Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

I had to repair an SDX some weeks ago and examined these ZI Pads. There are 2 typical faults: First the metal of the printed coil may oxidize away due to age and humidity. Second: The black plastic cover is damaged and shortcuts. To repair the first fault I make experiments with a "silver conductance paint", sorry for bad english. This is also useful to repair the SDS7's selector pad.
The black (carbon??) plastic is not difficult to replace, I made some experiments with only paper blackened by a pencil. And something to create space between the coil and the paper like small pieces of self adhesive foil. The whole thing, proudly labelled as "FSR" is something like the PCB and buttons of a remote control. The coil has a resistance overall of 15kohms. Now: It must be possible to replace the whole coil by a new etched PCB, may be gold plated (this is not really expensive).
Sometimes it is necessary to connect a wire to the ZI coil. But it is not possible to solder it, because the coil is printed on clear plastic foil. But: If you shoot a coppered staple into the wood near the connection, you can solder the wire to this staple nice and firmly. Then you can paint a connection from the foil to the staple with the "silver conductance paint".
I'm looking forward to repair some ZI Pads, the owner wants to send them to my place soon. So I will talk to you later if I find out more!
Michael

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