Hi guys can you help?
Im a Drummer but an amputee.
I lost my right leg in an industrial accident.
Ok my problem is i want to be able to trigger the drum kit i have - Roland TD30 with my stump on the kick drum.
Ive tried alsorts using basic electronics but nothing seems to work as i want and i need help please?
Ok the standard input just uses a basic piezo to set the signals off when struck.
However the drum module is very clever and you can not just trigger tehe input using say a switch grounding the trigger wire.
You can trigger the drum by doing a hi low signal operation on the 1/4 jack however this gives a double drum input and i only want a single note.
So i set too and built a simple circuit using an NPN and a PNP pair of transistors effectively in series so the input tto the module is isolated when not used and fired hi then low which gives a double beat.
If i ground the tirgger or supply the trigger wire the module shuts down after 3 beats and wont give a note until it sees a lo or high signal.
my grand plan was to use a tilt switch on my stump to activate the drum module .
Hopefully then i can get back to some kind of normal drum set up.
Can anyone help please ?

 

Welcome to AAC!

Any type of mechanical switch contact will have switch bounce. This will result it multiple triggers. It requires signal conditioning in order to avoid multiple triggers.

Your choice of sensors include:

1. mechanical switch
2. tilt switch
3. microphone
4. piezoelectric transducer
5. accelerometer
6. electronic tilt or XYZ sensors

I would be inclined to go with a solution using the last two sensors. Perhaps one already exists on the market. Contact Roland.
AeroBand markets wrist and foot sensors for use with their PocketDrum kit. However these use bluetooth. These should give you some ideas of what is available.

https://aeroband.net/collections/all-products

 

The piezo generates a voltage when struck, that's why it doesn't work with a simple switch closure. Perhaps it might work with a switch and a 1.5V battery?
Here's a bit of a weird idea - how about the charging mechanism out of one of those shake-to-charge torches?
That should generate about the right sort of voltage, and would generate a larger signal if moved faster, the same as the piezo which generates a larger voltage if struck harder.