DIY mesh conversion of a simple drum set

today the project reached another important milestone - I have completed midi processor and uploaded full info here:

https://hackaday.io/project/176712-drumidy-electronic-midi-drum-controller

After all, the project takes small turn - the pads reported in this project are excellent, so I went ahead and designed this midi module:

https://hackaday.io/project/176712-drumidy-electronic-midi-drum-controller

It is going to take some time to fill up the info, so stay tuned!

So, originally, all bits and pieces I have printed using PLA or PETG material - they looked indestructible and were available during the lock down.

But after a month I noticed that the hooks holding rims start to deform. Nothing critical so far, but to avoid surprises, all the parts have been redesigned and printed in ABS.

So far so good.

Once I got oscilloscope, the work went ahead.

When i saw real signals from my pads, I decided to fully redesign trigger geometry and adjust feedback filters of the electronics. I have updated all the instruction and ...

I could not be happier with the result.

Next update will be with a live demo

Apparently, you don't just glue piezo as you wish - the ceramic should be facing the mesh:

Placing it upside down will add >5ms delay and will remove that crucial first peak that is most likely being analyzed by pulse processor.

now I need to get rid of this mesh hi freq vibration.

So now I need to flip all the sensors and to start analyzing what happens to the signal inside the analogical debris of the drum module.

Something that I definitely need an oscilloscope for.

The drum module has bunch of presets (like rock, jazz, brush... etc), and it seems that signal processing for these presets is different. I did non notice any traces from MCU to the filters (opamps with RC feedback) so I am guessing it is some software shaper. 

The issue is that on some presets the volume of 12" tom becomes lower then 8" toms. It is not really a problem since I use custom presets anyway, But it would be really interesting to understand what really happens. 

Once The quarantine is over and i get my hands on oscilloscope I will definitely check it out.