Revenki's photos with the keyword: dashboard

Ready to Go

12 Feb 2010 137
The finished product, ready to be installed in the car. All told, it took about an hour to fumble around and get this to go together. View the resulting timelapses here.

Proper Orientation

12 Feb 2010 157
A closeup view of the mounted camera in its intended orientation. Since software settings will readily flip the image on this webcam, there's no reason it can't be flipped over the other way. The original mount on the camera is opened up just for visibility - that little counterweight leg folds down neatly over the steel nut. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't disassemble that part of the original mount in order to take the counterweight off. View the resulting timelapses here.

Installed (Closeup)

12 Feb 2010 166
It took a lot of bending and adjusting to get the holes in the interleaved feet of the P-clamps to line up. Be patient, and carefully adjust the bends in the "tangential" feet, so as to shift the loop a bit and give a little slack to the "bent" feet on the clamps. I did most of the adjustments with the tangential feet (only) bolted together with a short 1/4-20 bolt-nut pair. Once the bent feet were adjusted enough, their slotted holes started to fit over the free threads on the bolt. At that point I removed the bolt and nut, and trimmed a 3/8" section of the rubber liner off of the P-clamps (not visible here - it's in the area facing the "outboard" sides of the camera's original mount) to allow the bent feet to reach just a little bit further (with the untouched rubber liner plenty enough to hold the camera tightly). Having previously removed the head from the suction mount (by opening the clamp on the ball head), I then slipped the feet of the P-clamps over the thread on the head, and (somehow, don't ask me how) managed to get the nut to engage before it all fell apart. On the suction mount's head, there is exactly enough length to go through the nut and leave the rule-of-thumb 1-2 free threads on the other side. The only thing left to do is to fit in some sort of restraint on the hinge between the camera and its original mount, so that it can't swivel freely there. View the resulting timelapses here.

Installed

12 Feb 2010 190
The webcam as seen from underneath, attached (sorta permanently) to the mounting bracket. I say "sorta permanently" only because, once you have it assembled, you won't want to take it apart again. For use on a tripod, I would buy a sacrificial quick shoe for the purpose. And yes, the camera head is upside down on its original mount. I disassembled it to see where I might pot in a threaded insert for the tripod mount, and then put it back together the wrong way. This same mounting approach should work with the original mount in its proper orientation, though. View the resulting timelapses here.

The Hardware

12 Feb 2010 120
Two 1/2"-diameter P-clamps. Not shown: a single 1/4-20 steel nut. That's it. All told, about $3 worth of materials from the specialty fastener drawers at Lowe's. Oh, and a Logitech 9000 camera, which was about $85 when I bought it new a year or so ago.