Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

Hi Everyone...

I have an SDS7 Selector Pad that until recently was working flawlessly. Now, when pressed or tapped, several of the 16 pad buttons on the thing do not respond and the program on the SDS7 fails to advance to the assigned Pgm. I've recreated the Prog Sel Pad Pgm assignments again but same result.

Before I pop the thing open, would anyone have an idea of what might be the cause of this? The unit has never seen the Road or been mishandled.. and resides in a smoke free studio.

Broken or cracked wiring? Button Contacts corroded?
Thoughts?

Cheers and thanks!
Alan

music@... skrev 2014-02-27 17:09:

> Hi Everyone...
>
> I have an SDS7 Selector Pad that until recently was working flawlessly.
> Now, when pressed or tapped, several of the 16 pad buttons on the thing
> do not respond and the program on the SDS7 fails to advance to the
> assigned Pgm. I've recreated the Prog Sel Pad Pgm assignments again but
> same result.
>
> Before I pop the thing open, would anyone have an idea of what might be
> the cause of this? The unit has never seen the Road or been mishandled..
> and resides in a smoke free studio.
>
> Broken or cracked wiring? Button Contacts corroded?
> Thoughts?
>
> Cheers and thanks!
> Alan

I have two and have seen the inside... I deem the selector pad to be the
crappiest Simmons product ever as far as hardware goes. A thing you're
meant to hit isn't a good thing to design with flimsy electronics inside...

The pads are sending info by connecting two grids of contact surfaces.
These are basically tinfoil. Imagine what time and wear does to that...

So yes, broken _and_ cracked wiring. You might have a look inside, but I
decided that one of mine was usable (two dead pads) and one is beyond
repair (three working pads).

--
electronically yours, jesper

- -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
www.electronic-obsession.se

---

Angaudlinn on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/angaudlinn/id582356650

Angaudlinn on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B00AI3LNNM?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Angaudlinn&index=digital-music&search-type=ss

Angaudlinn's playlist på Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/user/simplyanalogue/playlist/540Srd3zA15pK7G1S8qLHo

Angaudlinn on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Angaudlinn



----- Original Message -----

From: jesper

To: Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 5:48 PM

Subject: Re: [Simmons Drums] SDS7 Program Selector Pad issues

music@... skrev 2014-02-27 17:09:
> Hi Everyone...
>
> I have an SDS7 Selector Pad that until recently was working flawlessly.
> Now, when pressed or tapped, several of the 16 pad buttons on the thing
> do not respond and the program on the SDS7 fails to advance to the
> assigned Pgm. I've recreated the Prog Sel Pad Pgm assignments again but
> same result.
>
> Before I pop the thing open, would anyone have an idea of what might be
> the cause of this? The unit has never seen the Road or been mishandled..
> and resides in a smoke free studio.
>
> Broken or cracked wiring? Button Contacts corroded?
> Thoughts?
>
> Cheers and thanks!
> Alan

I have two and have seen the inside... I deem the selector pad to be the
crappiest Simmons product ever as far as hardware goes. A thing you're
meant to hit isn't a good thing to design with flimsy electronics inside...

The pads are sending info by connecting two grids of contact surfaces.
These are basically tinfoil. Imagine what time and wear does to that...

So yes, broken _and_ cracked wiring. You might have a look inside, but I
decided that one of mine was usable (two dead pads) and one is beyond
repair (three working pads).

--
electronically yours, jesper

- -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
www.electronic-obsession.se

---

Angaudlinn on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/angaudlinn/id582356650

Angaudlinn on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B00AI3LNNM?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Angaudlinn&index=digital-music&search-type=ss

Angaudlinn's playlist på Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/user/simplyanalogue/playlist/540Srd3zA15pK7G1S8qLHo

Angaudlinn on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Angaudlinn

I didn't realize that I had to remove the rubber that is taped down to the chassis in order to access the FSR contacts.... was hoping they would be inside the case itself. The chassis merely houses an Earth tap, a ribbon connector to/from the FSRs, and a bit of shielded cable that exits out of the chassis to the SDS7. Huhn.

Before I attempted prying the rubber surface off and risking damaging it, I tried the Selector Pad on a second SDS7... and was surprised to see that Selector Pad buttons 2, 6, 10, 14 (basically, the second column on the Selector Pad) which didn't work on the first SDS7 worked on the second SDS7... however, pad buttons 9, 11, 13 which did work on the first SDS7 now didn't work on the second SDS7 !!!!

So, this points to an issue on the SDS7's themselves I would think. Either the connector on the back of the SDS7 cases or a component inside the Brains needing attention...

Thoughts?

Cheers
Alan



----- Original Message -----

From: music@...

