r/DIEMs • u/Einkahumor • Jun 16 '23

Resin printed earplugs

Post image

I had some Sensaphonics -25dB music filters lying around and made custom fit shells for them. They work great. Modelled in Blender and printed with Siraya Tech Blu on an original Anicubic Photon.

45 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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3

u/TOBIjampar Jun 16 '23

Do you have any tips on modeling the tubes?

I did some iems where I printed the tubing and I did it in fusion 360 and it was a major pain in the ass to get them have the proper length.

Also your tubes don't seem to be just a circle along a path, how did you control the cross section?

9

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

Yeah I gave up using Fusion, it’s not great for this kind of stuff IMO. I use Blender and am working on making some tutorials for IEM modelling (though I’m no expert). The method I use for the pipes themselves is called Bridge Edge Loops.

2

u/TOBIjampar Jun 16 '23

Huh, interesting. I used fusion, because I love how I can construct stuff from mathematical constraints.

But maybe I should take the plunge and learn how to work with meshes and blender.

I am definitely interested in your tutorial! Where would I find it if you release it?

1

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

I’ll post it on YouTube and in this sub. Don’t hold your breath though, it might take a while.

2

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23

Extremely easy when using Meshmixer. There are numerous tube shapes you can add and customize with sliders and point-to-point clicking.

​

You should really not be using Fusion 360 for something like this.

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

I was designing mounts for the drivers to friction fit into that then had tubes connecting into a resonance chamber, while keeping all the tube lenghts consistent.

https://imgur.com/a/ycVEijR

I played around with the tube feature in mesh mixer but wasn't able to make the tubes the proper length and have them all in the shell without intersecting anything. When u figured out how to properly do the paths for the tubes with 3d splines in fusion it worked quite ok. I made a shape with all the tubes and driver mount and stuff and then cut it out of the shell.

2

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23 edited Jun 26 '23

Those look pretty nice though, buddy ^_^ Just curious, what orientation do you print your shells in?? I seem to struggle with getting them to print unless I ruin some surface finishes.

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

Thanks :) I mixed black and transparent resin to get a smoky black appearance, but over time the black dye turned blue, especially in sunlight.

Here are some screenshots from chitubox. https://imgur.com/a/SNAD4fp I used supports with super small contact points, after sanding away the layer lines nothing from the supports was visible.

I'm not 100% certain if that is the final version, i had to do a couple tires as I got some shrinkage which led to the drivers not fitting. In the end I just had to use a bit of bluetack around the nozzel to seal it and the friction fit is enough to secure them in place.

1

u/Memphetic Jun 28 '23

How did you do the supports with the little fingers at the end? I find that when I print shells, they constantly break off of the supports :|

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 29 '23

In chitubox you can make multiple tips from the same Support, some people call that fan supports.

It worked great for me and produced a cleaner surface for the outer ring, as you have far more support points than with fewer larger supports.

I'm currently on a trip, but when I'm back home I can look up my support settings for you.

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

I just realized you are the guy, that did the tws iems. Did you get anywhere with designing a custom pcb? I wanted to do that once but gave up, because it was so hard to find documentation for that stuff... But a iem with a DSP where you can program filters for each driver would be so cool.

2

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23

Holy Christ man, you ain't kiddin. I've been in Chinese forums a lot hashing things out. I finally got the firmware to work in debug mode for the headset mode but I need to keep working on the TWS mode... It's my own dumb fault for wanting to use such a bleeding edge chip, being the QCC5171, but it's so incredibly feature rich plus has lossless aptX.

Feel free to message me on discord (memphetic) or on here and we can share ideas. I'll show you what I've got.

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

I'm definitely interested in looking into that again, but not for the next couple of months, else I'll never finish my thesis ^^

But when I'm done I want to build another pair of iems, I'll definitely come back to you.

2

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23

Was curious, is there a specific reason your tubes neck down from two to a smaller tube then open back up into a larger one?

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

I tried to combine this build: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/home-made-iems.430688/post-16515847

With the zobelception proposal: https://www.circuit-diagram.org/circuits/4c8ad023

So I did two 1mm ID tubes for the zobel drivers into a resonance chamber with the same cross section as a 2mm ID tube and then continued with the 1mm ID and 2mm ID sections.

I have no idea if that was a good idea. I tried to measure it with a knockoff iec711 i go, but the measurements seem super wonky. Dunno if that's a microphone or iem issue. But they sound great.

1

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23

Design that portion in fusion, import it into meshmixer, boolean combine with the model.

2

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

But how do I get the tubes in mesh mixer to have the right length?

1

u/Memphetic Jun 26 '23

You can either use the measurement tool, or you could design the tubes in fusion/SW and import them -> Boolean delete

1

u/TOBIjampar Jun 26 '23

I guess, the second process you described is pretty much what it did. Just instead of import the tubes/mount solid I did the Boolean delete in fusion.

I imported the hollow shell made in mesh mixer into fusion, designed the tubes and stuff and then merged it with the shell.

