Thingiverse
Parametric Print+ Headphones: Mendel Edition by DechAmim
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 3 months ago
UPDATE: Realized the Customizer was getting confused by the Global variable tab, should be fixed. Also, added "Rounded Pattern" as an option for the cups.
I am extremely pleased to present my fully parametric and very customizable design for the awesome Print+ headphone kit! I'm a big fan of the Print+ headphones, and have been thrilled by their great sound and slick style ever since receiving them in the mail a few months ago. The 3D designs supplied by the company are top-notch, but from the first time I set eyes on them, I knew that I wanted to try designing a housing that paid some justice to my RepRap roots.
Background
My first foray into 3D printing was putting together a self-sourced Prusa Mendel RepRap. For anyone new to the 3D printing scene, many of the earliest RepRap designs (including the Mendel) heavily relied on threaded rods for constructing the frame. This resulted in a structure that was inexpensive and easy to construct, but regularly rattled itself loose after just a few hours of printing.
With the exception of the Y axis in the amazing Prusa i3, threaded rods are now mostly limited to moving the Z axis (unless you shelled out for some proper leadscrews instead). After struggling with a threaded-rod-based frame, I'm very, very happy that my current RepRap has a nice sturdy frame made out of wood, which doesn't shake itself into a quaking mess after just two hours of printing. However, some crazy part of me misses that old rattly printer, with its endless cycle of tightening nuts and asking myself why I don't just buy a bag of Nyloc nuts. To that end, I decided to put some threaded rod back into my life by putting it on my head!
Hardware and Assembly
To put everything together, you'll need:
A Print+ Headphone Kit (http://print.plus)
Two pieces of threaded rod, each one about 15 cm in length with a diameter around 4 ~ 10 mm (the sample files and defaults are for 1/4" rod)
Six nuts matching the threaded rod (you can technically use as few as 2, but 6-8 is ideal)
Highly recommended: a pair of washers matching the threaded rod
Optional but recommended: A pair of Nyloc nuts in the same size as above
A set of calipers (or something similar) to accurately measure the dimensions of your rod & nuts
Optional: Some small files to tidy up the print
Optional: Flexible tape measure or something similar to measure the diameter of your head
First thing you should do is measure the diameter (i.e. width) of your threaded rod, the width of your nuts (across the flat edges, not the pointy ones) and how thick they are. Make sure to measure everything in millimeters!
If your head is on the big or small side, you might need to adjust the Band Diameter. The default values produce a set of headphones that fit very snugly on my fairly-large adult-size head (my hat size is 7-7/8), so if you have a normal-size adult head, it should be just perfect. If you'd like to adjust the diameter and have a fabric tape measure, you can measure the circumference of your head around the forehead (still in millimeters!) and then divide that number by 3.9 to get a reasonable approximation of your head's width. A carpenter's square or ruler plus a pair of helping hands can also get the job done ;)
Once you have all of your sizes, open the Customizer and input all of your measurements in the "Threaded Rod" (and possibly "Headband") tabs. I've included loads of options for the cups and overall design: everything should be fairly self-explanitory, but feel free to experiment around and tweak it until everything looks perfect. If you had to change the head diameter by a lot, you might need to adjust the connector angle to get a good fit: decrease the angle a little for bigger head diameters, and increase it for smaller ones.
I haven't gotten around to getting the buildplate option working yet, so for the time being, generate two Cups (one Left and one Right), two Cushion Holders and one Headband. (Note: the Cushion Holders used here aren't compatible with the original Print+ and vice versa, so even if you have the original cushion holders, you'll have to print a fresh pair.)
Once you have the STLs, I recommend printing out the Cups & Cushion Holders with 2 perimeters, 2-3 top and bottom layers and 15 - 30% infill. There are some (optional) simple supports to keep the inside bridging from sagging, so you shouldn't need any slicer-generated supports. For the headband, you will need a little infill to keep the rod connector sections reasonably strong, but keep it sparse to allow the band to flex. I used 2 perimeters and 15% infill, which made the band a little stiff but not uncomfortable. There's some relatively small geometry being printed, so if you're using some type of PLA or PET and a 0.4 mm nozzle, make sure your cooling fan is working.
