One of the things you might have noticed in recent updates — and something we haven’t discussed — is that the LipSync mouthpiece looks quite a bit different than it did a few months ago. Why? With a new joystick apparatus, it required a new mouthpiece. As a positive side effect, the new mouthpiece is cheaper, easier to put together, and in our opinion, looks quite a bit slicker with the LipSync design.

Above: A LipSync with the new mouthpiece. (The clear cone-shaped device at the front of the device is the mouthpiece).

Below: Neil Squire Society client Lorraine testing a LipSync with the older mouthpiece. (The older mouthpiece has a blue 3D printed base and a "cigar tip" to sip and puff visible).

For the new mouthpiece, we’re using off the shelf materials. It’s two pieces — a mouthpiece and a filter. It’s essentially a tapered tube with a luer lock — which are conventionally used for syringes and syringe-lines in hospitals and research institutions to make accurate measurements — on one end. The pieces are about a dollar each, and as such, are easily replaceable (if say someone else wants to use the same LipSync, you could get a new mouthpiece). The best thing about is that it is medical grade and foodsafe.

An assembled joystick apparatus with the mouthpiece up close and personal.

Our original mouthpiece — which consisted of a “cigar tip” and 3D printed materials — was designed to be built off of a manifold, which was needed when we were using the PS2 joystick because it had a post down the middle. In the original design, we needed to attach something on that post that would both hold the mouthpiece and that would provide a cavity for the sip and puff airstream to go to the centre of the device.

We also needed to put in a tube in the original design, so that the sip and puff system never contacted the 3D printed parts, as 3D printed materials are not completely foodsafe — they’re porous, which means that bacteria can get in the material, it grows, and you can’t sterilize it because it’s embedded in the material.

The products we bought to create the new mouthpiece, however, are created out of injection moulded acrylic plastic, which means that it is created under such immense pressure that doesn’t allow for surface defects or cavities, thus preventing the sip and puff system from ever contacting the 3D printed parts. The result is foodsafe and completely sterile.

One bonus is that it is now a lot easier to assemble the mouthpiece. The old design had you print components, cut the tube, glue the tube to the inside the 3D printed part and mouthpiece, and assemble. Now, you just turn the filter on, do a ¾ turn, and turn the mouthpiece on.