Configuring hall effect sensor hi-hat?

[John M]

I've mounted a hall effect sensor (#1302) underneath my hi-hat pedal, with a magnet attached to the underside of the pedal. I bench tested it with a 5v feed into the sensor, monitoring output voltage as the magnet was brought towards the sensor. The voltage varied by approx 2.5v depending on how near or close I placed the magnet. The voltage change would rise or fall depending on which side of the sensor was presented to the magnet. Fitting all of this to the hi-hat stand and pedal, I get the same results. It would appear I have the makings of a functional hi-hat controller, or so I thought...

Next I connected the sensor to a TRS socket as per diagrams shared elsewhere on this forum and connected it with a TRS cable to the hi-hat/pedal control input on MD. In MDmanager I set pedal type to FootContr (tried Pot also). Looking at MD's Big VU meter it appears MD doesn't see my pedal i.e. zero movement on the lower VU screen. I've tried selecting Auto Levels and adjusting levels etc but I'm assuming that's a waste of time until MD recognises the pedal has been connected.

Trying to diagnose this a little further, I find 5v on the ring circuit of the hihat/pedal controller circuit. The wiring diagram for the #1302 HES shows the supply voltage coming from the tip of the TRS socket. Have I got my wires crossed, in more ways than one?

Also, when making changes in the HiHat Pedal Settings window in MDM, sometimes the green 'SysEx Ok', changes to a red 'SysEx Error'.

Other info: my hi-hat is a single zone A2E conversion (single piezo on underside of top cymbal), assigned to Channel 2, with Channel 3 disabled. Will a hall effect pedal controller work with a single zone input or must the hi-hat be set up as dual zone for it to work?

[dmitri]

On the modules I build, hihat power is supplied on the ring and the signal level is read on the tip.
When in Pedal->LowLevel o Pedal->HiLevel you can see "raw" values read from the pedal in various positions. Set Pedal->LowLevel a bit higher than the lowest value you get and set Pedal->HiLevel a bit lower than the highest value you get.

[John M]

Thanks Dmitri,

I've got it working. Needs a little fine tuning of settings in both MD and Addictive Drums but it's almost there

[John M]

Good info in this post by gide_x for anyone setting up a hall effect hi-hat in Addictive Drums:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1675