To: Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 11:40 PM

Subject: Re: [Simmons Drums] SDS7 Program Selector Pad issues

I didn't realize that I had to remove the rubber that is taped down to the chassis in order to access the FSR contacts.... was hoping they would be inside the case itself. The chassis merely houses an Earth tap, a ribbon connector to/from the FSRs, and a bit of shielded cable that exits out of the chassis to the SDS7. Huhn.

Before I attempted prying the rubber surface off and risking damaging it, I tried the Selector Pad on a second SDS7... and was surprised to see that Selector Pad buttons 2, 6, 10, 14 (basically, the second column on the Selector Pad) which didn't work on the first SDS7 worked on the second SDS7... however, pad buttons 9, 11, 13 which did work on the first SDS7 now didn't work on the second SDS7 !!!!

So, this points to an issue on the SDS7's themselves I would think. Either the connector on the back of the SDS7 cases or a component inside the Brains needing attention...

Thoughts?

Cheers
Alan

I have the same problem with a selector pad completely new. So, probably the problem is in the SDS7 or selector pad connections. Don´t try to remove the rubber!. Most probably that you end up breaking the FSR contacts (sadly, I know from experience).

unlikely to be IC14 as I assume the rest of the IO functions are working. Look at IC11 (7407) these are the output buffers to the pads or IC5 (74LS09) which act to debounce the pad signals coming into the cpu board.
It could be dirty contacts or bad tracks or dry solder joints somewhere in the connections to and from these IC's

A test of the Selector Pad revealed that it is 100% functional. All pressure pads on the Selector work flawlessly.
However, on this Selector Pad, Pins 4 & 6 were Pgm 2 and Pins 4 & 5 are PGM 3.. which differs slightly from what Michael indicates below. (2&6=P14, 3&5=P7)
One of the SDS7s being tested with the Selector Pad is a low numbered early "white" connector version, and the other one of the last ones to be made. But I doubt they would have made a change to the Sel Pad pinouts along the way?

Here are my Sel Pad test results:
PGM Pin Pin
01 4 7
02 4 6
03 4 5
04 4 8
05 3 7
06 3 6
07 3 5
08 3 8
09 1 7
10 1 6
11 1 5
12 1 8
13 2 7
14 2 6
15 2 5
16 2 8

Next, I test the SDS7s

Cheers
Alan

Hy Mike...could you give me your email? Iam interest in getting a modified pedal for my Sds V . Thanks....

No Myke ...
"Michael Buchner" one our German Simmons genious & activists.


----- Mail d'origine -----
De: mariocalandrelli@...
À: Simmons Drums <Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com>
Envoyé: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:01:31 +0100 (CET)
Objet: Re: [Simmons Drums] SDS7 Program Selector Pad issues

Would anyone be keen on designing a smaller version of the SDS7 Selector Pad? One that would mount to a tom arm or Rack maybe? The smaller buttons or contact surfaces could be tapped manually in similar fashion to the existing Selector Pad.. however... could MIDI IN (for Pgm change requests) be implemented?

So in theory, a DAW or other MIDI controller might send a MIDI PGM Change to this Selector, which in turn would change the SDS7 PGM to whatever PGM is assigned to any of the 16 slots.

One would essentially have 16 PGMs on the SDS7 available from a MIDI PGM Change command, hopefully for much less cash outlay than having a Kenton retrofit installed (that is if they still do those)... AND also have a much smaller and less problematic manually accessible selector pad in much closer proximity to the drummer...

Thoughts?

T14

I for one would dearly love for someone to design up / manufacture an alternative to the SDS7 selector pad - like what was done for the memory cartridges. Mr Warland, could you possibly extend your magic into this realm?


Rob.


E: rob.mayo@...
P: +64 22 041 8498 , +81 80 4086 1321
S: odaikorob
F: rob.mayo@...

Yes, please! Mr Warland... what say you sir?


In the interim, I found this 8-port device made by MIDI Solutions that would require a custom wired adapter be made up, and to run 16 Pgms one would require 2 of these:

http://www.midisolutions.com/prodr8.htm

Perhaps something that already exists in the DMX realm might also offer up a potential solution..

Cheers

T14

Correction... a little more research has revealed that with a proper adapter made up, one can accomplish addressing 16 Programs using a SINGLE MidiSolutions R8 unit connected to the 10 Pin DIN connector on the SDS7.

What this allows is instead of using the SDS7 Selector to manually call up any of the 16 assigned Pgms.. one can use any MIDI'd Controller such as a Keyboard, Drum Machine, Sequencer, FX unit... virtually anything that sends MIDI Program Changes... to call up the 16 SDS7 Programs !!!

Think of it... you could be playing a live gig and have your keyboardist change the SDS7 Pgm mid-song while you play your kit without having to press anything!!
(Then again, anyone who takes an SDS7 out to a live gig is living dangerously.. but still...)


Teknik14