Introduction: Parametric 3d Printed Death Star Speakers

About: Hi, I'm Rich Olson (nothinglabs.com). I sell cloud chambers for viewing radiation, make robots and dev software. If you need something prototyped - I might be able to help.

NOMOON is a parametric spherical 3d-printed speaker generator created in OpenSCAD.

You can access project NOMOON on Thingiverse here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:590871

N.OMOON

O.rbital

M.usic-making

O.pensource

O.penscad-generated

N.ihilator

NOMOON can create spherical speaker enclosures of any volume.

You can configure things like wall thickness, bass port dimensions, number of screw holes, etc. NOMOON also includes a speaker stand.

Step 1: Select a Speaker Driver and Estimate Performance

You can use a tool like this to determine optimal enclosure / port-size for a given driver:http://www.micka.de/org/en/index.php#ideal

I’ve created a handful of NOMOON speakers using different drivers. The trick is finding small-ish full-range drivers that have circular mounts. Many speakers you see in devices that appear to have round mounts are actually rear-mounted.

So far the speakers I made using these drivers are my favorite:

Tymphany NE65W-04 2" Full Range Woofer

In a 1.1 liter ported enclosure tuned to 100hz – they provide a calculated F3 of 101hz. This setup sounds really nice! The bass is full (especially for 2″ drivers) – and treble / midrange sound good. They work great as little desktop speakers. These are pretty capable drivers – and should work well in a bigger system with a subwoofer.

Step 2: Design Your Speaker Using OpenSCAD

You can access NOMOON online here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:590871

From there you can either use Thingiverse's "Customizer" to generate your NOMOON speaker.

You can also download the OpenSCAD script using the link above if you'd prefer to work with OpenSCAD directly.

Download OpenSCAD here: http://www.openscad.org/

If you want to skip playing with OpenSCAD – and just print yourself a speaker – I’ve provided the STL for use with Tymphany NE65W-04 2" Full Range Woofer in the Thingiverse project (it’s about a 10 hour print using about 0.5lbs of filament).

Step 3: 3d Print Your Speaker!

Use a raft when printing this model!

It might seem counter-intuitive that you can print a sphere without supports. The trick is to include a small flat area on the bottom – which the bass port conveniently provides. If you’re not using a bass port – NOMOON will automatically include a flat disk on the bottom of the sphere to make it printable.

The lower parts of the sphere do show some effects from “curling” – and looks a little gnarly on close inspection. Fortunately – this is the least visible part of the model. An enclosed / heated build chamber would probably help with this.

I’ve been printing my speakers using 3 shells at 10% infill at 200 micron layer height (using silver PLA). They sound good to me – but audiophiles might want to increase thickness / infill.

Step 4: Install Speakers

Pretty self explanatory. If things don't fit right - use a file to make adjustments.

Tip: stuff your speaker with polyfill (from the fabric store) to improve sound quality.

Step 5: Rock Out With Your New Speakers!

Connect the speakers to your amplifier - and enjoy!

Alternately - you could try installing a Bluetooth module inside your NOMOON speaker:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Homemade-Bluetooth-Speaker/