(V2 Updated) Varjo Aero - HP Reverb G2 Speaker Adapter

Updated v2 Design:
- Added some girth to the clips where they snap onto the head strap and for the cable management
- Added a slight inward angle to help bring the speakers closer to ears
- Increased diameter of wire ingress hole to support using larger gauge wiring (currently using the pigtail end of a set of RCA->3.5mm stereo jack cable.  Much easier than dealing with varnish coated headphone wiring)

This is a custom adapter I've made which will allow one to use the speakers from the HP Reverb G2 headset with the Varjo Aero headset. It may work for other headsets as well, but the clip dimensions were designed to fit the Varjo specifically.

This print is not for the faint-of-heart. You will need some additional materials and soldering skills to pull this off.

At a minimum you will need:

Spare headphone cable

Soldering iron

Solder

Flux paste

Tip tinning compound (for prepping the headphone wiring.. will explain further down)

"Something" to use as internal contacts. I bought some 5mm x 0.3mm battery spring contacts from Amazon and cut them to size (actually I "broke" them by gripping in pliers and bend/breaking them).

This is designed with zero tolerance between the cap and the clip. Depending on the quality of your print, you may need to do a bit of filing and clean-up work to get the pieces to snap together properly.

I suggest printing at 0.1mm layer height to ensure enough layers on the cap for strength, as well as to provide the best resolution for the cable routing grooves and holes in the clip side.

The imagesshould provide an idea how to build the adapters.

I have put my method for dealing with the headphone wiring in the "post printing" section below and uploaded some quick videos I took to show my process.

The clips are a snug fit on the strap of the Aero. But, you should be able to get them on the strap right behind the tilt adjustment knobs where the strap narrows and then slide them back. The left side will require you to remove the cable clip which is attached to the headset with 2 small screws. There are cable management loops on the adapter to replace the function of the built-in loop.

Print Settings

Printer:

Prusa Mini+

Rafts: 

Doesn't Matter

Supports:

No

Resolution: 

0.1

Infill:

15

Filament:

Any PLA/ANY 

Any

Notes:

Any filament should be fine as long as your printer can print it cleanly at 0.1mm layer height. I used carbon fiber reinforced PLA for my prints.

Post-Printing =============

Prepping the headphone wiring

Headphone wiring is a pain in the rear to deal with. Each individual strand is coated in an insulating varnish. The only way to get it off is to burn it off. This presents two problems. 1.) it is very hard to control how far down the wire the coating burns. 2.) once the coating is burnt off, there is so much oxidation left over that it is still nearly impossible to solder.

Your headphone wire may be different... But if you are undertaking this project, you should be able to figure out how to solder your wires.

The best way I have found to prep the wiring is to:

1 - Untwist about 3x as much of the headphone wire as you need to solder with (15mm or so)

2 - If there is an integral strand of nylon fiber wound with the copper wires, try as much as possible to isolate it so that you can cut it away.. this will make a much cleaner burn in step 3

3 - re-twist the wire until you have about 2x (10mm or so) left untwisted

4 - grasp the wire strands with a pair of pliers a few mm below where you want the coating stripped. The pliers will help control how far the coating burns off.

5 - Acting very quickly, use a torch on very low setting to burn off the coating. If it is too hot, you will melt the very fine copper wiring. Some strands will likely melt as it is.

6 - Once the coating is burned off, carefully twist the wire back together.

7 - Tin the end of the headphone wire

The "Bare" section of the wire is still to dirty to properly take solder. So what I do is pull the bare end through "tip tinning compound" with the hot soldering iron. The acid compount will help burn off the oxidation, hopefully leaving you with a nice tinned piece of wire that will easily solder to the contact tabs.

8 - Repeat 1-7 for the remaining headphone wires

Isolating the nylon strand

Category: DIY