Three years to get around to my own install.

[geolemon]

MD QR-1 Quick Release Speaker Box Terminal





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$129.99

IN STOCK
SKU 1-channel-NEO-Terminal

The SMD QR-1 Quick Release Heavy Duty speaker box terminal cup is a great solution to 2 common problems. One being that most terminal cups are very wimpy! Not this one! Rather than a very thin injection-molded unit like most others use, ours has a 1/2" body and 1/4" thick flange milled from 3/4" HDPE, this product will never crack or deform under pressure. The terminals we use are made of nickel-plated n52 neodymium magnets. They will never move OR leak! 100% Guaranteed not to "vibrate off" from any vibration of any sort. Of course, we use only the best Dual 10ga 100% OFC speaker wire!

The next problem this product solves is, of course, removability! If you live in a place you need to bring your box in at night, or perhaps to make room in the trunk for other items, now you can do it in a snap!

• CNC Milled 3/4" HDPE (1/2" Body, 1/4" Flange)
• 5' ft 100% OFC 10ga Speaker Wire. Can fit 8ga as well! (If selected)
• 1/2" Aluminum or Copper terminal blocks w/ 5/16" x 18 set screws (fits up to 8ga wire)
• 8 Mounting fasteners included (Dealers may vary)
• N52 Neodymium Magnets. VERY strong.
• Cork gasket ready to go!
• CUT OUT DIAMETER - 2.75"
• FLANGE DIAMETER - 3.80"
• Available in several different color combinations.
• Made with pride in California, USA
• Lifetime warranty!

So I still don't own a 3D priinter - but looks like I could get a decent one that prints ABS (there's a couple extra features those need) for between $250-$350, so I think I just might do that.

However - anyone here actually do 3D printing? I think I might have to flip this terminal cup in order to actually print it - but even then is it feasible to print the cup part? Just wondering how you print something suspended in the air...
I may try to find a dual-filament printer, since I hear there is a filament that dissolves in water, meant specifically for supporting negative space like that...?

I did the first picture with the connector colored grey and the cup colored orange - I think it would be best to actually do them both in plain 'ol black ABS. No idea what that would cost in filament, but a whole spool is only $25 so probably not too horrible.
For reference, the grid in the pictures all has dark lines at 1", and the small lines are 1/8":

I also modeled up some magnets for the pictures, to scale, to show how they come together (magnets are 1.26" with #10 bolt hole):

I'm sure I'm guilty of over-thinking the connector, but I added some details... + and - indicator (oh yeah, I need to add a corresponding mark on the cup flange!)

Also was thinking there should be some strain relief on the cable, so that's why there's a neck with a groove sized to allow a standard-width zip tie squeeze the wire
I sized the opening to standard 12 gauge speaker wire, and the nuts that correspond to #10 bolts - hoping that is deep enough for even a locknut to be fully recessed, again for protection against shorting from incidental contact:

Inside the connector there's hopefully enough room - what I really designed it for is to remove the insulation on a standard 12 gauge crimp connector (yellow) ring terminal, crimp it to the wire ends, and then that goes between the magnet and the plastic, with the bolt and nut pulling everything secure.
Accordingly, inside the cavity is a divider wall horizontally, so each ring terminal connection is pushed to opposite sides, so the two can't come in contact (view from below, no magnets) (Maybe I could add some shielding on the opposite side, so there's no possibility for loose strands to touch the opposing magnet):

...and again, the thing that led me down this path - safety concern. The connector would presumably be the termination of a wire that goes to an amplifier, so if the wire was disconnected and the car powered up, and the powerful magnets attracted themselves to any metal - the divider here would hopefully prevent metal from contacting both magnets and shorting out the amp.

Finally a little CarAudioJunkies detail on the cup,why not?
The cup doesn't have a divider because
a) when disconnected, there's no electrical risk
b) you could still do the 9v battery clicker test for polarity
c) This is pretty tiny, so trying to include more than one dividing wall would have complicated the plug design, and made all the walls really thin, compromising the protection.


There's definitely still some clean-up work to do, but it's close to print-ready (if it's printable) - but is anyone experienced with 3D printing to know if this is possible with a single-filament printer? All this negative space?

[dgage]

Main comment is the dissolvable support filament is plant-based to work with PVA. Last time I looked, about a year ago, there wasn’t a dissolvable support filament compatible with ABS. Also, ABS is more difficult to print as it needs to be kept at a good temp or you’ll get shrinking and separation. But you’ll want to use ABS as it is stronger for this sort of product.

[geolemon]

Thanks - I'll definitely do some reading. There must be some way to do this with ABS, even if it means printing some material that gets cut away... If not a filament, a technique. We'll see. I'm definitely not buying a printer until I have that question answered - I'd love the ability to print things like this.

[dgage]

Oh there is and it works fairly well, I primarily use accordion support, but it doesn’t leave the cleanest surface.

https://all3dp.com/1/3d-printing-support-structures/

[geolemon]

So this was largely a learning exercise anyway...
I was playing with Tinkercad to see if I could do it.

Turns out besides the other tweaks and fixes, I actually modeled it using bigger magnets than I have (see pic - I think this size is perfect - and I'll have to validate the hole size is still #10 bolt).

So I'll probably go back to the drawing board. This was a fun way to learn a tool and think through some engineering challenges, but I think I'll take this out of this thread and start a new one to get some more feedback.

