Electronic Drum Lights Prototype

Here are some pictures of my latest drum light prototype. These will flash an LED strand that is programmed to the midi output of the drums. I am sure a lot of you have seen me working on different versions of this over the past several months. I had the boards made at a manufacturer in China, and I did the soldering myself. Pretty time consuming to do it by hand.

I am currently working on a version that will work with acoustic or electronic drums.

Here is a video of my drum lights in action on an acoustic set of drums. My circuit boards should be here for 50 units, in the next couple of weeks.

VIDEO

slightly twitchy here and there but a fine piece of kit there

I watched about the first 4 minutes. It wasn't clear as to how/who was changing the color selection. Did you edit that part out? I also watched small snips from 4th to end.

Nice effects overall. Just needs long streamers of sparks/arcs flying between the cymbals to complete the set

Yeah, that was due to some quickly thrown together piezo triggers. They kept coming unstuck from the drum head and causing triggering issues. It had nothing to do with the circuitry itself. Thanks for the props though.

The colors are pre-programmed (by the user) in banks or maps (whatever you want to call it) you can change banks with the simple push of the up or down button on the module and change your entire color setup. There are 10 programmable banks. You can see the drummer reach over to the module at times to change the color. I also have jack on it for using a foot switch to move between banks.

Thanks, we are working on some lasers as we speak! Hadn't thought of arcs.......hmmm might be cool, if a little dangerous!

looks like it would be just about blinding in a dark room. might be a great idea for a rock concert or something. ill give you props for a great idea though. )

I know that this might be treading on the edge of spamming, but since I don't think anyone here is going to buy one of our systems I thought I would post a link to my drum lights website to get your opinion. This is only my second website so please go easy on me! I am also adding a store with everything in one place so you don't have to search the site to buy stuff.

HERE is the link.

I need to know if it shows off my product like I would like it to. Thanks for all of the advice that I received on this forum in creating it!

"Midi Knights Pro is the best midi activated LED lighting system designed for midi based musical instruments."

you may think/know that it is "the best" ... but this inviting/alluding to a direct and documented comparison .
think of the old detergent ads that said "the whitest whites ..." . ok , prove it to me .
something along the lines of "based on research of the shortcomings of similar equipment ..." would convey the care taken in the design of the unit .



"With its feature rich options you have full control over an unique light show that only Midi Knights can bring you."
the product name is broken up on the site ... restructure the statement .



"Midi Knights Pro controls 13 different channels of multi colored LED strips providing you with nearly infinate color possibilites.
"multi colored" is one word , spelling on the other two words .



"13 Channel Red, Green Blue LED infinite color mixing output capability or 39 single color output capability (compare to our leading competitor with only eight single color LED outputs)"

this might be better worded as "(other manufacturers offer much less flexibility)" ...
this will avoid any hint of direct competitiveness , but will bring such things to the attention of a prospective client .
"plant the seed"


"Up to 3 amps output for each channel"
change to "capable of 3 amperes ..."

so much for going easy on you .

Nope, that is exactly what I was after CWB. Thanks for your honesty and giving me those very helpful hints. I will incorporate it shortly!

EDIT: made the suggested changes. I may still need to work on the wording some....

"infinite"

loose the hyphen in "multi-colored" .

the animated script : "an led lighting show ..."
it reads and sounds "clunky" ... especially the first two words .
maybe do some color/sequence changes ... after all this is one of the primary functions you are hawking .

@ GPG : yeppers , it is "infinite" not "infinate" .

"12 volt regulated voltage supply included (comes ready for your country)"
change "voltage" to "power" .

"With its feature rich options and ..."
"its" should be "it's" (i believe) or drop the word ... it has been established what you are referencing .
adjustability ... hmmm ... perhaps :
"rich in features and flexible in options , you will have full control over a unique light show with Midi Knights Pro" .
this flows better and avoids making a unfounded statement that brings a competitor's device into the mental picture .

"Midi Knights Pro is setting the standard for midi activated LED lighting ..."
perhaps "raising the standard" ?
this would tend to make others aware that other equipment might not be the greatest ... give them pause to consider and make a comparison in their own mind .
ergo : "are you tired of the same ol' sh** ?"

Great stuff CWB!!!

I was planning to make the animated script better when I get a chance. What I really wanted was to have the "LED's" flash several different colors after the script had scrolled, but I have to figure out how to do it.

I just spent all day yesterday converting the entire site from HTML to PHP and I had to do a lot of learning in the process. I think it is all there now. Got a template so now all I have to do is make changes to the body and save it as a new page. I hope that will save me time in the future.

I will "definitely" make all of the changes you suggested! My partner had started the website and I took it over so he could focus on programming the chips, so a lot of the writing part was done by him and I haven't had a chance to look it over closely yet.

As always, any critiques, comments or preferably praise and compliments are very welcome!

J

Make the punctuation for the "tic" points under "Midi Knights Pro Features" consistent.. Capitalize the first word of those that are not presently so (or change them all to lower case)..

"With its feature rich options and ..."
"its" is correct; "it's" is the contraction for "it is".. Possessive form rule doesn't apply to "it"..

I haven't had a chance to make any of the editorial changes yet, but I did spend the day adding a store page if anyone cares to check it out.

VISIT THE STORE

I have added an easily removable LED mounting strip to my product line. It is a 1/2" (13mm) wide high impact clear acrylic strip. It is held in place by Velcro (nothing is stuck to the drum) and not only looks good, but functions great as well! It can be mounted inside or outside of the drum shell.

Here is the Photobucket album with the pics of the new mounting system prototype.

You greatly did this