My son been given an old Yamaha DD11 drum machine which is pretty cool but it has no foot pad/pedal. I’ve tried to find one online but had no success.

I’ve been told that I may be able to build my own using a piezo?

A piezo is apparently what is used in the pads on the machine too? I had noticed that they are pressure sensitive.

Can anyone tell me about piezo’s? Is this something I can simply buy and build into a home made pedal? Could I then wire it to a mini-jack which will fit the machine?

Thanks

Have a google. You’ll need a simple circuit like this to make a switch:

Circuit above looks what you need.
Piezo is a bit of lead + other bits. Hit it and it will generate a voltage, or put a voltage on it and it will get bigger. (or the reverse)

Tried RS components?

Its a slippery slope your on but enjoy ?

Thanks for the replies.

I’ve just had a quick look at RS and see there are quite a few to choose from!

It looks like they are pre-wired and all I would need to do is fit a mini-jack?

Are these what you see in the new padestrian crossings? Instead of the old push button they now have a button which doesn’t move…

First job is to try to find out what the foot pedal input is in terms of voltage/current specification?

How many pins are there in the connector to which it should be connected?

You need to input a signal of a suitable voltage into the drum machine or it won’t work!