Trans: Latin prefix implying "across" or "Beyond", often used in gender nonconforming situations – Scend: Archaic word describing a strong "surge" or "wave", originating with 15th century english sailors – Survival: 15th century english compound word describing an existence only worth transcending.

Category: DIY (Page 3 of 3)

DIY MrSpeakers “Open Alpha” 3d Printed Headphones: Dan Did It Again!

Links:

Headfi forum with release and build notes

MrSpeakers headphone plug terminals 

Acoustic wool I used

Brainwaves earpads

Prices for Prusa i3 on Ebay

Other materials include a recycled Grado cable, spare bolts from my Prusa i3 printer (and obviously my i3 printer for printing, too) and Hatchbox black PLA.

I like the Hatchbox stuff, thus far it has proven to be affordable and reliable, even at low printing temperature (180 degrees is all I got).

One side, stock t50rp. Otherside, Open alpha.

Complete!

So:  Before I get into the build details, the bottom line is this is the definitive overhaul to complete in terms of t50rp mods.  I started with a refurbished mkiii,  and hated the crazy EQ spike at about where hihats generally reside.  This was not a subtle issue, and would give me a headache quickly.  From modding with the stock cups, I found denser damping=worse issue with treble and less bass.   Think of it like a bass trap- I used essentially felted wool, which in its raw form killed all frequencies except for the strongest… …Which in this case was about 2.8khz to give a rough estimate.  Ouch!  After googling around, I discovered Dan was using cotton balls as the primary damping material, with a thin layer of dense acoustic mat of some kind to line the cup (helps mostly I think with leakage control and resonance from the actual plastic and flat surfaces on the cup itself).

Damping the Alphas:

I already had this fancy acoustic wool, so I figured I could make some “wool balls” by separating the dense wad into fluffy pillows.  I’d say I aired on the side of less dense- at this point I was printing my Alpha cups, and the space in there is huge, leaving ample space to layer up some of these wool balls.  I did not feel the need to line the cups with a damping mat of any kind, because my wool seemed to kill noise and reflection already like nobody’s business.

Printing the cups and other parts:

…Painless, except on the inside of the cups there is a dip where the headband arm is mounted.   For no particular reason, I printed both cups without supports- but not without a large amount of “PLA spaghetti”  and the occasional emergency “duct tape the PLA spaghetti wad to the bed so it can have something to build on…”

Sound:

Firstly, these sound nothing like the stock t50rp.  AT ALL.  the low end goes quite low with not a huge amount of distortion, the mids are wide and spacious, and the treble (including the significantly tamed-down spike) is springing and provides nice “pop” and sparkle.  These headphones are a pleasure to listen to- I’ve been doing Art Blakey and Coltrain lately because the reproduction of the jazz bass is superb,  Couple that with the expansive space where the sax and piano reside, these make a nice way to relax at the end of a day (which is how I have been relaxing each evening since I made them).  Obviously, we still have some fundamental setbacks.  The Fostex driver is unbelievably inefficient.  It takes much care to juice these properly (I like them through my e12 portable amp actually,  because I can crank the input volume on that with very little distortion for quite a bit).   Additionally, there is a limit to how much detail we can siphon out of the driver; this uber mod definitely maxes out the clarity and definition this driver can provide.  For example, the successor to this headphone when it was made commercially by Dan/MrSpeakers is the AEON (still in preorder mode at the time of writing)- a completely in house design trickling technology down from the company’s acclaimed ETHER headphones.  I am actually lucky enough to have had a few hours to play with them and chat with the inventor (Dan)- quite simply, the clarity and silkiness of the AEON demolishes the notion of clarity with my Open Alphas.  THAT SAID an $800 carbon fiber headphone invented from the ground up by Dan (who maintains the highest regards even from competitors (ZMF, even hifiman reps) as the most dedicated headphone creator) is obviously not really competing against a headphone a made for <$300 INCLUDING the 3d printer and donor headphones…. 🙂

 

The Prusa i3 Update: My ~$150 3d Printer

Links:

the prusa i3 on ebay

Cura 3d slicing and printing gcode software

Marlin firmware for “real” arduinos on Github

I purchased my 3d printer new from the USA for exactly $155.   That is $50 less than a single DUM headphone cable from MrSpeakers.  It did not work until much duct tape had been applied and zip ties zipped and jigs rigged, but overall it wasn’t that bad.  Now that I’m up and running, there are a few things to note:

  1. It can barely heat PLA (at 180 c), so forget about ABS.  I have a hunch this may have something to do with the wimpy PSU it came with.  I just so happen to have a full size version of the same PSU, rated at 30 amps @ 12 volts- someday I will try swapping that one in and see If I can get more temperature.  The firmware has ABS settings, it just will never reach the 225 degrees called for.
  2. The firmware is very firmly stuck in the arduino.  I spent hours upon hours trying to flash this arduino with a custom Marlin software, as I have been taught from my MPCNC project, to no avail.  The best thing to do is do all the tweaks in Cura, load the resulting gcode into a sd card, and run the printer off that.  The USB was getting wonky on me (I can’t remember exactly what it was doing, it just wasn’t the right thing). plus with the sd card you can put the printer wherever you want.
  3. The build quality… there is no quality.  be prepared to make up the assembly and troubleshooting as you go.
  4. “heated” bed- the bed game is rather weak.  things sometimes stick, but usually don’t.  I learned the best way to get prints to stick is with washable glue sticks.  Long story short (and many prints that skittered off the bed before they were done), I need gluesticks.

Once I procure some glue sticks, I’ll be printing out my “real” machine.  MPCNC, Here we come!

(beta) – How to build “The Phone Charger”

 

Imagine, any AA or 9v battery could charge your phone and other USB gadgets.   Behold, the LM780!

This is a voltage regulator chip.  Stick between 5 and, say, 9 volts in one end and huzzah! (about) 5 volts pops out the other end.  these cost a few dimes and can be had on ebay 10 for 4$.

Below is the BOM:  (to make 10 chargers!)

Sourced via ebay:
$4:  10x of LM780 5v
$4:  10x of little toggle switches
$4:  10x of 9v snap connectors (I used a 6v supply from AAs but as far as the chip is concerned it doesn’t matter to much.  (I am reading 4.~ volts and enough power to charge a phone out of mine now)
$0: PCB-  Technically they aren’t even needed, but for our uses they make the soldering and building more straightforward.
$1:  10x of USB A ports from China
$?: Casing- be creative.  I want to make one in a shrink-wrapped tube or 3d printed box or something.
First, lay the parts out like so:
…notice how when facing the shiny side of the chip, the left leg is in line with the left hand side of the USB port when looking into the port:

Then arrange them like so:

…Notice I squished the power wires under the bent pins.  RED GOES TO THE PIN ON THE RIGHT when facing the shiny side, and BLACK GOES TO THE MIDDLE ONE.

…The remaining leg is attached to the far left pin on the USB port (when facing the chip’s shiny side remember).

Then it works!!  YAY!

Here I verify it works by charging my commercial usb charger with my DIY duct tape one:

Good luck!

 

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