I think this would be a fun first 3D printing project, could definitely put the files out there for others to print their own. I don't even know what repositories are out there, if those include the temporary support structures or if those are part of everyone's individual printer "slicer" process, etc...
I'm newer than new. Lots of learning to do.
So I'll take this off this thread and get back to my install planning.


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[SiW80]

Could try PETG filament


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[Ge0]

So this was largely a learning exercise anyway...
I was playing with Tinkercad to see if I could do it.

Turns out besides the other tweaks and fixes, I actually modeled it using bigger magnets than I have (see pic - I think this size is perfect - and I'll have to validate the hole size is still #10 bolt).

So I'll probably go back to the drawing board. This was a fun way to learn a tool and think through some engineering challenges, but I think I'll take this out of this thread and start a new one to get some more feedback.

I think this would be a fun first 3D printing project, could definitely put the files out there for others to print their own. I don't even know what repositories are out there, if those include the temporary support structures or if those are part of everyone's individual printer "slicer" process, etc...
I'm newer than new. Lots of learning to do.
So I'll take this off this thread and get back to my install planning.


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I was wondering when you were going to stop talking about 3D printing. This is a build thread. I want to see you start hacking holes into shit

Ge0

[geolemon]

I was wondering when you were going to stop talking about 3D printing. This is a build thread. I want to see you start hacking holes into shit

Ge0

I am in a bit of a holding pattern since the world locked down before I could buy out my lease. Don't want to jinx anything, but I can keep prepping.

I had some scraps of wood and tried to make a W7 adapter ring, but I still think I'd prefer one that lets me swap subs more quickly... my scraps were too small for that, but I do have room on the baffle for a bigger one...

1/2" bigger on the ring, and I'll have room to countersink some screws to leave the W7 screwed into the adapter all the time and just swap that whole thing in and out.

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[geolemon]

I've also been trying to research basically the same dash locations that ErinH used, we have the same car.

I am liking the idea of removing this defroster vent panel to play with the far corner locations - one thing I would like to experiment with are quality dome mids. That could push the direct vs reflected pathlengths to be essentially combless-coincident, at least until far enough up the frequency spectrum past where I'd hand off to my tweeters.

Trying to research now if that panel can be released independently - I'd love to remove it without dissembling by dash if possible, to free the locations up for listening. (pardon the visual distortion, had to use the wide angle camera to get the view of that dash panel way up at the windshield)


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[geolemon]

And third - speaking of tweeters, I have a set of my favorite Focal tweeters from a K2 power set about 10 years ago - I've never installed them, so part of me would kick my own ass for not using them. Dream tweeters.

However - here's an experimental install I did in a Pathfinder winter beater I owned even before that.

What you are looking at are three "wideband" drivers (phase plugs and all), and two 5.25" midbass drivers. At first glance those locations may look crappy, but here's why:

If you read about "line arrays" (like outdoor concert facilities use), they'll say two things:
1) the array reinforces the primary sound, sending it further, as long as you aren't too close to the line array.
2) never listen to a line array in the near-field... See point #1. More specifically - you'll be so close that the far drivers are different pathlength distances to you than the near drivers, and you'll get all that comb-pattern cancellation.

So I thought "what if you make them all the same pathlength distance away?"
Might it be possible to create more, and stronger direct pathlength sound - while weakening the reflected paths, since those would NOT be phase-aligned?

So I suspended a stick with a string tied to the center between my two headrests [because I wanted a uniform sound stage for the driver AND passenger]. On the other end of the string, a pencil. On the door panel, I removed a portion and made a wood blank. I drew some arcs on both panels where the fulcrum was the point between the headrests. I used those arcs to locate the wideband speakers and the midbass.

I feel like it worked - imaging was pretty stellar, my only complaint was missing basically everything above 10khz until I added some tweeters to that stock A-pillar location. I had some other experimentals going on in here that definitely violated "scientific method" for a single experiment at a time, but the rest weren't associated with imaging.

One fantastic side effect of this was the stage width. My assumption is, the three phase-aligned speakers simulated a single speaker located a couple feet further to the sides and and more forward than their actual location, because that's what it sounded like.



So...
...instead of doing this little trick with the mids (I want to use the far corner dash for that), what if I used ribbon tweeters instead, oriented just a bit tilted back from vertical - wherever creates an equal pathlength from any point on the line the ribbon effectively makes, to the ears? Maybe I could have the same benefit in the more difficult upper octaves? Sail panel or A pillar - I'll have to pick up some cheap ribbons to play with that.

So - take the learnings of the Pathfinder here and apply them to this car, but for tweets... maybe something like this, tilted to be relatively phase-aligned to the average ear height (coughminecough) between the headrests:

This particular ribbon is like 6" tall, so I'm not sure it would fit my sail panel or be easy to mold into my A-pillars - ideally they'd be close to the mids, but a tall linear pod that reached from windshield to dash could also block them or create some weird acoustics as the mid's sound tries to leave that lower windshield corner...
But I have a few sets of cheaper planar drivers in my storage unit to play with, and I can pick up some cheap Chinese ribbons to play with locations and aiming and angles and all that.

And who knows? Maybe I'll just end up using the Focal tweets in sail panel pods - I could even buy factory Honda pods, as all the trim levels above the Sport came with tweets in that location. I'll probably buy them just to try out / for an intermediate 'good enough' in the meantime anyway, those panels are pretty inexpensive.