Fixing the Drums disconnect problem

[bigbubbagumper6]

Ok I'm not sure exactly how many people are having this problem but I was having it and RMA'd the drums and my new ones have the same problem...

The Problem: While playing the drums will disconnect then automatically reconnect. Causing a few seconds of unresponsiveness. Also causing the red channel lights to flash.

What I've done: Well a lot of people are blaming the batteries coming loose but that's not the case. I modded my drums so they don't need batteries by using a 5v 500mA transformer. I soldered the wires to inside to the board so I know the connections are good. It did cut down on the frequency of the disconnects but they still occur.

I also noticed that pressing the "connect" button on the bottom of the drums makes the problem happen on command. But after disconnecting it I still have the problem so I know it's not that button.


This is what I've tried, with limited success. I thought maybe some other people experiencing the problem could come in and help brainstorm so we can fix the problem. (Or better yet, HMX fix it)

[bigbubbagumper6]

Wow no one cares? Really? :(

[rockcola]

Mine are driving me nuts. Mine dont disconnect but the pads stop responding. Everything else works. Mine is not the batteries either because I have stuffed the cover pretty good.

I believe it is an internal short. If I unplug the footpedel and plug it back in the pads start responding again. I dont have to turn off the drums.

I wish someone can figure this out.

[bigbubbagumper6]

you mean the channel light stays on but the pads stop responding? I had this problem too. Try either changing the batteries or changing the usb port you have the dongle plugged into.

[rockcola]

No, these are Rockband 2 wireless drums so no USB hub. The buttons on the Drums work, but the pads stop responding

[dovanon]

No, these are Rockband 2 wireless drums so no USB hub. The buttons on the Drums work, but the pads stop responding

The PS3 system uses dongles to connect wireless instruments, so the other poster was assuming that you might be having trouble with the particular USB port in which you were using the dongle.

I previously had the disconnect issue, but mine was due to battery jarring. My AC adapter mod easily remedied that.

[litewallace]

Here is the fix. I confirmed it last night. Its the bass petal. Must be shorting out the controller. Try this. I did it and my drums are working perfect now. No disconnect of controller message and no missed notes.

Go to Radio shack. By a male to female 1/4" to 1/8 inch mono adapter. Connect your Rockband original bass petal (or after market. I have a Rhythm maker by Blockhead) in place of the Ion pedal. All the problem go away. I also mounted the controller as far away from the frame as possible but I dont think was part of the problem.

I will be sending Ion a tech email so they know the problem. I DO want a new. working pedal from them.

Hope this helps! Merry Christmas! Rock on! The Ion set is NOW awesome!!!

[dovanon]

Here is the fix. I confirmed it last night. Its the bass petal. Must be shorting out the controller. Try this. I did it and my drums are working perfect now. No disconnect of controller message and no missed notes.

Go to Radio shack. By a male to female 1/4" to 1/8 inch mono adapter. Connect your Rockband original bass petal (or after market. I have a Rhythm maker by Blockhead) in place of the Ion pedal. All the problem go away. I also mounted the controller as far away from the frame as possible but I dont think was part of the problem.

I will be sending Ion a tech email so they know the problem. I DO want a new. working pedal from them.

Hope this helps! Merry Christmas! Rock on! The Ion set is NOW awesome!!!

No one in this thread was talking about an ION pedal or drum set. Thanks for the info, though.

[rockcola]

Thats interesting though, because I have the standard Rockband 2 wireless drums but I can confirm that the pads stop working and when I unplug the drum pedel and plug it back in the pads start working again. However, the pads will stop working if I leave the pedel unplugged to though. So it must be some sort of internal short. Either way I am sick of these problems.

[TO_Psychadelik]

Thats interesting though, because I have the standard Rockband 2 wireless drums but I can confirm that the pads stop working and when I unplug the drum pedel and plug it back in the pads start working again. However, the pads will stop working if I leave the pedel unplugged to though. So it must be some sort of internal short. Either way I am sick of these problems.

I have similar disconnect issues except I have the ION Drumkit. Disconnects whenever it feels like, usually right in the middle of a song. Totally random, and sucks.

[Capriko218]

I wish more people would mod their sets to use an AC Adapter... then we could get a better idea of whether the disconnects are related to the batteries or if it is unrelated (as is my case, and the case of the OP).

[dovanon]

I wish more people would mod their sets to use an AC Adapter... then we could get a better idea of whether the disconnects are related to the batteries or if it is unrelated (as is my case, and the case of the OP).

Agreed. I also wish that EA/HMX could provide some insight into what might be causing the problems based on RMAs that they have conducted. It would be nice to compile a "how to" thread that details troubleshooting methods to determine which connection problem the user is experiencing and how it might be fixed.

[JEmlay]

No one in this thread was talking about an ION pedal or drum set. Thanks for the info, though.

...I'm waiting for the punchline.....

You say no one brought it up but litewallace brought it up and for good reason.

The same exact problem happens with the Ion drum set. So if someone was to use their brain and add up 2 and 2 they should come up with either 4 or the fact that this problem is not wireless RB2 drum set specific.

I'm glad the problem is not specific to my drum set. Although my drums went from being bad to unusable. Now instead of that message popping up my drums just stop responding. Then if you unplug the drums and plug them back in, the game quits out of the song you're in and dumps you to the main menu.

That is of course the most useful thing in the world after song 6 in a 7 song set!!!!!

For those with Ion drums, does this also happen? Swipe your hand across the blue pad, does the disconnect message pop up? I can't figure that one out either.

Thanks for the info, I'll check out the kick pedal when I get home tonight!

