DIY Camera Mount

[MConte05]

So after seeing some of the DIY interior camera mounts, I decided to go make my own. All in all I spent about $30, which is a little bit more pricey that some other DIY setups, but I wanted it to be of good quality as well as be able to work on the Civic and any other car with removable headrests.

It was about a 2-3 hour effort, from conceptualizing it, planning it, buying the materials, measuring stuff, cutting the material (just drilled holes and one cut for shortening the vertical round-stock), and to finally testing it out. The main materials used were:

1 - 3-ft long section of 3/4" aluminum square stock
1 - 3-ft long section of 3/4" aluminum round stock (diameter chosen to fit diameter of tripod mount)
5 - 1/4" U-bolts
16 - 1/4" wing nuts (to replace 1/4" nuts on U-bolts)
4 - 1/2" Rubber grommets
1 - 2-ft long bungee cord

The four rubber grommets first went into the round-stock on the headrests to act as vibration isolation, these things became a pain when I removed the headrests and they would slide off. Black grommets on a black/grey interior is not particularly fun. The U-Bolts also slide into a little groove in the grommets, so it also helps to keep the mount from sliding up and down.



Next the U-bolts were looped onto the headrests so that measurements could be taken for drilling the holes. One could spend the time to measure out all the spacing and such exactly and have it precision drilled (like I started to do), but eventually I just marked off where the bolts laid on the square stock, and drilled a hole through the center of the stock and hoped that it would slide on easily. Even though they are 1/4" U-Bolts, I still drilled with a 5/16" bit to give it some room to move so its easier to remove and replace.

A U-Bolt was also attached to the center of the bar for where the tripod mount would sit. It acts as a brace to hold the vertical round-stock stable. In the picture the round-stock is just held stable by over-torquing the U-Bolt, however I am going to notch out a section of the pipe so that the U-Bolt will slide into that with ease, and hold it steady. Or else get another grommet .



As I had mentioned earlier in the materials listing, I chose a 3/4" aluminum round stock because it was the inner diameter of my tripod mount. I use my regular tripod on a daily basis, so I didn't want to destroy it by gluing it on, or adding a setscrew to it. To get the tripod mount to stay snuggly on the bar, I just added a small notch for the adjustment screw to slide in, as well as putting some electrical tape around the outside of the bar to give the mount something to "grab" since the outer diameter of the round-stock should be slightly larger than the inner diameter of the tripod mount. This way also I can mount the camera in a reverse view, or a dash view, or even out the side windows, verses a solid mount facing forwards the entire time.



The vertical round-stock gets firmly planted into the carpet on the floor. One thing I am going to do soon is get a rubber "foot" for the round-stock since when trying to get it planted, or during extreme movements it has a tendency to slide a little bit. As a temporary solution a bungee cord was wrapped around the bottom of the bar and attached to the two car seat attachments under the rear seats. However what I want to use the bungee cord for is to attach to the top of the round-stock near the tripod mount and then attach to the small hook that is on the pass-through when it is fully deployed so that some more vibration isolation can be had for the mount.





Overall the entire setup works great, and definitely has some versatility in regards to the fact that it can be adjusted and setup to fit other cars, all one needs to do is drill new mounting holes for the U-Bolts, or if they are in approximately the same location, but just slightly different, can use the other side of the square stock to drill new holes, so at least two custom setups are guaranteed. The "assembly time" I would say is around 3-5 minutes, easiest way I found was to just remove the headrests as a whole, slide the U-Bolts onto them, slide the headrests and bar onto the seats, finger tighten the wing nuts on the U-Bolts, tighten up the U-Bolt holding the vertical round-stock, then go back and tighten down the rest of the bolts, then adjust the vertical round-stock to the users preference. Adjust the camera for best angle, and take off.