After printing everything out, snap off the supports inside the cups (if you opted for them) and tidy up any holes that came out messy. I've accounted for OpenSCAD's circle approximation so you shouldn't have to drill anything out, but you might need some needle files or a small hobby knife to clear off blobs or saggy bridges from around the holes.
If you're using the captive nuts for the cups, drop them into the holes then screw in the threaded rods. The holes taper at the ends, so even if you're skipping the captive nut, they should still have a good snug fit once they're fully screwed in.
Next, insert a nut into the rod connector at one end of the headband. It's designed to be able to spin freely inside the holder, so it shouldn't line up perfectly with the holes on either side. (The spinning nut allows you to make little adjustments once everything's put together, see below.) Take one threaded rod (+ cup) and screw it through the nut. You may have to fiddle to get it lined up with the nut inside the headband, but once it's gone through, hold the captive nut still with your thumb and spin the threaded rod to screw it into the headband. Screw it until you've reached a reasonable length, then repeat on the other side.
Before putting everything else together, put on your frame to make sure everything is approximately lined up. (You can adjust the height when everything's put together by spinning the captive nut to move the threaded rod, but it's a lot slower than spinning the threaded rod around directly.) When everything looks good, put a washer down the top of each threaded rod, followed by a nut. Tighten the second nut against the washer to keep the rod from spinning too much. A second nut on top of the first one should make it even stiffer, and a Nyloc nut would tighten everything even better, but use whatever works best for you.
Once the frame is assembled, construct the headphones in the same way as the original Print+ headphones, threading the L/R connecting cable through the headband first and then into each cup, positioning the PCBs, connecting the L/R cable, Cushion Holders and finally the cushions themselves. Once big-ish difference in this design is that the Cushion Holders are held with a friction fit: if they feel loose, add a bit of tape over the inner ridge of the cushion holders then twist them into place. If you don't mind cleaning it up later, you can also use a little dab of white glue to keep it in place.
If you need to adjust the position of the cups once everything's put together: loosen the nut(s) at the top of the threaded rod, hold the cup with one hand to keep it from rotating, and then spin the captive nut to move the threaded rod up and down. Once it's in place, re-tighten the top nuts. It's a little slow and tedious, but should get the job done for slight adjustments.
I am extremely pleased to present my fully parametric and very customizable design for the awesome Print+ headphone kit! I'm a big fan of the Print+ headphones, and have been thrilled by their great sound and slick style ever since receiving them in the mail a few months ago. The 3D designs supplied by the company are top-notch, but from the first time I set eyes on them, I knew that I wanted to try designing a housing that paid some justice to my RepRap roots.
Background
My first foray into 3D printing was putting together a self-sourced Prusa Mendel RepRap. For anyone new to the 3D printing scene, many of the earliest RepRap designs (including the Mendel) heavily relied on threaded rods for constructing the frame. This resulted in a structure that was inexpensive and easy to construct, but regularly rattled itself loose after just a few hours of printing.
With the exception of the Y axis in the amazing Prusa i3, threaded rods are now mostly limited to moving the Z axis (unless you shelled out for some proper leadscrews instead). After struggling with a threaded-rod-based frame, I'm very, very happy that my current RepRap has a nice sturdy frame made out of wood, which doesn't shake itself into a quaking mess after just two hours of printing. However, some crazy part of me misses that old rattly printer, with its endless cycle of tightening nuts and asking myself why I don't just buy a bag of Nyloc nuts. To that end, I decided to put some threaded rod back into my life by putting it on my head!
Hardware and Assembly
To put everything together, you'll need:
A Print+ Headphone Kit (http://print.plus)
Two pieces of threaded rod, each one about 15 cm in length with a diameter around 4 ~ 10 mm (the sample files and defaults are for 1/4" rod)
Six nuts matching the threaded rod (you can technically use as few as 2, but 6-8 is ideal)
Highly recommended: a pair of washers matching the threaded rod
Optional but recommended: A pair of Nyloc nuts in the same size as above
A set of calipers (or something similar) to accurately measure the dimensions of your rod & nuts
Optional: Some small files to tidy up the print
Optional: Flexible tape measure or something similar to measure the diameter of your head
First thing you should do is measure the diameter (i.e. width) of your threaded rod, the width of your nuts (across the flat edges, not the pointy ones) and how thick they are. Make sure to measure everything in millimeters!
