My New Yamaha Setup

[alviswesley]

Here are some pics of my new Yamaha setup. I combined my DTXtreme IIs and DTXtreme III to make this kit. I used all 15 inputs on the III.

Combined IIs and III racks
DTXtreme IIs and DTXtreme III modules
TP-100 5
TP-120 3
PCY-155 1
PCY-135 3
PCY-130
RHH-135
KP-125

[alviswesley]

Left side view

[alviswesley]

modules on portable stand

[alviswesley]

another left side

[CaTaPulT]

NICE!
Looks great Alvis.
You came up with some neat ideas for the rack and the pad placement is pretty cool! :)
Looking forward to hearing you play this baby! :)
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[OverLord]

I don't know - it looks like you could fit a few more pads in there!
Heh, seriously, looks great.

[TAKnipe]

Alvis, The new setup looks great. The room is nice also, it is so nice to have a dedicated room to play with your toys. Mine is below ground level. ;D Small windows.


BTW, you can put many pics in 1 post. After you upload just click on more attachments and upload more. We are high tech here lol. Seriously the kit looks great. Tom

[Axe_Grinder]

Very, VERY nice, Alvis!! Looks fantastic. Looks like you still need to do your 'Y' s though ;D

In all seriousness... That looks so fantastic... You want to come and setup mine too? - haha

[alviswesley]

Thanks, Jack , Tom, Ron, and Overlord ! Overlord, Do I lose wuffie if I call you Michael? It`s like my wife said when I was building this. " That looks like tinker toys for big boys". LOL.
Thanks again guys, Alvis ;D

[alviswesley]

Ron, I hooked up all my "Y" adapters when I wired the kit yesterday. I was so sure my idea would work I did not feel the need to check one first before I hooked up all 15 of them. LOL. Yep, You guessed it. When I sat down to try it out it did not work right. I could play all the main pad zones on each module but none of the rim switches or pad controllers would work on either kit. So I just removed them for now until I can sort the problem out. All the "Y" adapters are TRS stereo. For some reason a signal gets sent back through "Y" that cancels the rim switches. Strange. Maybe I`ll figure it out later. I guess if I want to play the IIs I will just pull the plugs from the III and stick em in the IIs. Either that or get a couple of MIDI cables and turn the midi merge function on in the modules, But i`m not up to speed on all that. Alvis

[alviswesley]

Her is a photo of the "Y" adapters I am trying to use. The idea is to plug a stereo pad into the female end and one male into each module. Does anyone know why this don`t work right ? I thought maybe the F to F part might not realy be stereo like it says it is so I went to Radio Shack and bought a different one just to check. Same problem though. Alvis

[Axe_Grinder]

A little diagnostic work... What happens when you unplug one of the stereo lines going to one of the modules... does the other module work completely then and vise-versa? If not, it sounds like you may need to add a resistor into the line at the pad end. i hate to be the barer of bad news.... but, being those are molded they will present a problem. Don't shoot the messenger. :)

I'm not positive of this theory... as I am not all too familiar with Yamaha's electronics... but this is what it sounds like to me.

If I could test the theory for you I would, sorry :(


Let me know how things turn out.

[alviswesley]

Ron, Thanks for the idea. I tried it and each one works fine without the other pluged in. There must be something different about the way Yamaha uses the switch signal from the II and III. Oh well, I`ll think of something. At least I know it`s not my adapters now.
Thanks again, Alvis

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Alvis.
I could be wrong here since I've never tried this myself.
The Yamaha cables are straight tip to tip, ring to ring and sleeve to sleeve cables.
Unlike conventional stereo cables (home entertainment) they don't share a common ground.
So the Y-adapter would have to be wired this way to work........
tip, ring and sleeve of the 2 plugs at the Y side would have to be wired to the tip, ring and sleeve of the main plug.
Right now, they are probably wired in this manner (typical home entertainment stereo connection.....
1st plug at Y side left, right, sleeve
2nd plug at Y side left right, sleeve
Main plug... left, right, sleeve.
Thus all wires go to the main plug with a shared sleeve.

To get this to work, you'd probably have to make your own like this........

