www.megadrum.info

i am going to use piezo buzzers as the sensing part for my triggers, does anyone have any information about these parts?

These will work fine: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... zo&doy=3m4

...and small piece of advice...

Use piezos with factory soldered wires unless you know very well how to solder this sort of material. Not all piezos you can buy have wires presoldered but keep this info in mind please when buying...

Also keep in mind that piezos of diameters > 50 mm are ultrasensitive and capable of generating quite high potential. Of course you can't break anything attaching even large piezos but vibroizolation of such piezos is really an issue.

Typically most buzzers have the wires and are usually smaller than 5 cm in diameter. I used only 'naked' piezos so far (with wires but no casing)

ps
here you can see what you shouldn't rather buy http://www.tme.pl/przetwornik-piezoelek ... uzz20.html

brgds!

astachurski wrote:...and small piece of advice...
here you can see what you shouldn't rather buy http://www.tme.pl/przetwornik-piezoelek ... uzz20.html

Is there any other issue with above transducers than soldering?

No other issues. But soldering a piezo, which doesn't have wires, is REALLY BIG issue. I, for example, had to throw away piezos with broken off wires because I could not reliably re-solder them.

I've soldered loads of them and never had a problem. If you try to solder the wires straight onto the disc they're not going to stick; and if they do they'll soon fall off. You have to scratch the surface where the wires go, just a tiny area, with something very sharp, criss-crossing, both on the ceramic and brass (or whatever it is) parts. As I said, this works perfectly well.

Here's a pretty heavy magnifying glass hanging off a home-soldered piezo, just to illustrate.

nice photo !

Well, than it means that my soldering skills are not up to the task:)

Synthex wrote:nice photo !

Thanks! it was pretty coincidental though...

dmitri wrote:Well, than it means that my soldering skills are not up to the task:)

It's not really that difficult, just like soldering anything else, but if you don't scratch the surface, you'll never get it.

Wireless piezos are cheaper (I bought a whole load of them - 27mm - at around 35 cents each)

ignotus wrote:It's not really that difficult, just like soldering anything else, but if you don't scratch the surface, you'll never get it.

Wireless piezos are cheaper (I bought a whole load of them - 27mm - at around 35 cents each)

I agree. You always have to clean metal surface from oxides, varnish and other dirt before soldering. My first try:


Just asked because I bought exactly ones as in the hyperlink.