[akatsuki]

Original version by /u/mwildebeast

I saw this project when reading reviews for a new headphone and thought it sounded fun. But I wanted to make them a bit cleaner looking - and I ordered slightly different 3.5mm jacks.

I didn’t like the small protruding box below the earcups, and I wanted to get rid of excess screws.

Requires some really, really easy soldering and that is about it.

Tools​

• 3D printer and filament - I have a Prusa Mini and just use regular eSun PLA
• Soldering iron - I highly recommend the TS100P
• Solder

Parts​

Store	#	Part	Name	Est. Price
Digikey	2	Drivers	Peerless by Tymphany HPD-50N25PR00-32	$20
Redco	4	3.5mm jack	Switchcraft 35PRM3	$10
Redco	1	Internal wiring	Mogami W2893 Miniature Quad Microphone Cable	$5
Aliexpress	1	Cable - 0.5m	16 Core Litz Cable for Headphone - 3.5mm stereo	$15
Aliexpress	1	Cable - 2m	16 Core Litz Cable for Headphone - 3.5mm stereo	$30
Amazon	1	Earpads	BRAINWAVZ Round Memory Foam Earpads	$25
Amazon	1	M2 x 25mm screws and nuts	VIGRUE M2.5 assortment screw kit	$0.50
Amazon	1	Headband cover	Geekria Hook and Loop Headband Cover	$15
Amazon	4	Heatshrink	Heatshrink (Optional)
Amazon	1'	Cable sleeving	Cable sleeving (Optional)
TOTAL				~$100

3D prints​

Prusa Mini with Prusa Slicer and the following settings:

• Bobstro settings
• 50% infill (I would absolutely use this for Earpad Plates, but you can lower for the rest of the parts)
• No supports are needed for the earcups - but the headband does need them

#	Earcup Prints
2	Driver Clamps
2	Earcups
2	Earpad Plates

#	Headband
1	Headband top
2	Headband adjustors
2	Yokes

Instructions​

1. Print out the earcups. When they are done, start printing out the other parts while doing the rest of the work.
2. Cut a 12-inch length of the Mogami and pull out the wires - you will use this for the local wiring on each side
3. Insert the driver in an earcup with the soldering points facing to the rear of each - the narrower space between the two jack inputs
4. Put the 2 jacks in loosely, don’t bother tightening, and measure the wires.
5. You are going to wire all three leads to one another - so measure and cut the wire for all three to go there when twisted together. You are also going to wire a black and a colored wire to the driver, so cut those two wires from one of the jacks to the driver solder points
6. You can pull these out and solder it all together and reinsert it and do the same for the other side - do one side for right and one side for left as follows:
   • The black tied together wire goes to the longest terminal
   • The red wires go to the shortest terminal (2 on the right side, 1 on the left)
   • The blue wires go to the middle terminal (2 on the left side, 1 on the right)
7. Twist the shorter wires going back together and then solder them to the driver - left solder point use the colored wire and right solder point use the black wire on both sides so they stay in phase
8. Sandwich the back plate, the earcup and the earpad plate and use the M2.5 x 20mm screw from the back to tie it all together.
9. Align those philips screws you savage.
10. Attach the earcups to the headband and run the 0.5m wire between the earcups, you might have a bit of excess which you can loop up and over the top of the headband.
11. Add in the headband cover over the wire
12. Stick on the earpads on each side.

Simplification​

• If you don’t care about dual-siding the ability to run one cord, skip the jack on one side and solder the earband wire directly to the driver.
• If you don’t care about having a single cord, you can put a jack in on each side, skip the earband wire and wire up the drivers from each jack. You need to solder to the jacks on the ground (longest) and the middle length on both sides in that case.

Additional thoughts​

• The Brainwavz pads are cheap and well reviewed, but these Dekoni might be a good choice as well.

 

[Tofty]

Really liking the simplicity of this design.
Can't wait to see the finished build.

The Armadillo headband is a fascinating take and I'm really interested in how well it works.

 

[akatsuki]

Here is the near final 2-piece version: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/8fLQdb0w79o

It is designed to be as easy to assemble as possible and uses Switchcraft 35PRM3 jacks which are a little bit smaller.

The whole thing is open from the clamp side, so you can easily solder and insert the various pieces without having to do any crazy threading. Then the jacks and wiring is hidden once it is snapped in (no screws need).

I printed out a 0.25 draft version and it did great - upping the fill and quality would make it substantial enough.

Now to design a headband and mounting system for it and call it done. I have some ideas about using a locking ball swivel for the attachment to make the headphones adjustable, but not sure it is the perfect approach.

 

[akatsuki]

Reserved

 

[akatsuki]

@Tofty

I would say that the Armadillo headband does not work at all - like it makes me question whether anyone actually printed and put these things on - they suck. It is super clever from a print perspective, but why spend all the design time for such a terrible outcome?

(1) The clamping force is absolute crap. Like basically you are hanging the headphones loosely over your ears. And I have a huge head.
(2) The adjuster arms have nothing to hold them up, so basically they hang down all the way no matter what.
(3) The rotating pieces have zero friction and make them even more wobbly

So, I think i am going back to the drawing board on these. I'll probably go with a more fixed solid design. I think if you took the accordian top, got rid of the segments; made the hole thing much tighter, got rid of the rotating piece or redesigned it, you might end up with something decent.

To be honest, I prefer suspension designs anyway, so I might just look into doing something there or just finding a decent donor headset.

 

[akatsuki]

OK, the other band (for the Koss) seem to work reasonably well. I am going to redesign them after some thought and try and combine a little bit more flex and structure to them. The adjustors go into the band, but they rattle a little bit. I also need to think about the wire going across and how best to incorporate that - I will move the wire exit as far inward as possible, but need to provide a bit more space for it to move.

The snap together set won't have this problem, so I may make different earcup claws for that one that work better.

 

[Tofty]

Thanks for the write-up on the Armadillo headband. I suppose I'd assumed that since they'd gone to the effort of making a little video of it; that it had some engineering thought put into it, but alas no.

Running the cable through the headband and/or the earcup claws is likely to cause kinks and may lead to failure over time.
My thinking on a bridge cable with detachable connections is that it should be easily replaceable.
The solutions I've come up with so far certainly aren't without their issues, so hopefully there's a better way.

 

[akatsuki]

@Tofty the other design I mentioned above seems to be better. I am redesigning it some and I did include a larger "tunnel" for a wire to run through the top part of the headband just to hold it into place, but not through the adjuster arms or claws. I am also stealing an idea I saw on another headband of having the attachment point to the cups have rotation but limited by making the hole a keyhole shape so the earcups can't flip upside down if someone does a two-sided install instead of one.

I didn't use your headband design is for a couple of reasons:

1. It is fun to try and make it completely 3d printable - which is why I am eliminating screws and other things as much as possible
2. If you have to go buy stuff to make the band, I feel like you could just buy this one and make the back of the headphone smaller to have it mount to it and get the wire included.

 

[akatsuki]

OK - finalized the design pretty much. Filled in the instructions and may add a simple wiring diagram later.

 

[559060]

Cool project. well done