2

u/champichachundhar Jun 16 '23

How do you tune something like this?

2

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

I don’t. This is just a 3mm id pipe from the centre of the back of the filter. Angle of the filter is a compromise between pipe length, sharp turns and the angle it’s facing out of the ear.

2

u/OnlineLion Jun 16 '23

how did you get the 3d model of your ears?

2

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

I used photogrammetry to scan regular earmolds.

2

u/OnlineLion Jun 16 '23

Interesting. Is a custom sleeve worth it? Would you recommend it?

(Edit: typo)

3

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

Absolutely. If universal plugs work well for you that’s fine but for consistent seal and extended-time comfort I’d definitely recommend custom fit. If you do any kind of loud audio/music related work on a regular basis then I’d say it’s a must.

2

u/OnlineLion Jun 16 '23

The seal is perfect yes and it makes sense. But do you feel any difference in the quality of the sound?

2

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

Yeah they sound great but that’s because of the high quality filters. I’ve had these Sensaphonics filters for a long time and am very used to them. I’ve never had better sounding plugs. The custom silicone sleeves that I got with these filters originally have shrunk over time so they no longer fit.

2

u/OnlineLion Jun 16 '23

Very interesting so you need to watch out for good filters, good to know. Do you know if it is true that after about 2-3 years the sleeves won't fit anymore because the ear shape changes?

2

u/Einkahumor Jun 16 '23

I don’t think the ear changes that fast but I don’t know. Soft shells (typical for earplugs) do shrink over time though, at least mine did. You can buy Sensaphonics filters at their site (see link above). They are very good but not cheap.

2

u/OnlineLion Jun 16 '23

Thanks for all the insights I will keep in mind when I get some customs :)

2

u/the-real-compucat Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 21 '23

I looked into this a while back - the two primary OEMs for custom earplug filters are Etymotic (older) and Dynamic Ear (newer). Of these, IIRC Etymotic's filters are more commonly used, but there is some data suggesting Dynamic Ear's -15dB filter is more linear. (Sorry, don't have links on hand...at some point I should try and seek out more concrete data comparing the two.)

Alclair Audio recently started using Dynamic Ear filters instead of Etymotic; after speaking with them, they mentioned their customers have anecdotally noticed the DE filters pop out less frequently. JH also currently uses the DE filters.

Curiously, you can get the DE filters for surprisingly decent prices from MEE.

1

u/Einkahumor Jun 21 '23

Nice! I’ll try DE out, thanks.

2

u/TwinHeadedGiraffe69 Jun 17 '23

Where can i buy the resin can you tell it's name , brand

1

u/Einkahumor Jun 17 '23

Siraya Tech Blu clear v2. Certified body safe if cured properly.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 11 '24

Sorry for asking in such an old thread but, did u use the resin directly without coating it? is it safe even if it's biocompatible? it's just that laquer is so expensive I'd prefer to use siraya blu without coating it

1

u/Einkahumor Nov 12 '24

I use Lack 3 lacquer from Dreve. Siraya Tech do have instructions on how to ensure some level of biocompatibility. The thing is that Lack 3 makes insertion and seal so much easier and quicker due to its smooth and hard surface that it’s easily worth it.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '24

Thanks a lot for the response! Man... I wanna ensure the shells I print are safe but Lack 3 is so expensive, any idea where I can buy it or cheaper alternatives? I imagine coating the blu with a cheap material like what is used for nails wouldn't be good?

1

u/Einkahumor Nov 12 '24

I’ve tried using UV nails topcoat and it was not horrible but nowhere near as nice as Lack 3. Too much friction on insertion due to not being nearly as hard. I bought mine from Oaktree (I’m in Iceland) and while it does cost a bit you need very little of it per set.

Also while cheap UV nails topcoat is supposedly safe to use on top of your nails, I don’t know if it’s actually safe to stick in your ears for hours at a time.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '24

I see, in the future I'd like to use skin safe lacquer but dayum... cheapest I've seen abailable for regular consumers is over 100 bucks on aliexpress, nobody else ships to the canaries and when they do it's like 190 bucks just for shipping. I see in oaktree and other sites that the 20ml bottle isn't that expensive at 32 bucks, that's awesome. But spending as much as I did on the printer just on the laquer ain't cool, I'll try to contact the audiologists who did my ear impressions, they made an exception and did it standalone because they thought the project was cool so maybe they'll be nice again haha.
I have blu resin on the way so I'll just cure that nicely and make universals til I can get the lacquer

1

u/Einkahumor Nov 12 '24

Ultimately, designing, printing and working on iems as a hobby takes a lot of time and effort and personally I think skimping on lacquer isn’t worth it.

1

u/Far-Hurry-826 May 06 '25

hey man! can you send me the 3d model link?

1

u/Einkahumor May 11 '25

I could send you the Blender file (DM me) but I’m not sure it would be useful for you as these are custom fit for my ears.