www.megadrum.info

Hi all.
I've just completed my giant megapad setup.
Actually it's my prototype.
My main problem is ground of the individual pads all 31 inputs.
I think I need to ground each pad, so what is the best way to do this?
When I tried to chain all the ground wires together I got a bunch of false triggering.
Since I'm not using a jacks board how do ground the ground wires?
Or am I missing something?
Any advice or guidance will be much appreciated.

I'm pretty bad with electronics, but isn't ground the same for all of them? That shouldn't affect how they trigger unless you crossed something somewhere.

How are you isolating you individual triggers? If you don't have good isolation your other triggers will always give you false reports. It has nothing to do with ground. Any vibration that carries over to another pad will give you false triggers. A lot of people that use rack mounted drums run into this problem. Foam or rubber under the pads is usually a good way to isolate them.

Jman

Also, try to raise the threshold for the pads. If it's very low, even pads not physically connect can false trigger, by tiny change in current. I had a lamp-switch next room trigger one of my cymbals =)

Thanks guys will try

Well that was a partial success.
So I scrapped it.
This is what I 'm trying to do see my pic's below
I want to hook my megapad setup to the megadrum module.
As you know each piezo has two wires data and ground.
I ended up with a virtual spider web of wires, running straight to the megadrum board via a ide cable.
At first I wired all the piezo's to an ide cable, it worked but was not very practical.
I what I need help with is a simple way to connect my megapad to the megadrum.
I noticed astachurski's megadrum in the gallery, but I am unable to contact him for guidance.
So any idea guys i'm running in circles.

On the wiríng: You could add a false bottom to your Megaboard and run the spaghetti in the middle. How you get from the board to the MD really depends on how far they will be apart.

On the false trigger issue:
I hope you have a good insulation material between the piezos and the wood, like Jman mentioned. As they are all on the same piece of wood false triggering is very likely.

Well I think I came up with a possible solution.
I gonna use a 3' ide cable, I'll cut off one end and solder the the data and ground wires to that at the appropriate pins.
I think that will clean up the sloppiness and hopefully solve the triggering issues.
I hope.

I think this is a good solution.

gabriel1712 wrote:On the wiríng: You could add a false bottom to your Megaboard and run the spaghetti in the middle.

But with all those lose wires you have turned you Megadrum in a giant receiver!
If you cover the false bottom with tinfoil or use a metal plate as cover and connect it to ground, your problems might be solved.

For your connector this might be an option:

You might also try running them in an orderly fashion and put a dab of hot glue here and there to keep them in place on the bottom of the board. Maybe run them all down one side and then split them off down their rows.