So hear me out…I am trying to design an emitter where the sound comes out of the hilt right next to the blade, and I think I have figured it out. @Driftrotor and I were talking about this yesterday.
Before this, I have always tried to channel the sound around the OD of the emitter, but what about the ID??
So, you start with a solid rod of aluminum, and drill holes…maybe a count of 4-8 (I did 6 here):
Dude this is awesome!
You got to make it to try it out👍
Love the step by step instructions.
I wounder how the sound would change between having 6 holes or 8 or maybe increasing the diameter of the arrayed holes?
Thank you! I might try printing it first, although the plastic might affect the sound differently than the metal would. I think the cross-sectional area of the holes is more important than the count…that being said I’m too lazy to calculate whether a bunch of small holes has more area than a few large ones. My gut feeling is a few large holes is better, since the area increases exponentially with the radius.
Yes, that is correct…the arrows are very helpful! I’m not sure what you mean by fins…this is what the current design looks like from the front:
Issue here will be gripping the blade. Part of the way emitters hold blades is friction. I wonder if with the original suggestion, each groove could also be a j-lock and have pins at the base of the blade? Coupled with a retention screw it should be super stable and have plenty of venting, especially if there are emitter windows and maybe extra vents below the blade…
Hmmm, food for thought. Very good idea! You could use a ball-end mill to cut the grooves. Actually, you could still start with a solid bar, drill holes, and then turn down the OD to reveal the grooves. I like the idea of being able to change the insert for more/less passthrough of the sound.
I am really curious to see how this will sound…I think I am going to print a test tonight.
Random question: how much blade engagement is needed in general for dueling? 1"? 1.5"? 2"?
I tend to try and stick close to 2 inch for that, more because it gives good engagement and for my own peace of mind but I have see up to 3 inch.
I’ve also seen as little as 1 1/8th inch and they had blade problems when playing.
but I think it also depends on blade dia and the hilt it fits in.
(slightly larger blade 1 1/32th inch was a pain to insert and required so sanding down but was very solid when inserted.)
I think this will be sound trial and error so 3d printing to see what it would sound like would give a good indication of what to expect.
the initial design would (in theory) project sound down the blade but sound will reflect of the blade so would be interesting to see in a real life scenario.
the should holes (in theory) would project sound around the users hand and possible spherically around the emitter, but again it would have to be tried and tested to see the real results.
Okay, thanks for the info…I also try to stick to 2", but I’ve been thinking about trying 1.5".
I like the idea of having both. I think on the printed one I’ll start without the lower holes, and then drill them after I test it with just the blade-direction grooves.
First print concept finished. I swapped out my 0.25 mm nozzle for a 0.6 mm nozzle, so it only took 1.5 hours to print. The ID of the blade holder was pretty gnarly, but luckily I bought a massive 1.003" reamer from eBay for $10 a few months ago…
I took a video of testing it out on my saber proffie testing rig. Bare 28 mm speaker in a TCSS holder, then a standard MHS pommel, and finally with the new emitter. I have to say I was blown away by the volume increase and heavy bass. It sounds a little “hollow”…like it’s coming out of a tube, but I have a feeling with some optimization that could be mitigated.
So I was eating my breakfast and thinking about the hollow sound… this is typical of hard surface that is enclosed.
We need to reduce the reflected sounds from inside the chamber.
Try adding a piece of felt over the bottom of the blade.
Or even some stuffing / wadding between the speaker and the blade and see what happens.
This should give a cleaner sound but you might loose some high frequencies.
