⚠ WARNING - VERY LOUD ⚠

These whistles can get VERY loud. Please avoid blowing them in confined areas (indoors). These might be an annoyance to others, so please be courteous to those nearby.

Whistles

There are a couple whistles included in this project.

• S1 - Single Column Edge Tone
• D2 - Dual Column Edge Tone

I am thinking about designing a referee whistle. If you think I should, please let me know!

About

Hello!

The airsoft group I play with never seems to have enough whistles (we usually only had one), and I wanted one that I could share with other players. These could act as game or emergency whistles if need be. I only had a few design criteria:

• Easy to Blow (little back pressure)
• Loud + Good Sound Signature (little hissing, wasted air, and is consistent tone/behavior from mid to high volume)
• Simple + Small (minimalistic)
• Durable + Hole (for Paracord)
• Easy to Print (no supports, little material, & high success rate)

Whistle Designs

Besides the criteria above, I wanted two whistle designs:

• Small Emergency Whistle (S1)
• Oscillating Game Whistle ("we-yu-we-yu-we-yu") (D2)

I really wanted a small whistle that could be printed in mass numbers. That was my first priority. This would allow me to more easily print more whistles (faster & cheaper) to share them with more people. I figured this would also make it a better event whistle. The second whistle would have an oscillating sound for games. A slightly bigger whistle, perhaps more robust, but definitely was oscillating (dual tone or pea/ball). I didn't want a jingle of a pea/ball, so I decided to recycle my single column edge tone whistle.

A side feature I decided to incorporate into my larger whistle was to be very buoyant at lower densities. This was achieved with two areas in the whistle where there is plenty of room for buoyancy tanks.

Whistles I Really Liked

I tried several whistles on Thingiverse. These are whistles that I really liked, but didn't meet my physical requirements. These have the best sound signature and are the easiest to blow out of all the whistles I tried (in my opinion).

• Better Whistle (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:403012)
• Referee/Police Whistle (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2188109) (with pea/ball)
• Muddtt's Emergency Whistle (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:494695)

I didn't use these due to durability concerns, especially with the string/cord holes. Sometimes the peas/balls don't spin in the ref style whistles, so you have to give them a pretty sizable blow. Besides the slight ball issue, the sound signature for the two ref whistles is REALLY good. I'm very impressed by both, and thus didn't feel a need to design a ref whistle myself.

Other Whistles I tried

I really liked the shape of the V29 (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1179160) (everyone knows it), but it needs to be blown really hard with LOTS of air to get a good sound. I wanted something easier to blow and produce.

Most of the whistles I tried just didn't work, hardly worked, weren't durable enough, or didn't have a good sound signature. I had high hopes for a lot of whistles on Thingiverse. A reoccurring issue I had with ref whistles was they would cutout when blown too hard, or a frequency shift for edge-tones.

Issues with my whistle designs

TLDR:
- High hiss floor (combats frequency shelf shift at high pressue/volume)
- S1 can peel up by hole (so try a short brim if it does)

My whistles are designed to be blown moderate to full blast, like they would be for practical applications (during games or emergencies). They were designed this way to help prevent users from shifting the frequency shelf (which jumps the frequency from ~2.6 kHz to ~5-6 kHz for my edge-tones). That shelf shift is ear piercing, and was an issue I had during live testing when I was developing these. For an example of this, blow Muddtt's Emergency Whistle (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:494695) really hard. You'll hear a pitch shift. This was an issue with every edge tone I tried off Thingiverse, and was an instant deal breaker. I was able to raise that next shelf out of reach, but that made them lose their tones (and hiss) at really low pressure/volume.

Secondly, the dual tone version (D2) can be printed easily without a brim or raft. It prints really well and has a very high success rate with just a skirt or no adhesion (with prime). The first, single column version (S1), on the other hand, can start peeling up from the hole end. Thankfully, minor peeling doesn't affect the sound of the whistle as it doesn't warp the chamber. So it's solely a cosmetic flaw (as far as I can tell). The issue can be avoided by using a short brim, but I want to make it print more reliably with a skirt, so I will be making some slight adjustments in the future.

Feedback

Better images to be added soon!

I want to improve this whistle design, so please let me know what you think! Should I adjust the frequency/pitch, adjust the shelf? I want to hear your thoughts! Again, if you think I should take a crack at a Ref Whistle, please let me know!

-No supports!
-0.2 mm works really well. That's the layer height displayed in the pictures.
-The whistles will print easily with just a skirt or primed nozzle. There is an issue with S1, where depending on the printer you might need to use a brim. It sometimes peals up from the bed by the cord hole. It doesn't affect the sound and is purely cosmetic (as far as I can tell). If this occurs frequently on your printer, use a brim for S1.