Making the jumper wires to connect the piezo to the whiteboard of the Arduino...
Equipment I am using the make these:
- Rainbow wire
- Female Pin Connector
- Male Pin Connector
- Soldering Iron
- Solder (lead free)
- Crimper piler
- Side cutter
- Heat shrinkable tube
- Matches/lighter
Jumper wire (as shown above) can be purchased ready to go however for this project, I needed to solder one end to the piezo, so I decided to use a Dupont connector and rainbow wire to make my own. Additionally, the crimper plier came in a Dupont Connector Kit, so it was more financially viable to use the pieces in the kit rather than spending unnecessary money on jumper wire.
Here are some pics of the process...
Having done some research, I realised it's a good idea to mark out the 'positive' and the 'negative' sides from both the rainbow wire to the piezo and the rainbow wire to the Arduino (for ease of use later on when connecting it all up), so I used heat shrinkable tubing (black for negative and red for positive) to mark each side.
Once I pulled the wires apart and into groups of two, I began to make the dupont connectors on the ends of each set. Having added heat shrinkable tubing to distinguish between the positive (colour) and negative (black) sides, it really made it easier to set up the piezos to the whiteboard of the Arduino.
Dupont Connector Kit: https://www.amazon.com.au/WayinTop-Connector-Crimping-Crimper-Terminals/dp/B07JG8HVLG/ref=sr_1_14?crid=B7PNTMUPSVYY&keywords=dupont+connector+kit&qid=1573472941&sprefix=dupont+co%2Caps%2C305&sr=8-14
TIP: Measure as much rainbow wire as it needed for the bass drum (as this is the longest wire and has to reach the floor) and then cut the wire using the side cutter. It doesn't matter if the 4 drum pads have a longer wire, as these can be stored away neatly in a box. This is something I plan to do at the end of my project. During my recent visit to Jaycar to buy the second Arduino starter kit, I enquired about a product that can be used to box everything neatly and here is what they have available...
My solutions at the moment to encase the excess wires, arduino uno and whiteboard are to either buy one of the above enclosures, or possibly refuse the case that came with the Arduino starter kit!
When soldering the rainbow wire to the piezo, the black and red heat shrinkable tube is essential, as if the exposed wires on either side of the piezo touch, they will not function properly.
The trickiest part of soldering the piezo to the rainbow wire was cutting the plastic covering of the piezo wires and not the wire itself (tricky as they are very thin and delicate). I accidentally cut off the wire when I didn't intend to, but I could still use the piezo and just cut the other side to be the same length. I learnt to be careful when using the wire strippers!