question on strength of piezo elements

[mbira]

Hi guys,
I'm curious about your experience with piezo elements in drum use.

I'm not actually using these to trigger drum sounds, but rather to trigger clips in ableton when hitting them with a hard mallet. I have 3" diameter pieces of wood that are about 3/4" thick. I then used a forestner bit to drill a 1" hole about 1/4" into the center. I epoxied the piezo into the hole and soldered it up. I then cover the whole hole with epoxy so there is no chance of those solder joints coming lose after extensive road abuse (that has already happened to an earlier version...)

So at this point, when striking the piezo, ther is about 1/4" of wood between the mallet and the element. I don't have any padding to coushin the blow.

My question is is this physically damaging to the element do you think?

The trigger is very sensitive, but I'm not sure if I should be looking into adding padding, or trying to dial the thresholds within the megadrum.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Joel

[jman 31]

This is very likely to damage the piezo over a period of time. Maybe try putting some mouse pad rubber or something like that over it to take some of the impact off of the element. The ceramic part of the piezo is easily damaged.

[mbira]

Thanks. Makes sense. I actually have some old yoga mats that we use for padding on some instruments. I think that will work well as a cushion.