If your head is on the big or small side, you might need to adjust the Band Diameter. The default values produce a set of headphones that fit very snugly on my fairly-large adult-size head (my hat size is 7-7/8), so if you have a normal-size adult head, it should be just perfect. If you'd like to adjust the diameter and have a fabric tape measure, you can measure the circumference of your head around the forehead (still in millimeters!) and then divide that number by 3.9 to get a reasonable approximation of your head's width. A carpenter's square or ruler plus a pair of helping hands can also get the job done ;)
Once you have all of your sizes, open the Customizer and input all of your measurements in the "Threaded Rod" (and possibly "Headband") tabs. I've included loads of options for the cups and overall design: everything should be fairly self-explanitory, but feel free to experiment around and tweak it until everything looks perfect. If you had to change the head diameter by a lot, you might need to adjust the connector angle to get a good fit: decrease the angle a little for bigger head diameters, and increase it for smaller ones.
I haven't gotten around to getting the buildplate option working yet, so for the time being, generate two Cups (one Left and one Right), two Cushion Holders and one Headband. (Note: the Cushion Holders used here aren't compatible with the original Print+ and vice versa, so even if you have the original cushion holders, you'll have to print a fresh pair.)
Once you have the STLs, I recommend printing out the Cups & Cushion Holders with 2 perimeters, 2-3 top and bottom layers and 15 - 30% infill. There are some (optional) simple supports to keep the inside bridging from sagging, so you shouldn't need any slicer-generated supports. For the headband, you will need a little infill to keep the rod connector sections reasonably strong, but keep it sparse to allow the band to flex. I used 2 perimeters and 15% infill, which made the band a little stiff but not uncomfortable. There's some relatively small geometry being printed, so if you're using some type of PLA or PET and a 0.4 mm nozzle, make sure your cooling fan is working.
After printing everything out, snap off the supports inside the cups (if you opted for them) and tidy up any holes that came out messy. I've accounted for OpenSCAD's circle approximation so you shouldn't have to drill anything out, but you might need some needle files or a small hobby knife to clear off blobs or saggy bridges from around the holes.
If you're using the captive nuts for the cups, drop them into the holes then screw in the threaded rods. The holes taper at the ends, so even if you're skipping the captive nut, they should still have a good snug fit once they're fully screwed in.
Next, insert a nut into the rod connector at one end of the headband. It's designed to be able to spin freely inside the holder, so it shouldn't line up perfectly with the holes on either side. (The spinning nut allows you to make little adjustments once everything's put together, see below.) Take one threaded rod (+ cup) and screw it through the nut. You may have to fiddle to get it lined up with the nut inside the headband, but once it's gone through, hold the captive nut still with your thumb and spin the threaded rod to screw it into the headband. Screw it until you've reached a reasonable length, then repeat on the other side.
Before putting everything else together, put on your frame to make sure everything is approximately lined up. (You can adjust the height when everything's put together by spinning the captive nut to move the threaded rod, but it's a lot slower than spinning the threaded rod around directly.) When everything looks good, put a washer down the top of each threaded rod, followed by a nut. Tighten the second nut against the washer to keep the rod from spinning too much. A second nut on top of the first one should make it even stiffer, and a Nyloc nut would tighten everything even better, but use whatever works best for you.
Once the frame is assembled, construct the headphones in the same way as the original Print+ headphones, threading the L/R connecting cable through the headband first and then into each cup, positioning the PCBs, connecting the L/R cable, Cushion Holders and finally the cushions themselves. Once big-ish difference in this design is that the Cushion Holders are held with a friction fit: if they feel loose, add a bit of tape over the inner ridge of the cushion holders then twist them into place. If you don't mind cleaning it up later, you can also use a little dab of white glue to keep it in place.
If you need to adjust the position of the cups once everything's put together: loosen the nut(s) at the top of the threaded rod, hold the cup with one hand to keep it from rotating, and then spin the captive nut to move the threaded rod up and down. Once it's in place, re-tighten the top nuts. It's a little slow and tedious, but should get the job done for slight adjustments.