Wondering how use Omega pedal with practice pad

[kenshin_esca]

I'm trying to set up the omega pedal with the practice pad, I've heard of others doing this, but can't quite get it. I've tried the the 2 allen screws on the beater holder those just move it side to side. I've tried the allen screw to the left of the beater angle adjustment which loosens the chain, I just tightened that one back up because that probably would have messed with the sensor registering hits. Am I missing something here? There's gotta be a way to adjust this so it works with a practice pad any help would really be appreciated thanks.

[Redley78]

I'm glad somebody else started a thread on this because i have been trying to figure out how to do this too. Im sure alot of people are interested, but so far only Awizardly claims to have done it. I wrote him a PM (see below), but he never responded.
"Hi, i saw you have the omega pedal and you seem to be the only one that i can find that has hooked up the pedal with the gibralter practice pad. I have been thru all of your posts (all that i can find) and haven't seen where you explicitly detail how to make the beater adjust to hit the practice pad. I know there are several people out there that are interested in this mod, but the knowledge isnt out there, especially since many people arent IRL drummers and its their first experience with a real pedal. Would you mind telling me, or starting a new thread on how you did this. Im sure the rockband community would be grateful, as would i."
Anyways, im hoping we can hook up our omega pedal without doing the ghetto mod where you attach the sensor to the practice pad.

[Cpt_Spau1ding]

easiest way would be to loosen everything (beater, chain drive, and spring adjuster) then take off the nut on the left. pull the axel out and re-insert the beater/chain drive i the proper position. then reassemble. adjust the clip so that it clicks an inch or so before striking the pad.

maybe this isn't what you wanted to know, but if you want to rig a switch in a practice pad, that's a whole different thing.

[kenshin_esca]

Serpentd said he has done this but didn't elaborate on how, I pm'd a moment ago. I seen I could just take the axle off and do it that way but you would think there would be an easier way.

[Redley78]

[QUOTE=Cpt_Spau1ding;727632]easiest way would be to loosen everything (beater, chain drive, and spring adjuster) then take off the nut on the left. pull the axel out and re-insert the beater/chain drive i the proper position. then reassemble. adjust the clip so that it clicks an inch or so before striking the pad.

This is what i thought might be possible to do, but since i have zero experience with pedals, didnt want to break it. I guess im not very mechanically inclined and wanted to make sure this was possible before i tried it.

So have you done this mod Spau1ding, or are you just speculating that this is possible?

[automator]

I just got my practice pad in today (a Gibraltar), and I just finished rotating the beater on my Omega Pedal.

How I did this:


Unscrew the nut on the left post and remove it and the eye ring. Keep these in a safe place.
Disconnect the spring from the axle.
Remove the beater with the drum key.
Unscrew the powershifter screw with the drum key and remove it completely. I'm not entirely sure this is necessary, but it seemed to make life a little bit easier when everything was disassembled.
This next step is difficult. What we need to do is rotate the metal piece the beater attaches to on the axle, without rotating the metal piece the chain sits on. To do this, you will need a 1/8" allen wrench (I think it's 1/8th, don't quote me on that). There are 3 black allen set screws you need to loosen. Two are for the chain attachment, and one is for the beater attachment. Using whatever leverage, strength of will or magical powers you possess, loosen these three screws. They were TIGHT as can be on my pedal.
BEFORE sliding these pieces off of the axle, use a sharpie to mark the locations of where they need to go. For the chain piece, I marked the axle on the same face where the allen set screws are. For the beater piece, this needs to be rotated two faces backward from the face where the allen set screws are.
Now that you have marked where the beater and chain pieces need to be on the axle, slide the beater and chain pieces off of the axle, rotate the beater piece, slide it back on, and then slide on the chain piece.
Reattach the axle to the body post with the screws you removed in step 1.
Reattach the spring.
Now adjust the position of the beater and chain pieces so they are in the same position they were originally in, and tighten.
Reattach the beater.
Unscrew the wingnut underneath the pedal (where the hook was), attach the practice pad to the pedal, and tighten the wingnut. Make sure the beater is centered on the practice pad (you may need to adjust the position of the beater so the hits are centered).
Adjust the eye piece so it hits the contact switch when the beater hits the practice pad. When you tighten the nut, the eye piece should move a tiny bit, such that it hits the switch a tad before the beater hits the pad. This seems to work OK for me, but you may want to adjust the piece differently.


At this point, your Omega Pedal should be ready to use with a practice pad. When I did my pedal I ended up loosening the piece the spring attaches to, so I had to make some adjustments to that to get the pedal working the way I want.

I'm still figuring out how exactly to place the pedal/pad with the drumset, so I don't have any advice on that yet. But, in isolation it seems to work pretty well.

The hardest part of this was loosening those allen set screws... good luck!

[kenshin_esca]

Thank you for the very detailed instructions, basically the only thing that needs to be rotated is the beater holder thing, but to do that you have to take off the chain holder.

Did you take off the front bar on your drumset that gives you a little more room to put the practice pad there and stability is fine with only one bar on the bottom.

[automator]

Yeah, I removed the front bar to make more room.

[kenshin_esca]

I just tried this I think it feels better all around this way. The pedal for some reason feels lighter, plus you get a nice audible thump when it hits the pad. It is very easy to set the sensor adjustment just right, very simple, remember that when tightening the nut the s hook which triggers the sensor will turn a little bit so make sure to account for that. I played Indistructible on hard and the pedal performed just fine. I however did score lower but I think it was mostly my fault because it was the first song of the day I played and I usually have to warm up to a song like that, I just learned that tricky part yesterday. I thought it was more fun playing with the practice pad. I may have to move the beater angle a little bit closer to the practice pad because right now it's a little too far away for my tastes.

