Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

All,

Okay I've just got back into drumming from an acoustic kit some 5
years ago to a DTXpress II a few months ago, I love it and I've tried
everything but, and this is going to sound stupid because I'm
completely self taught and don't know the technical words or anything,
but...

When I was on the hi-hat on my acoustic kit I had no problem producing
the shhhh sound (called???) when you hit the hi-hat and then a
fraction of a second later raise you hi-hat pedal foot to produce that
shhhh sound...  As I said I had no problem with it on my acoustic kit,
but with the DTXpress 2 I'm hitting it only once out of every 4 or so
goes, if that, any ideas?

There, told you it was a stupid question, here comes another one...

Does it matter where I hit the hi-hat pad, I'm hitting the flat
surface at the moment, should I be hitting the side?  I know the snare
matters and love the 3 zones.

I have the correct cable setup according to the diagrams.

Thanks if anybody can help...
Richard