HTC Vive Deluxe Audio Strap Earpiece Fix

thingiverse

I have had broken earpieces on my HTC Vive Deluxe Audio Strap for well over a year now due to an absolutely unacceptable design flaw between the metal reinforced slider and the hinge. My options were: 1. buy a new DAS: ~$100+ 2. buy a used DAS: ~$50-100+ 3. buy just the earpads from iFixIt: ~$60+ 4. Fix it myself. I finally decided to do something about it and I opted for option 4. With this design, you are able to clip the broken pieces and the 3D printed pieces can hold the broken pieces together reasonably well without any adhesive. Though, if you want a very solid fix, throw some adhesive into the mix. I haven't bothered with adhesive yet as I haven't had the need. I've been using these for a couple weeks and they work rather well. I have only tested them with PETG as it is stronger and I have more of it on hand at the moment. If you print it in PLA, let me know how it does. I considered keeping this model to myself and selling the printed parts as a side hustle, but ultimately decided to go the open source route. I will continue to make improvements as time goes on. But, I feel that they are very solid right now so this isn't marked as a Work-In-Progress. If you like this design and it saved you some $ like it did for me, feel free to send me some beer money! Edit 12/24/2020: By popular demand, I put together v2 models that should allow for users to clip these onto non-broken earpads to help reinforce and potentially prevent this break from occurring in the first place! Merry Christmas!