HiHat pedal using Force Sensing Resistors (FSR)

[Stefan]

Hi,

is it possible to use Force Sensing Resistors (FSR) for a HiHat pedal with MegaDrum?

How do I have to set up the MegaDrumManager with regards to the FSR?

Thanks and regards,
Stefan

[dmitri]

FSR are mostly meant to measure force but not position so I doubt you can easily design a pedal using a FSR which translates position into force.

[Stefan]

Hi dmitri,

I wanted to use the FSR as a simple pedal to tell MegaDrum the HiHat opening position based on the related force.
Is it possible for MegaDrum to register the force from the FSR (meaning how much it is pressed by a foot) and translate it into the relevant information?

Sorry if my explanation is not very clear...

Regards,
Stefan

[dmitri]

MegaDrum doesn't measure position or force directly - it measures voltage. If you can design mechanics of the pedal in such a way that it translates position into force then you can use FSR.

[privatex]

FSR's are well used by roland (fd 7 and 8) and they work good. It is better for you to use hall effect controller or even optical. You can set your megadrum to work with any of those three concepts, the question is which of those way will work best for you. For me it is hall effect but I have builded optical too and it works just as well as any of other.
http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/2008/06/19/fun-with-resistive-position-se/

[Stefan]

@dmitri:

If you can design mechanics of the pedal in such a way that it translates position into force then you can use FSR.

Sorry dmitri, but I don't understand properly.
I understood from you that I cannot solder the FSR directly to the megadrum, right?
What do I have to add that megadrum is able to use it? And to which pad connector do I have to attach it?

You can set your megadrum to work with any of those three concepts, the question is which of those way will work best for you. For me it is hall effect but I have builded optical too and it works just as well as any of other.

Why is the hall effect better than the FSR? Actually I thought that the FSR is already a quite strait forward solution. Isn't it?

Sorry that I don't have a clue at all, hope you can put some light in here.
Thank you guys for your advice!

Regards,
Stefan

[privatex]

It's an usable as we saw in fd7/8, but hall effect is more accurate (it measure magnetic field strength from magnet). At that page in my previous post you can see accuracy of FSR in this application (was his problem that he wrote).
However any of those three way will work with megadrum and that's real thing, decision is on you. Here on forum you have all three themes covered. I have build hall and optical and both work good, but FSR does not inspire my confidence about his accuracy on long run.. It's just me.

[airflamesred]

I tend to agree with Priatex, here. The FSR is really over engineering as a solution for a hi hat, as Dmitri has mentioned it does measure force, but it also measures position on the FSR mesh which you don't need.

[ignotus]

I've seen quite a few people use an fsr for their hi hat pedal with other modules. As far as I can see, it just changes its resistance depending on the force applied - wouldn't it just be like using a pot? Wouldn't it just work if you wired one connection to the +5v source and the other to the pedal input?

[krickgpe]

Look at this :
http://www.edrum.info/forum/index.php?topic=1672.0