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DIY Headset

petehowell

Well Known Member
After 16 years and over 2500 hours, the Clarity Aloft headset was getting a bit tired - the right earbud was static-riddden and would cut out if I moved my head the wrong way. It owed me nothing at this point, so i cut the wire and reattached the driver to the wire and mounted the driver the frame with shrink tube - then ran the sound to my ear with a piece of silicone RC fuel line. Worked great! If the other side gives out I'll do the same.

It got me thinking - I could make a pretty nice, cheap backup using the same concept. Kinda like a poor man's CQ-1...... So I did some research. Needed a frame material - found some composite tubing used for fire suppression systems and flower arranging - comes in 1/4" diameter sizes and shapes easily. 3.50/ft Check. Need some drivers for sound - fullish range, small, cheap. Found guys on-line making audiophile in ear monitors for music. Found the drivers they use on ebay - $23/pair - Check. I'll need some custom parts - the kids got me a 3d printer, and I wanna learn CAD. Driver holders, custom box for wiring, elbows for ear tubes - Check, Check, Check. Heat shrink tube holds it all together. The cords and mic were found by putting out the call to the Minnesota Wing - A couple of great guys had some old broken headsets and were happy to donate to the cause. Cords were from a broken Bose, and the mic from a wounded Telex 750, but any mic and cord set should work.

The frame tubing is called Synflex 1/4" OD Metal/Plastic Composite Tubing. Got it on line at Pegasus - get 2 feet. Cuts easily with a small tubing cutter. Ran the wires inside the tube and over to the mic. Drilled holes in the tube and fished out the wires for the speakers near the back of the head.

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The tiny speakers were next - and I do mean tiny! Razor blade for size. These are Knowles RAB-32257s. Soldering was "sporty" but not as hard as I thought. I designed in a square hole in the custom driver holder I printed, based on the driver datasheet, and I was shocked that I got a piston fit on the first try! Pretty amazing the mfg tolerance of the drivers and the printing tolerances cancelled each other out. I'd rather be lucky than good!

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Here's the CAD work on the driver holders - I used Tinkercad - Hey, if grade school kids can use it- so can Pete! It was easy and fun - runs online and the price is right(free). I can export designs right to my 3D slicer and then print!

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Drivers were mounted to the frame with heat shrink - Triple wall 3:1 shrink stuff. Worked great

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Not too bad - I'd clean it up better next time, but this works for now!

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Getting close now! It's simple - I like it.
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DIY Headset Part 2

Now it was time to hook it all up. I wanted to have Bluetooth in to listen to tunes and podcasts, so I designed and printed up a box to hold the wiring.

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In the box was the Aux jack for music input and the resistors needed to mix the BT audio with audio from the plane. Here is a quick and dirty schematic.

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Also in the box is the little board used to amplify the output from the electret Mic. It also allows you to adjust mic gain if required via a little pot on the board

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I designed and printed some small elbows for the sound tubes. All parts were printed with PETG.

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Here she is all done - super light weight, adjustable to your melon size, and should be durable. Pretty fun project.

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Took it up today for a checkout. Happy to say it was great! Podcasts played nicely with plane audio, ATC said it sounded great to them. It was really comfortable, and It looks pretty good too! (As good as it can on my head....)

I'm calling it a win!

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If anyone wants the 3D part files, just let me know.
 
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Pete,
You have too much time on your hands!!! Ha! It looks like a fun project and even better - it worked!
 
Looks great Pete! I made my own headset a couple of years ago. Just a basic assembly of a decent quality set of in-ear monitors, a DC electret mic, plugs and shielded 2-conductor wire from ACS - all held together with shrink wrap over a chunk of 6 AWG solid conductor wire as a frame. I also have an inline volume control for the output. Functional, lightweight, not too expensive, and ugly.

If I decide to do that again, I'll track down this post, I really like how tidy that turned out. I'd also love the bluetooth. Does the BT work for your phone too, or is it receive only?
 
Bluetooth

Hi Claude,

Thanks for the kind comment. For now the BT is receive only from my phone via a $10 adapter, it works well. I might see if I can hack an handsfree car adapter with a mic to be able to get full 2 way phone use for calls on the ground. I have left room in the box for it. The adapters are cheap, so an experiment wont break the bank.

Fun stuff to play with!
 
Impressive project

Pete that is an impressive project and if/when my headset stops working I will try this route. I have a qt halo and a bose a20, I prefer the qt halo for comfort.
 
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