Just in case you want to go back to the original settings the beater on mine triggers the sensor exactly 1 inch from the c clamp.

[Cpt_Spau1ding]

late answer to question.:.:.
no, i never used a practice pad. yes, i've taken my pedal all apart. i had to out of the box to get it set up right.
the way it works is very simple. not too hard to figure out once you start unscrewing things.

don't be skeeered. just don't lose any pieces. you won't hurt anything.

that's interesting about it feeling lighter. i wondered what effect it would have with the beater standing up, as opposed to laying down.

[Redley78]

Thank you guys for your feedback. Even though i didnt start the thread, i have been searching for a while on how to do this mod and i am relieved that i didnt buy a gibraltor practice pad for no reason.
Thanks automator for your detailed description, that was everything i was hoping for. i havent tried it yet, but it sounds like its very doable.

[automator]

I've been playing with my pedal some more today, and overall I think it's great. I've been able to hit many more (but not all, haha) of the bass pedal notes on the Disturbed pack. Plus, the 'thump' is not as loud as it was when the beater was hitting the frame.

One thing I noticed is that since I pedal with my right foot, having the beater to the right of the chain means the pedal is positioned slightly to the left of center. I may move the beater to the left of the chain so I can position the pedal more to the right. Something to keep in mind for those of you who haven't converted your pedal yet...

[JohnQ Public]

I followed the instructions to this thread tonight after I ran out and bought the gibraltar pad. I actually had to put my beater 3 "faces" away from its original position to make it work. Then it took me almost an hour to set it up exactly right so it wouldn't double hit on me. Positioning the eye hook can be a real pita. The other thing is if you have to much tension in your spring then when the beater hits the pad it will bounce back and cause a double hit. The best way I found to fine tune this pedal is to hook it to your drum set and turn on the organ intro to wgfa and let it play over and over on 50%. That way you can tell if you are getting double hits or not and really find the sweet spot. I found that when I would hit the pedal softly with my hand there were no doubles, but then I played hysteria and kept breaking combo. The pressure I was using with my foot was way harder than what I tested with my hand and it was causing double hits. I had to readjust again. So you really need to take your time with all of the adjustments on this thing. Once you do find the sweet spot though this thing is great. It really helps me get a better feel for the beat. Now if I could just beat rtth and finish my expert career.

[DaverJ]

I just got my practice pad in today (a Gibraltar), and I just finished rotating the beater on my Omega Pedal.

How I did this:


Unscrew the nut on the left post and remove it and the eye ring. Keep these in a safe place.
Disconnect the spring from the axle.
Remove the beater with the drum key.
Unscrew the powershifter screw with the drum key and remove it completely. I'm not entirely sure this is necessary, but it seemed to make life a little bit easier when everything was disassembled.
This next step is difficult. What we need to do is rotate the metal piece the beater attaches to on the axle, without rotating the metal piece the chain sits on. To do this, you will need a 1/8" allen wrench (I think it's 1/8th, don't quote me on that). There are 3 black allen set screws you need to loosen. Two are for the chain attachment, and one is for the beater attachment. Using whatever leverage, strength of will or magical powers you possess, loosen these three screws. They were TIGHT as can be on my pedal.
BEFORE sliding these pieces off of the axle, use a sharpie to mark the locations of where they need to go. For the chain piece, I marked the axle on the same face where the allen set screws are. For the beater piece, this needs to be rotated two faces backward from the face where the allen set screws are.
Now that you have marked where the beater and chain pieces need to be on the axle, slide the beater and chain pieces off of the axle, rotate the beater piece, slide it back on, and then slide on the chain piece.
Reattach the axle to the body post with the screws you removed in step 1.
Reattach the spring.
Now adjust the position of the beater and chain pieces so they are in the same position they were originally in, and tighten.
Reattach the beater.
Unscrew the wingnut underneath the pedal (where the hook was), attach the practice pad to the pedal, and tighten the wingnut. Make sure the beater is centered on the practice pad (you may need to adjust the position of the beater so the hits are centered).
Adjust the eye piece so it hits the contact switch when the beater hits the practice pad. When you tighten the nut, the eye piece should move a tiny bit, such that it hits the switch a tad before the beater hits the pad. This seems to work OK for me, but you may want to adjust the piece differently.


At this point, your Omega Pedal should be ready to use with a practice pad. When I did my pedal I ended up loosening the piece the spring attaches to, so I had to make some adjustments to that to get the pedal working the way I want.

I'm still figuring out how exactly to place the pedal/pad with the drumset, so I don't have any advice on that yet. But, in isolation it seems to work pretty well.

The hardest part of this was loosening those allen set screws... good luck!

Thanks for these detailed instructions. I just got a Pearl practice pad for Christmas and am looking to attach it to my Omega pedal.

I don't think the Allen/hex screws are 1/8", but I can't find the size. Anyone know for sure? :confused:

[DaverJ]

Thanks again to automator and his instructions... my Pearl practice pad is now hooked up to my Omega and I'm ready to rock.

For clarification, it is indeed 2 notches that the hammer's mount needs to be turned, yet its not a 1/8" hex/Allen wrench but a 3mm hex/Allan wrench needed to do the loosening.

That's right, a "metric 3" Allen wrench is needed. Hope this helps anyone else.

Here's a pic. (http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb68/DaverJ/omegawithpad.jpg)

[NizZ8]

Thanks for posting the guide :)