everyone understood, the ball of solder is used to transfer the heat because of the increased surface area provided by the ball of solder. An iron only heats up a small area, and the ballspreads the heat a lot faster. But like someone said earlier, you better be ready, or you can really damage what you are soldering.
Last edited:
frederic
New member
Davenhurst said:
Piezo elements are high impedance, anywhere from 1M ohm to 10M ohm (ish). If you take a pot, and wire tabs 1 and 3 in paralllel with the piezo elements, and use tab 2 (wiper) as the output to the drum module, you can in turn control the trigger volume that way. A pot that is the same resistance or higher than the piezo would be "good enough" I think.
for what it costs, I'd snag a piezo buzzer and a 1M pot from radio shack and wire it up and see. Would cost about $5 for the experiment, if that.
I didn't use pots on my pads, instead I used the various settings in the drum module which allows you to adjust the midi output volume, the velocity, and the pad trigger point. Between the three parameters, I didn't really find a pot across the trigger to be overly important or useful.
My drumkit is really two old simmons drumkits merged together, with a plethora of roland trigger pads mixed in "just because" They all have different outputs, and the ROland PM16 and Alesis D4 I have, had its inputs adjusted for each pad so they were about equal in results.
Hope that helps...
Roguetitan
New member
uh um fans are not a good thing when mig welding or tig welding, the wind blows your gas off and puts porosity in the filler metaljuat as long as the fan is sucking and not blowing
just thought I would throw that in there
oh and BTW good soldering tips
mshilarious
Banned
uh um fans are not a good thing when mig welding or tig welding, the wind blows your gas off and puts porosity in the filler metaljuat as long as the fan is sucking and not blowing
just thought I would throw that in there
oh and BTW good soldering tips
If only you had been here three years ago, frederic might have lived
Roguetitan
New member
If only you had been here three years ago, frederic might have lived
Oops I did not realize how old this post was.