TranslationHaving looked carefully at both threads and AKA Wayne's build as well as Nemo's first attempt at replicating that work, and trying to learn from some design differences, there's a few important things to notice (happy to be corrected of course, these weren't my designs)stringerbell wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:24 amYeah, I remember when I first read AKA Wayne's thread and you started to try and reproduce his build, I shared your disappointment when reading the posts where you (temporarily) gave up after trying so many things and not getting it right. So I will definitely do this then. I will draw a schema for it later and share it here, for reference for others as well as to double check with you that I'm doing it right.
Regarding the pots, I have a few follow up questions for reference on your fine tuning process (all regarding the mesh head):
- do you feel like adjusting the pots has better potential for getting it right than adjusting the cone height? In other words, was your final adjustments when getting to the successful result mostly in changing the pots, or the cone height? (I'm guessing you change one thing at a a time?)
- how small are the margins when adjusting the pots?
-- if you talk about the full pot meter range as 100%, how small of % adjustments were you making during testing?
-- now that you have it set right, how much % can you adjust it + or - while still getting a good result? (I can imagine that you don't want to touch it at all if the margins are small)
- what settings did your pots end up at now roughly? (where 100% is the maximum resistance)
- and what gain in edrumin?
Thanks again for all the feedback, I'm still researching and preparing to do a build, but with more understanding my confidence is growing to the point where I think I'm up for it. I made my very first proof of concept trigger 2 days ago in a PD-100 shell, where i built a simple adjustable platform, connected a single sensor piezo with some foam on it, all from stuff that I had laying around the house, and it worked first time! giant hotspot etc, but it was something
- Nemo's/Trigman final design has independently adjustable platforms for the head triggers, whilst AKA Wayne's design had 1 (albeit large) platform for ALL the head triggers. I don't think it would be necessary to have independently adjustable platforms unless your drum itself was uneven, or if you are mounting the rim trigger on the same platform. Ultimately, you want all of your head triggers to be exactly level and to be the exact same distance above the rim (e.g. 1-2mm). This would effectively create 1 large hotspot the size of the playing surface (exactly what we want). Having head triggers that are independently adjustable adds flexibility, but if they are not completely equal to the other head triggers, it will generate an uneven response across the head which will manifest as a hotspot.
- On the Trigman edition, you have moved then rim piezo to the bottom of the plate you are using and gone for 1 rim trigger instead of 3. In this case, you would need to have the platforms for the head triggers because otherwise you won't create enough separation between head and rim events (i.e. all of the piezos on the platform will vibrate similarly whether they are on the topside or bottom side off the platform when the rim is struck). The platform acts as some degree of isolation so that the head piezo will vibrate differently to the rim piezo when the rim is struck.
- On Nemo first edition I notice there were 3 rim triggers directly on the shell. It's hard to tell from photos but I wonder if they are properly elevated using an adhesive dot that is a smaller than the ceramic (and whether this matters as much for piezos that don't have cones?). I also notice that AKA Wayne had attached these to metal brackets which secured the main platform also. In other words, this is an important design difference that would be expected to affect whether or not PS worked properly. I would be totally guessing here but I would have thought striking the rim that metal vs wood vibration (AKA Wayne) would produce greater separation between head and rim than wood vs wood (Nemo).
- The wiring in Nemo first edition doesn't look nearly as robust as AKA Wayne. You did mention that you checked everything with a multimeter. After that you mentioned that because there was a hotspot there couldn't be an issue with wiring. For a multi trigger design like this, bad wiring would be expected to create a hotspot, if the issue was in 1 head trigger alone. The Trigman edition wiring resembles closer to what AKA Wayne has. Not saying that wiring is the issue but if we are to understand the reasons why the first try didn't work then we need to analyse every point of difference.
Sounds like you have both succeeded where many have failed. you have both managed to get designs that are highly responsive, produce good even triggering, allow good PS and eliminate hotspot without need for the HSS feature on eDrumin. Excellent work! I will try my hand at this design next to see if I can make it work on the first go - otherwise I'll be in touch with Trigman also!
