Hello so we have one of the Yamaha DTX series digital drum kits. It has its own base unit with sounds on board then 3 drum pads connected. We are looking to illuminate the drums using EL tape around the perimeter of each one. From my understanding there’s 2 ways to go about this. One way would be to have the base unit of the drumkit output midi information > computer > dmx > EL Tape. The other way would be to somehow wire the EL tape itself into the drums and in essence use the strike of a drum to simply switch the tape on and off. I’m wondering if one of the sparkfun PCB’s might be the way to achieve this? For added information, the drums when hit with a drumstick send the information to the base unit via 1/4 inch jack. There’s 3 drums in total so we would like 3 independant pieces of EL tape to light up accordingly. Any help appreciated thank you! Matt
Hi Matt.
Unfortunately we don’t have a product that’s designed to do what you’re looking for but we have products that when combined and programmed with software you need to write, would probably work.
I’d stick with LED strips rather than EL tape simply because EL tape is very dim, not very long, and requires high voltages to operate. LED strips like [one of these since they’re bright and operate at relatively low voltages. (Plus you can change the color they make.)
I’m not trying to discourage you, but this is going to be a pretty complex project and if you’ve never done any computer programming or embedded electronics, this could take you a very long time to do. (Especially through MIDI)
It might be better for you to look for a commercial DMX lighting solution that can accept MIDI inputs to control lights. I imagine someone probably has a plug and play box that does exactly what you’re looking for.
If anyone else has suggestions, we welcome your input.](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12024)
Hi Matt,
The easiest solution for this would be to use a Piezo vibration sensor like [this or [this along with either the [SparkFun EL Sequencer or the [SparkFun EL Escudo Dos. The Escudo Dos works like a standard Arduino shield so you can pair it with an Arduino like the [SparkFun RedBoard. The EL Sequencer has a microcontroller circuit built in so you can program it however you would like. From there, you can program either an Arduino attached to your Escudo Dos or you can program the EL Sequencer directly to monitor the input from the vibration sensors and then turn on an EL channel whenever the vibration sensor outputs above a certain threshold.
We have Hookup Guides for both the [Piezo Vibration Sensors as well as the [EL Sequencer to get you started here.
I hope this helps you get started with this project. Let us know if you have any follow-up questions about these or any other SparkFun products you want to use for this project.](EL Sequencer/Escudo Dos Hookup Guide - SparkFun Learn)](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/piezo-vibration-sensor-hookup-guide)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13975)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10878)](SparkFun EL Sequencer - COM-12781 - SparkFun Electronics)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9199)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9196)