Dashmellow
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2013
- Messages
- 18,181
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- Uncanny Valley (●_●)
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- United States
- Dash Cam
- Umpteen
This project was all @Gabacho's fault!
It all started last year on October 1st about four pages into the JooVuu-X Pre-order thread when he innocently inquired about "a description of the type of mounts available".
@JooVuu replied that, "We're still not 100% sure but at the moment we're about 75% sure it will be this one https://www.joovuu.com/gb/mounts/248-mini-quick-release-mount.html"
Another member immediately pointed out that this proposed mount's single axis of adjustment was problematic. I agreed.
Then a whole lengthy discussion ensued along with certain disagreements even including a bout of entirely unnecessary, somewhat ridiculous argumentation and infighting. We were even treated to some of Dan's characteristic bluster and bragging about an alleged "game changer" mount he claims to have developed that I am confident will never see the light of day.
Dan then offered us a variety of other potential mounts to look at, none of which were particularly appealing and later we learned that the decided upon JooVuu-X mount would apparently be a ginormous magnetic mount some 8-10 centimeters tall. (It's still not actually clear to me if the JooVuu-X ended up being shipped with any mount or whether you need to buy one separately, but this post is all about design concerns, so let's stick with that.)
For my part, I advocated for the importance and necessity of a mount that provides for the adjustment of the horizontal axis since that is an important requirement for many of us. Ultimately, we aficionados of small discreet cameras such as the Mobius or the JooVuu-X don't need a "game changer", we need a small, simple, discreet, low profile tripod threaded mount that will do the job.
So, on October 5th and on October 6th I proposed via some self created conceptual Photoshop renderings I posted to the Pre-order thread the following two designs as potential candidates for just what such a low profile, multi axis ball joint mount might look like.
Well, after all the Sturm und Drang of the JooVuu-X mount discussions, as the owner of 4 plus Mobius cameras who runs multiple simultaneous cameras in my vehicle, the idea of bringing these concepts to fruition began to simmer and after awhile I set about to see if I could make that happen.
Meanwhile, just recently, I was rather amused to discover....or perhaps I should say, NOT amused to discover that our friend Dan, @JooVuu has quietly introduced an EXACT copy of my design for sale on his web site without any acknowledgement whatsoever regarding where that design actually came from. It turns out that this mini tripod ball and socket mount is also now shipped in the box with the JooVuu-X camera. Shame on him after all this!
One time several years ago, a design idea for an accessory I posted to a different enthusiast forum was picked up by a manufacturer and put into production but the owner of the company thanked me publicly on the forum and later sent me a bunch of samples along with the 175 dollar product that went with it. How cool is that?
But I digress. This is a DIY post after all, and so let me get on with introducing my project. My primary purpose here in going into all this was really to explain the history and inspiration for this project more than any other concerns.
So, my original idea as suggested in the Pre-order thread was to simply cut down and modify a standard widely available adhesive tripod mount like the one on the left below that many of us are familiar with and that's exactly what I did with two of them. For the sake of designation I call the first one "the Mini".
Here are the basic components. As you'll see, some of these parts eventually got swapped around with the other mounts I've made. I added a locking platform I made from a hard rubber bin washer which I drilled to accommodate a glued-in thin 1/4-20 hex nut as seen above. The idea was to make a secure locking platform that is thinner than the ones that came with the mounts I started with. The basic idea with this mount was to eliminate the raised center column of the original to lower the height of the tripod mount.
One important thing to mention is that all of the mounts I have to shown here required modifying the original ball that inserts into the socket to create a lower profile or taller profile threaded mounting stalk, depending on the requirements.
I sawed the ball off this old unused mount and drilled it out to accept a 1/4-20 threaded shaft.
The first mount came out rather well but after it was complete I concluded it was still too tall for how I intend to use it ("ceiling mounted" side facing camera) so I decided to see just how low a profile mount I could get away with building and still have it functional for my needs. It seems that if you cut off the bottom third of the socket ball it will still fit and function just fine. This discovery made me realize I could achieve a MUCH lower profile design. Meanwhile, I realized the first "too tall" mount I made will be a perfect low profile replacement for my current rear facing Mobius camera mount.
This iteration resulted in what I refer to as the "Nano" seen below.
I was mindful of a point brought up by @jokiin in the above mentioned JooVuu-X Pre-order discussion, that, "the challenge I've seen from the shorter ones is they don't have enough adjustment to compensate for the windscreen angle and end up pointing too far down". However, I discovered in the process of doing this project that you can achieve all the angle of tilt you will probably need as long as you provide a long enough threaded stalk. If you need less tilt and still want the lowest profile mount, just swap in a ball with a shorter 14/-20 threaded stalk. With the "Nano" low profile mount I can achieve a maximum tilt of 45 degrees if desired using the long stalk.
I used the balls from several of these mounts I bought on eBay from a small but excellent supplier in China (3 for less than 5 bucks!) and I cannibalized some older ball and joint mounts from now defunct cameras by installing my own 1/4-20 threaded columns.
Here are the basic parts that went into this one. The base is worthy of some discussion. I drilled countersunk holes in a steel fender washer and then used small torx screws and epoxy glue to put the whole thing together, so it is very strong. The idea behind using a steel washer for the base makes the whole mount attachable with neodymium magnets if so desired, or 3M VHB tape, or Dual-Lock tape. With magnets it has a very strong hold and is one of the basic design features on the two mounts here with a round metal base.
OK, so due to the ten photo limit per post on XenForo forums I will have to continue below with discussion of the third mount I built which ended up being the most complex and so perhaps it deserves its own slot.
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