DIY 3D Printed Headphone

Hello guys!

This is my first time writing a tutorial. Before you start following this tutorial, you need to know that this isn't a cheap way of obtaining headphones as it cost me more than $40 (mostly because of trial and error). This tutorial is pretty easy to follow but I still recommend you at least have some basic knowledge, such as electrical wiring and CAD designing, to prevent making the same mistakes I did when creating these headphones.

I will also be providing you with revised instructions, so an improved version of what I did, and I will also be explaining why exactly they are better instructions. The link to buy the components needed to make these headphones are mainly from Tokopedia (an online shop from my country) so you may need to find the components in your own country or if you found alternative components, you might need to re-design the headphones case.

Let's just jump into it!
Here is what you need to make these headphones.

-Speaker Driver(https://tokopedia.link/gPZQY7sZadb)

-3.5mm Female Jack(https://tokopedia.link/68UZbEyZadb)

-Aux Cable 3.5mm 3 poles to 3.5mm 4 poles(https://tokopedia.link/zHlyBBLZadb)

-105mm Ear Foam(https://tokopedia.link/3shM4aOZadb)

-Headband Pad(I take it from my old broken headphone)

-Dupont Cable(I bought it from store nearby my house)

-Bolt and Nut 5mm diameter(I bought it from store nearby my house)

-3D Printed Case(You can print it by yourself or use 3D Printing service)

-Castol Glue(I bought it from store nearby my house or you can look for alternative for not really hot glue)

The first step is to print your headphones case, or, you can use old broken headphones that still have a case in good condition. In my case, I wanted to test my knowledge in headphone design and ended up designing it the wrong way for the left speaker case. Additionally, when wearing the headphones, it was not tight enough and the headphone design in general was too big.
I revised my design and have added it here, just in case you guys would like to try that out. The revised design was improved by making two more holes to ensure the bolt and nuts only hold the headphones in place and don’t swing them around almost 180 degrees, like my first design where I used only one bolt and nut on each side.

I redesigned the hole on the band so that it can hold two bolts and nuts on each side to stop the speaker case swinging around. I also resized the top band design to make it thinner as it's too thick to print and that can be expensive if you don't have your own 3D printer and have decided to use the 3D printer service.

The last part I designed was the speaker case as I calculated it by mistake, resulting in my driver speaker not perfectly fitting in, so when I tried to glue it in place, I glued behind the speaker instead of around the hole to make it neater. I made the hole for the cable bigger as I realized it was too small for a 3.5 mm female jack to fit in.

The second step is soldering the wire. Above is a guide to help you connect the correct wire to the correct pole. It is pretty simple! The positive of the right goes to the right pole and the positive of the left goes to the left pole. You can combine the two ground wires together and solder it to the ground pole below, exactly in the middle between the right and the left pole. And don't forget to make a knot of the wire before connecting the other end to the speaker driver because it helps in reducing the cable strain.

When soldering the wire, don't forget to pass the cable through the headphones case to make it neater. (I don't think I needed to explain that but some people might still find it helpful).

The last step is the finishing. After all the wires have been connected to where they are supposed to be connected, we now have to make sure the wiring is safe from touching the skin. Even though it has low voltage power, safety is still our number one priority.

Before that, we have to put a cloth covering all the empty spots of the speaker case to make it sound better. After that, put the ear cushions on so that we can use the headphones comfortably. After putting on all the cushions and headband pads, glue the speaker into the case and put the bolt and nut lining with the holes of the top speaker slider in line with the headband and tighten the bolt and the nut together. This is so that we don’t make it too loose when we want to adjust the headband size. Your headphones are ready to use. Just plug the aux cable (3 poles) into the headphones and the 3.5 mm 4 poles into your device.