The camera I am using is a Canon Elura 100 Mini-DV with a cheap-o wide angle lens attachment. The wide angle lens gives a great view of the entire windshield, as well as the gauges and such. I ended up making a quick video of my testing of the camera mount last night while driving on Highway W, some various back-country roads and gravel.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GoFFmci9OEs

There are some vibration problems, especially on bumpy roads, but I think because it was shot at night, it makes the vibrations more noticeable on film than if it was during the day. However I do plan on trying to remedy the problem a bit with the bungee cord running from the tripod-mount to the pass-through as well as a rubber grommet for the vertical bar where it attaches to the U-Bolt and a rubber foot for the attachment to the floor.

Hope you find this informative! This Saturday I am going to go on spur-of-the-moment road trip down to Arkansas to visit some twisties, so I hope to have another video up soon of that trip using my exterior camera mount and the interior one. Unfortunately I don't think I'll have enough time to get my planned fog-light camera mount made by this Saturday.

[martinus]

Little over-kill for using both headrest/seat mounts AND the floor ... but no gussets or anyting to stabilize the point where the 2 bars meet .

I rather have CLR4ILS's ( former boy scout ?) one . Looks about a 100 times more stable.




Sorry, just my 2 cents . Don'y want to piss you off, since you are quite the beast master @ tightening fastners & chewing off the end of pipes ...



With you "skillz" & time, you should be able to make this : http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edpd/...egory=Interior




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[Mobutusan]

^^^ I thought that was a custom mount from Deer Killer Racing, or something. Well done.

[MConte05]

martinus, your mount made my day.

As for the overkill, it is, but its also was designed with the functionality of being able to mount it in several other cars as well. The other car that it will primarily be used in is a 1986 Honda Civic Hatchback that has been completely stripped and currently being prepped to run in the 100 Acre Wood in 2009, and that vertical bar will be bolted into the floor. The vertical bar also needs to be able to move around to firmly plant itself into the carpet and to adjust for other cars, so I couldn't really weld on some gusset plates.

Although I may try and remove the mount to the passenger side seat, but leave the vertical bar and see how that fares, can't imagine it wouldn't hurt it.

Right now designing up my foglight camera mount, and a boom mount that will bolt to somewhere on the undercarriage...

[409industries]

Dood the sticks and tape... thats awesome.

[Blix666]

that ECS mount looks like it would most definitely shake too much.

good design/write up mc!

[martinus]

Originally Posted by blix666

that ECS mount looks like it would most definitely shake too much.

Would depend on the seat it self or the hinge point in the slider . It does really well in Audis ...

The "stick-mount" is CLR4ILS's ... purdy bade arse, yes .

[WRXCMM]

nice work man i like the idea...the only downside i see to this is that the seats tend to sheak/move alot specially with weight (that may be part my 200 and some pounds). lol


my .02

[martinus]

Originally Posted by WRXCMM

nice work man i like the idea...the only downside i see to this is that the seats tend to sheak/move alot specially with weight (that may be part my 200 and some pounds). lol


my .02

LOL, thats actually the other way around . In my experiance . Some seats tend to shake & rattle a little in the tracks, but once you put a person in it , its nice and "planted" .

BTW : Might add a strap on thet thing since its recuireed my most snctioning bodies . ( also would help with vibrations )

[I Like It Sideways]

Great writeup, it looks solid. I actually don't mind the vibrations. They are slight, but make you feel closer to how the road actually feels

[MConte05]

To see some more footage of the camera mount in action, check out this thread: http://dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showt...7933#post17933

After driving with it though, there are some things I want to modify, a type of tie-down strap is definitly needed for the camera, the mount stays sturdy as all-get-out but the camera still jiggles around on the tripod mount. So either a larger surface for the camera to sit on is needed, or else a simple tie-down strap.

[idntluvugetovrit]

nice! wish i had adjustable headrests!!!

[fattie92]

I will be making my own DIY camera mount here in the near future....

[idntluvugetovrit]

Originally Posted by fattie92

I will be making my own DIY camera mount here in the near future....

cant wait to see! i have been wanting an on board cam for days now!

[fattie92]

I just got a JVC Everio G 30gig HDD camera for Xmas... I need to get this thing mounted ASAP!! I have been trying to fix the welder at work though before I start. Stupid MIG's and aluminum wire....