[Sovelis]

I was having an issue like this with my drum set the DAY AFTER I GOT THE FREAKIN thing, so i was scrambling around these forums when i discovered the battery jarring thing. At first i was skeptical too but i tried the duct tape idea and ever since it has helped me. I've only played twice since i "fixed" it so i'll keep you "posted" if things change.... no pun intended.. :P

[Zipfinator]

I've been having problems with the pads not responding. Most of the time it happens when I hit the drum pads normally in the middle, so I've gotten used to hitting it soft at the bottom of the pad which still causes it to happen sometimes. Normally if you hit the pads hard they start responding again, but sometimes nothing fixes it unless I take out the batteries and put them back in. Most of the time it happens when hitting the yellow and blue pads for obvious reasons. I've tried stuffing the case, it's gotten worse now though. I'm getting sick of it, been dealing with it for 3 months and Harmonix hasn't said anything about it yet. I may try the AC adapter fix, but I'm afraid that wont fix it... I'll report back soon after I try the AC adapter.

[II_Iron]

I too am having this problem. My 60-day warranty just ran out too so I was wondering if any has found a fix for this???

[wellsy37]

I am also running into this problem and notice that it happens when I hit the second pad from the left (I'm not that hard core I don't know which color that is from memory) I have only owned the drum set for about 3 days... we used them ALOT in those three days though!!! Any chance getting cymbals will help this? One thing that I have done to fix the problem for about 20 minutes was to re-sync the drums with my xbox... then it pops up again 20 minutes later, which makes me think its not a power problem

[Ghostbuster]

Here is the fix. I confirmed it last night. Its the bass petal. Must be shorting out the controller. Try this. I did it and my drums are working perfect now. No disconnect of controller message and no missed notes.

Go to Radio shack. By a male to female 1/4" to 1/8 inch mono adapter. Connect your Rockband original bass petal (or after market. I have a Rhythm maker by Blockhead) in place of the Ion pedal. All the problem go away. I also mounted the controller as far away from the frame as possible but I dont think was part of the problem.

I will be sending Ion a tech email so they know the problem. I DO want a new. working pedal from them.

I'm having this same problem with the Ion kit. Glad to see it's not just my set.

Mine will randomly disconnect, causing my game to pause, but immediately give me the message that the controller has been reconnected and to hit green to continue. I haven't been dumped out to the dashboard at all like one person had mentioned, but it's still frustrating.

I've tried contacting Ion about the situation at least three times with no response. If anyone finds a working means of communication with Ion Customer Support, please PM me and let me know what you did to get a response. This is ridiculous.

So it's the pedal, huh? I've been considering getting a kick box and a bass trigger and using my real pedal to replace the Ion one. Maybe if Ion continues to ignore me I'll pony up the means to make that happen.

Thanks guys.

[MostWanted12]

I have to same problem with my Ion drums in the middle of a song they disconnect causing the game to pause and then reconnect within about 3 seconds and unpause the game its real annoying. I have been trying to find a fix but no luck so far...

[xphacter]

For the people with disconnecting problems that have the ION Drum Rocker, put the game on NO FAIL mode and disconnect the drum pedal. Then test the game out. You may have a faulty pedal. Call Customer Support: 401.658.3743. Remember this is for the Drum Rocker people only.

[BlackCat]

Anyone interested:

I tried the RB2 Foot Pedal in the RB1 Drum Kit and didn't have any problems with it. Eventually the RB2 Drums won't turn on, unplugging the Foot Pedal fixed that. But then the RB2 Drums disconnect before the end of the song anyway...

[victorygames]

My RB2 drum went unresponsive for the first time yesterday, mine also has a problem with the cymbal ports, the blue one doesn't seem to recognize that a cymbal is plugged in.

[Xardion]

Who decided it was a good idea to make the drums wireless in the first place?

My RB1 drums have never had any problems with the exception of being loud...and my pedal eventually breaking, but back on subject..


HARMONIX! if you somehow stumble onto this message through some means of a sense of duty, or a faulty mouse, remake the RB2 drums and make them wired again. That would solve many problems, or so I would imagine.

[rogue23]

I have some really random disconnects over the last couple of months, but as of today my RB2 drums are disconnecting fairly often. I tried plugging the dongle into different USB ports on the PS3 to see if that would have anything to do with it, but no luck. I also tried stuffing the battery compartment a little. The problem, for me, seems to happen regardless of which pedal I use (either the stock pedal or the RockPedal).

[Skald359]

My crew polished off the Endless Setlist from RB1 on New Year's Day, so we picked up the RB2 kit this weekend. Set up the drums, regular kit, no cymbals or mods. We had the same problem, but worse.

At least once a song it would drop connection for about a second or two - not enough for the game to pause, just outright missing notes. Also, about every three songs, it would lose connection entirely, but not auto-pause - flashing lights on the drum and dongle, but the song kept rolling. We even ran a USB hub out so that the dongle was only 2 feet from the kit, tried swapping ports on the PS3, still no improvement. Eventually we just pulled out our RB1 kit and rocked with that.

I'll do some experimentation tonight with stuffing the battery case, but since people who have done the AC conversion still have this problem I'm not hopeful, and I don't want to ruin my RMA terms if we do and this is still present. Then again, since some are having this problems still after receiving an RMA, I'm stumped. The RB2 kit is nicer, but it's just flat-out not working. I think our drummer was ready to go Danzig on the thing.

Any pointers?

[dovanon]

I'll do some experimentation tonight with stuffing the battery case, but since people who have done the AC conversion still have this problem I'm not hopeful, and I don't want to ruin my RMA terms if we do and this is still present.

My AC adapter mod makes no permanent modifications to your set. I use the alligator clip method, and it's perfectly reliable. If it doesn't work, just unclip the leads and return the set.

[Lucavi]

I did this and it seemed to fix my set. All the pads would be unresponsive until I reconnected. Link:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4046699&postcount=26