Ken Santema

Pictures of the Alien3D speaker

Updated: With some MacGyvering, I was able to get the speaker working with a 3D pen and some glue. It still isn’t the best, so I need to reprint parts and rebuild the cone portion. But I have added a video of the working speaker to this post.

Earlier I published the results of my prints from the April 2021 Alien3D UFO subscription box. While I showed off some of the printed parts for this month’s project in that post, I didn’t show the finished product. In this post, I will briefly show some of the pictures from the build process. The project is a speaker designed by @polymate3d and a custom Alien3D speaker case designed by @DSK001_3D. 

I don’t have a video of the finished project. Before closing it all up, I successfully tested the speaker (I should have taken a video then). Then when assembling the case, I was using a pick to remove some strings from where the speaker screws into the case. My shaky hands snuck up on me, and I completely tore the cone apart. So, I am reprinting a couple of parts and will post a video of the working project at a future time. For now, I think a few pictures of the build process will suffice.

Instructions I used

I downloaded the PDF with the instructions from the Prusa Printers page for this project. I also watched the YouTube video Polymate 3D posted making a similar speaker. The instructions in the video were not precisely the same. But they were close enough to give an idea of what to do.

To print the parts, I followed the settings on this page of the Polymate 3D website. I mentioned previously that I broke the cone. I think I would have been less likely to do so if I had used a .5mm nozzle diameter as recommended on the page. I used a .4mm nozzle, and I think that caused me all kinds of issues.

Pictures of the build process

I won’t do step-by-step instructions. This is just a few pictures of the build process.

Since this was a 5m wire, I cut .8m away from it and taped it per the instructions.
Wire coiled and taped to other side.
Wires run into speaker and out slots on each side.
Getting the cone into the spider was the most challenging part of this build. I think this would have been easier if my cone had been printed using a .5mm nozzle instead of a .4mm. Plus, make sure there is no extra stringing inside the spider, as that will make this more complicated.
I soldered the wire to the board. I was able to get the Bluetooth connected to my phone and successfully get sound through the speaker at this point. I really should have taken a video of that…
I found a micro USB cable that fit through the hole on the UFO case bottom. The speaker was then screwed into the main case. It was doing that when I ruined the cone. I’ll determine on a later (less frustrated) date what I will have to reprint to get this project going again.
The finished project. If you look very close you can see the part of the cone messed up. It is actually much worse than this picture shows. I printed the case in translucent green with the thought of maybe adding LEDs inside the case. We’ll see how ambitious I am after having to redo the project.
Test of the speaker.

Final thoughts

I love this project. Even though I messed it up after getting it working, I still love the project. I’ve never actually built a speaker from scratch, so that is another thing off the bucket list. Plus, things always go wrong on make projects. The fact I messed up my final project doesn’t mean a failed make in my head. It just means I have to continue the make process and learn from what caused my setback.

Song of the Day: Sadeness

Many years ago, I would do stereo installations in cars on the side for money. I would often use the MCMXC AD album from Enigma to test my installations. This track, in particular, is excellent for showing the quality of an installation.

Bonus Song: Africa

The range and musical offerings from this classic Toto song also worked great for testing stereo installations. I was never a big Toto fan, but I have to admit they created a perfect-sounding piece (quality-wise).

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