Drums (Part 3 of N)

With L's help, the re-soldering got completed today. Here's what the box looks like just before assembly:

I've included all the tools nearby, as otherwise it looks very strange as you get random bits of tools near the box. Maybe this is an indication that I should actually pose my picture subjects better? Anyways, you can see the two connecting ends now, as well as where the USB cable to the Xbox fits into the lower box half. Finally, here's what the box looks like when powered up:

The light's on, the buttons are visible... some of them even work! For some reason the A and B buttons have stopped working, not sure why but I don't really want to take apart the circuit board to see the opposite side (which is where the buttons are mounted). The controller works fine though, so I can use the drums as those buttons, just can't use them on the box. Everything else appears to be fine though, so it'll do!

Next post: The drum kit itself! Plus possibly a video of actually playing a song. If there's interest and/or I can figure out how to do it decently.

Drums (Part 2 of N)

So, in the last post you saw the results of my ripping apart the Rock Band drum kit, plus the extra MIDI hardware. This post we get to take a look at the black box that everything's going into so that it's not strewn about all over the place. It certainly works that way, but this should be much nicer.

First up, we have the main box:
I've installed the MIDI port as you can see on the left, and most of the holes have been drilled, though as it turns out I needed two more on the bottom as my measurements were horribly wrong. I don't know how I was off by 1 cm twice and didn't catch it, but that's what happened.

Here's the completed box bottom, with everything hooked up. The wrapped cable (with convenient ethernet/RJ45 jack) attaches to a similar port that's on the box top. That way it's fairly easy to remove the top if needed, without having to undo every single wire.
Note the hole at the top, that's for the USB cable from the RB drum kit controller to the XBox. It just barely fits through, and I haven't figured out a good way to brace it so that tugs on the cable will transfer to the box rather than the circuit board. It looks like there's an angle brace I can set up, but the only way I can see to secure it right now is via epoxy, a bit annoying as it would make the top non-removable.

Here's the top (underside view):
Yep, those are balsa wood strips. They're covering up holes between the controller and the top, so that the epoxy doesn't drip down (much). The top was roughly measured, and cut via jigsaw. It wasn't very accurate, but I don't mind as it should be easy enough to paint up, and it's more about the functionality. The epoxy has fully set now, so it's pretty solid. The other side has all the buttons. They seem to work fine, though one or two feel a tad bit off. Note that the two unsoldered wires haven't been reattached yet. Soon!

Drums (Part 1 of N)

Okay, I'm back. Here's a side project I've been working on recently:


What's that, a ripped up Rock Band drum kit? Yep, sure is. I left the green pad on, because by the time I had figured out how to remove the pads, it was apparent that I didn't actually need the green one removed in order to remove the part I wanted:

Yep, that's some cutouts from the middle two drums (it's a separate piece of plastic that's in those two only), plus the main controller board upon which rests the normal buttons, though those are on the underside as shown.

Here's what the interior of a drum head looks like:

Note the white block in the bottom left, and in the center. Those are the spots where the drum pad actually connects to the the components shown. It looks like the pad has a piezo that's connected to some wires which go into that connector, probably so that the pads can be replaced easily. Here's what the other side of a pad looks like:
You can see the piezo in the center, plus some foam padding. The four rubber plugs are how the pad connects to the main drum kit. I've got a few extra drum heads if anyone needs to fix one. (One of each color, should be working fine, unlike the rest of the kit!)

And now for the payoff: the main control board, a closeup.

Note the inelegantly soldered wires to various spots on the main board. Those are the points that correspond to each drum. Two of the wires have come loose and aren't connected in this picture.

Finally, here's a neat bit of circuitry:

The board on the left is a MIDI decoder (with the MIDI port not attached), hooked up to a barrier strip that leads into a wire bundle. This wire bundle connects to the Rock Band board shown above, and the whole point is to let MIDI signals control the Rock Band drum board and send signals to the XBox, thus letting one play Rock Band Drums, using any MIDI device.

The whole setup's been tested a few times and works great, but isn't in a very usable condition - a lot of stuff has to be moved around, and it's a bit clunky. Plus, I need to resolder those wires.

More on this subject later, including pictures of the MIDI device that's the point of the whole thing, the building of the enclosure to hold all the circuit boards, and maybe even a video.