Im sorry, I missed the original thread but im guessing you are trying to set up DRUM head lights? or triggered lights? I may have a solution, but I would like to know if I am correct about the topic. IF I am, are you trying to light the drum head, or trigger a stage light?

 

Lights within the drum head

 

Kick drum head is the easiest ive done. for the $2.00 starter, place the piezo on the strike pad of the kick, small to intense impact will vary the intensity. harder / brighter.

Connect the LED directly to the piezo, like in image. more light? stack more pads rotated at even intervals.

Thats the cheapest simplest way.

By the way, If you are using a wooden hammer, you will need to cover the topmost pad with a adhesive backed felt cover. Use the foil one for more directed light.

 

Does this look about right?

 

no, what I would do is leave everything alone with the controller and drum, just "tap" into where the 2 wires come from the drum pad to the controller, run the 2 wires from there to the inputs where the piezo is on the circuit I presented.... you will most likely have to add a transistor or MOSFET from the output of the 741 to trigger the LEDs....

 

ok I'm still not sure if I've got this right...

 

Ok I've got it hooked up as I have it in my last drawing. The LED comes on as soon as I make the last connection (in this case, the positive to terminal 7 on the lm741). Some loose wires on the breadboard seem to be causing the LED to dim. A voltage reading between ground and the connection between the 2n7000 and the LEDs, is about 2.5 when dimmed, and got to about 1V when I wiggled the wires to brighten the LED.
Loose wires aside, the LED shouldn't be coming on until I tap the piezo.. Any ideas for me to try?

 

Why did you add the opamp? It is doing nothing and probably doesn't work anyway.

Many 741 opamps do not work when their supply voltage is less than 12V. Yours is only 5V.
The input of your 741 opamp is at 0V but its minimum allowed input voltage is +3V.

 

BMorse suggested adding it at the end of page 2, but I didnt really know how he meant for me to integrate his circuit into mine. But yeah you're right about the input voltage. That opamp isnt going to do anything...

I think I might just have to figure out how to add in a second piezo into my drum pad, keep them seperate circuits entirely.

 

Why did you add the opamp? It is doing nothing and probably doesn't work anyway.

Many 741 opamps do not work when their supply voltage is less than 12V. Yours is only 5V.
The input of your 741 opamp is at 0V but its minimum allowed input voltage is +3V.

The supply voltage for the 741 is supposed to be 12 volts, I never said it should be powered off of 5 volts....... I have used this circuit many times for piezo disc sensors and it works just fine.....

Audio"guru": if you know so much about this stuff , why don't you submit an actual working circuit for the op then ??

 

Hello,

Here is another small idea:

The schmitt trigger will work on 5 Volts also.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

How do I integrate the circuits into the LED lighting circuit?
I dont know electronics very well, so I dont really know what I'm doing here..

I've added a zip file with my .cct file from Designworks express, so you wont have to redraw everything, if what you use will accept it.

 

Audio"guru": if you know so much about this stuff , why don't you submit an actual working circuit for the op then ??

I have never seen nor played electric drums. So I have never made one of the many electric drum LED flasher circuits that are on the internet. Why design a new circuit that might not work?

I haven't used a lousy old 741 opamp for about 35 years. It's design and performance are 42 years old. It should be buried.

I am not really a "guru" because I don't stink like curry. My skin is white (tanned or red in summer) and I speak only English. At work I was called Audioguru.

 

Hello,

I have added the schmitt trigger to your schematic.
As I do not have the drawing package you have I have done it in Kolourpaint, a KDE application in linux like paint from windows.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

I've added a zip file with my .cct file from Designworks express, so you wont have to redraw everything ...

I and many others do not have your rare program. Why don't you post the schematic as a normal PNG file type?

 

Audioguru, I didnt think many had it, but it is possible to edit the previously posted schematics in an art program of some sort as bertus did. They may only be lowly jpgs, but they're just as editable as a png file.

bertus, a schmitt trigger seems to be a comparator of sorts (atleast thats what I gathered from wikipedia), How will that isolate the game controller from the led circuit?