Dashmellow
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2013
- Messages
- 18,251
- Reaction score
- 18,902
- Location
- Uncanny Valley (●_●)
- Country
- United States
- Dash Cam
- Umpteen
One of the first things I noticed when I received the Mini 0906 for testing was the vastly beefier and improved mount that was much more secure and stable than older mini mount iterations, particularly the Mini o806 that I previously tested. That model had a nasty habit of sagging from the mount at an angle the longer the camera was in service and there wasn't much that could be done about it.
The other issue was that the camera had a tendency to vibrate on rough roads leading to a deterioration in image quality. For that camera I devised a foam block that I would insert between the top of the camera and the windshield to help stabilize it and keep it in place. That helped but offered only marginal improvement.
The Mini 0906 GPS mount doesn't seem so prone to sagging so far and is far more stable than before yet it still isn't quite stable enough in my view. While it seems fine on most typical tarmac roads and highways it shows evidence of vibration on the rural dirt and gravel roads in my area and I've seen some evidence of this elsewhere such as when I drive over expansion joints on certain bridges or simply come across a pothole or other road hazard. Living on a dirt and gravel road in a rural location has taught me a lot about camera vibration's effect on image quality and any dash cam purchasing decision now includes mounting stability as a major criteria. For this reason I now gravitate more towards direct to glass mounted designs like the SG665GC or the Viofo wedge models.
If you have a Mini-0906 installed in your vehicle just try pressing down on it gently and you'll notice that there is some give and the camera will move with the pressure of your finger. That will tell you everything you need to know about what I am trying to explain here.
I've never quite understood the engineering logic of creating a cantilevered camera design where the mounting point is on one corner of a tubular shaped camera as it places an enormous amount of stress on that single spot as the mounting bracket has to support the entire weight of the camera in an automotive environment subject to shocks and vibration. We see this design on the mini series and on various other tubular dash cams and I've come to consider it problematic.
So, I propose a hypothetical new mount design for a possible future Mini cam that would be inherently more stable, secure and vibration free and would provide other benefits such as the ability to place super-capacitors inside the mounting bracket which would allow for a good size heat sink within the camera housing to offer better cooling and better ventilation for the components. This design concept also offers the new feature of easy lateral camera aiming.
I proposed a similar design concept for the mini here on DCT quite some time ago but here I've developed more of a mock-up than the primitive sketch I came up with earlier.
The other issue was that the camera had a tendency to vibrate on rough roads leading to a deterioration in image quality. For that camera I devised a foam block that I would insert between the top of the camera and the windshield to help stabilize it and keep it in place. That helped but offered only marginal improvement.
The Mini 0906 GPS mount doesn't seem so prone to sagging so far and is far more stable than before yet it still isn't quite stable enough in my view. While it seems fine on most typical tarmac roads and highways it shows evidence of vibration on the rural dirt and gravel roads in my area and I've seen some evidence of this elsewhere such as when I drive over expansion joints on certain bridges or simply come across a pothole or other road hazard. Living on a dirt and gravel road in a rural location has taught me a lot about camera vibration's effect on image quality and any dash cam purchasing decision now includes mounting stability as a major criteria. For this reason I now gravitate more towards direct to glass mounted designs like the SG665GC or the Viofo wedge models.
If you have a Mini-0906 installed in your vehicle just try pressing down on it gently and you'll notice that there is some give and the camera will move with the pressure of your finger. That will tell you everything you need to know about what I am trying to explain here.
I've never quite understood the engineering logic of creating a cantilevered camera design where the mounting point is on one corner of a tubular shaped camera as it places an enormous amount of stress on that single spot as the mounting bracket has to support the entire weight of the camera in an automotive environment subject to shocks and vibration. We see this design on the mini series and on various other tubular dash cams and I've come to consider it problematic.
So, I propose a hypothetical new mount design for a possible future Mini cam that would be inherently more stable, secure and vibration free and would provide other benefits such as the ability to place super-capacitors inside the mounting bracket which would allow for a good size heat sink within the camera housing to offer better cooling and better ventilation for the components. This design concept also offers the new feature of easy lateral camera aiming.
I proposed a similar design concept for the mini here on DCT quite some time ago but here I've developed more of a mock-up than the primitive sketch I came up with earlier.
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