1st Y plug.... tip(red), ring(green), sleeve(black)
2nd Y plug.... tip(red), ring(green), sleeve(black)
Main plug.... tip x2(red), ring x2(green), sleeve x2(black)

Thus all wires are directly connected to each plug with no wires being common between all connections. tip to tip, ring to ring and sleeve to sleeve.
My guess, this would send the same signal to both module with all 3 zones working.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[CaTaPulT]

Case in point.
When I was building the first Project WTF, I ran out of long cables to I decided to use a 1/4 inch stereo extension cable (headphones) and the pad connected was acting wierd, the zones were either not working or the wrong sound on the wrong zone, I can't remember.
I went out, bought the parts to make my own extension cable and wired it straight.... tip to tip, ring to ring, sleeve to sleeve.
That did the trick, worked perfectly. Thus my theory behind the previous message.
My guess is, 3 zones, 3 straight wire connection, one of the wires probably also acts as a ground.
Stereo cable (home entertainment) has 4 wires setup this way.
Right and ground
Left and ground
each channel has it's own ground thus the extra wire.
To make the Y-adapters you need, there is no ground. Actualy, I will draw out a little diagram quickly and post it here.
Be back in a bit! :)
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

EDIT: Here's the diagram! :)

[alviswesley]

Hi Jack, I got your message. Thanks for taking the time to help me with this. I have one question though. If what you explained is the problem why does it work properly when I only plug one end of the "Y" into only one module. Both modules work fine when I try this test. It`s only when I plug both modules into the "Y" at the same time that there is a problem. It`s like the two modules conflict with each other somehow.
I`m stumped for the moment. Alvis

[CaTaPulT]

Hmmmm, good question.
If these Y-adapters are wired in a typical home entertainment stereo setup, then you have 4 wires, tip/sleeve and ring/sleeve (this gives each channel (left and right) a ground.
Thus when both modules are plugged in, one cancels the other out sort of thing.
Maybe if I have time on next days off I might mess with this, see if I can make it work.
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[CaTaPulT]

Hi Alvis.
You are right, this will not work.
I just tried it the way I had mentioned and it didn't work.
Seems one module cancels out the other, obviously the modules are sending a signal to the pads and one cancels out the other.
I tried this between the snare port on both the IIs and the IV (both are 3 zone) and I had one module recognizing all 3 zones, the other module would only play the main pad, even when the first module was turned off, only the main pad play, I had to unplug the pad from the first module to get the second module to play all 3 zones.
Oh well, it was worth a try.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! :(
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[alviswesley]

Hi Jack, Thanks for testing that for me. Well, the news is not all bad. I can still play the III all I want to! LOL. Live and learn.
Hey, you don`t need any 1 female to 2 male TRS stereo"Y" adapters do you? Only used once. HaHaHa. Thanks again, Alvis

[Axe_Grinder]

I believe you need a resistor to cancel out the signal that is cancelling out the other input... you're creating a switch the way it is currently wired. I could be wrong... hell it's been known to happen.... LOL - I am very new to this stuff. But, this is my take on the sitch. ;D

[alviswesley]

Ron, I think you are probably right on the money. I might look into that in the near future. For now though I will just put it behind and move on. I don`t even know how to operate the III module very well yet.LOL
Thanks for all your help, Alvis

[CaTaPulT]

I hear you on that one Alvis.
The III is laid out so very differently than the IIs, it's like learning it all over again.
Totally different user interface, totally different on how to get things done.
Even choosing a voice for a particular zone is different.
Here goes the learning curve all over again! LOL :)
Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[BobbyMck2]

Alvis, your kit setup looks great. I'm really sorry to read you are having problems with the Y connector idea. What Ron was saying will have something to do with it I'm sure. You have wires the pads in parallel so when you hit a rim, the signal is being sent to the other rim also. and it's dissipating all it's energy the resistance if the switch circuit. Where as a piezo will act like a capacitor and not allow a DC current to pass, like a block allowing most of the center pad hit to be delivered to the modules. A small diode reverse bias to the module would maybe work in each of the rim lines to the module. they act like a switch so the hit from one pad would not reach the other.

[alviswesley]

Thanks Bobby,
I have another friend who knows electronics that also recommended a diode. I think Ron might send me one of his Star Trec flux capacitors with a special anti matter resistor to test. I`m starting to think the pads might actually need a return signal for the pad controllers to work properly. If that is the case then I may be SOL because I want my pad controllers to work.
Thanks again, Alvis

[ghostman]

Looks great! I am glad someone else is moving forward, my kit re-build seems to be going slowly.. but then, I don't have my room to play in yet, so, even if I do finish it, I can't really play it.. Anyway, great job, I really like the tom placement on the left hand side..

[alviswesley]

Thanks Ghostman,
The way it is setup all the preset kits are still playable and it just expands out from there. I have some roto toms assigned to a couple of the pads on the left on one of the kits. It`s working great for me so far. I hope you can get yours built soon. I would like to see it.
Thanks again, Alvis :)