[Driv3r]

hmm, great idea about making that mount...im going to try it this weekend!

[spacedogg]

It seems on Fifth Gear, they shoot with a setup that is basically an adjustable steel bar with two huge suction cups on either end. they mount each side of the suction cups to the rear two side windows. then they can mount the camera exactly in the centre.

it's hard to describe. but if you carefully watch their M3 v RS4 shootout video you'll get an idea what i'm talking about. You'll see that they use a single suction cup unit for shots of the driver, another single suction camera mount setup looking out the rear of the car (and sometimes positioned forwards) and a single steel bar with two suctions cups attached on either end and secured to the rear two windows.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...=fifth+gear+m3

Couple of other informative links:

http://www.ae92gts.com/ae92gts_video_mount.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/EKIQGRQBIOEVYDUFRD/
http://vegas.digitalmedianet.com/art...e.jsp?id=28807

[Josh49]

Spacedogg, great links. Thank you very much for those. The first two really help. I like the idea of attaching to both head rests a lot. When I was driving yesterday I tried to glance over at the passenger seat/headrest every now and then. It vibrates. However, my seat wasn't. It seems my body acts as a damper and was dampening the vibrations out of the seat. So if I am driving alone, it will probably vibrate less if I also connect to my seat as well..

Thanks everyone for the good info, should be a cool little project. I definitely don't want to scratch up the headrest posts so I will want to use a softer material around them. As for the actual bar, I was thinking the end product I will anodize or paint black that way it blends into the black interior and doesn't stand out so much.. I could always paint it black, and clearcoat it. That would leave a nice professional finish on it... I'll also call the plating company and see how much to hard anodize black.

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

cool let me know if you need any help but you can probably see from my design which parts to get from home depot..

Kevin, does that tripod mount that you have allow tip/tilt?

[KL2DC]

Originally Posted by Josh49

I could always paint it black, and clearcoat it. That would leave a nice professional finish on it... I'll also call the plating company and see how much to hard anodize black.

Don't forget the custom engraving....

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by KL2DC

Don't forget the custom engraving....

Yep. And the sound machine..

[KL2DC]

Originally Posted by Josh49

Yep. And the sound machine..

Again, this is a good idea . Let us know when you have a few for sale. Make sure its cheap! And well engineered!!

[KEVIN88GT]

wow u took an x3 autocrossing.....bet you got some double takes....

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

wow u took an x3 autocrossing.....bet you got some double takes....

Kevin, see a few posts back, I had a questions for you..

[KEVIN88GT]

Originally Posted by Josh49

Kevin, does that tripod mount that you have allow tip/tilt?

Yes josh it does...while it's not too convinient as far as repositioning...the tripod mount works on a ball in a socket design...if the camera (however small) tilts down on one side I sometimes need to tighten the wingnut really hard to make it stay on place...... check out the cheap tripod @ best buy...if it doesnt work out u can always return it...

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

Yes josh it does...while it's not too convinient as far as repositioning...the tripod mount works on a ball in a socket design...if the camera (however small) tilts down on one side I sometimes need to tighten the wingnut really hard to make it stay on place...... check out the cheap tripod @ best buy...if it doesnt work out u can always return it...

Gotcha... Maybe you could get it set how you want it, then put some 5 minute epoxy in there so it doesn't move?? If the cg of the camera is not directly over the ball, I could see the camera slipping down each little bump or vibration as you're saying... I'll have to think about how to fix that. Having the ball is nice though, you get the DOF's I was looking for..

Thanks for the response..

[ChadE]

stickeypod

[KEVIN88GT]

just wanted to share this picture of the parts involved....didnt realized I had this pic

[dolby]

Here is a mount that I thought could work. I have a crane made by them and have been thinking of getting this as well.

http://nuangle.com/NC.htm

[Walked U]

Ya i need to do something like this also. Or at least get a better video camera.

[Josh49]

Camera mount project..

It's on! Officially..

Lot's of brainstorming and thinking of concepts..

Some goals:
Adjustability built in, but when it's where you want it, it has to be damn solid..
No rattling
E90 friendly
Hold the camera damn steady
Minimize vibration into the camera
Easy to machine

And most importantly, sexy and "clean"... It's gotta be sweet..

After a lot of concepts I think I have figured out how I want it. I am going through the details now. Yesterday I measured all the dimensions on the camera, came up with a good simplified model of that to work with. Tomorrow I'll take out a headrest, and pull some dimensions from that.

I need to get in the car and take some trial pictures to make sure the view is okay where I am going to put it. I would like to mount it off the left side of the passenger headrest, and center it in the car. But I'm pretty sure that spot is working for a lot of people, so I'm going to keep pushing with the design anyhow..

I'll try and post some pictures of my design so far tomorrow..

I'll keep updating this thread with my progress..

[KEVIN88GT]

josh looking forward to lots of pics...and since I'll be getting an e92 soon I'm even more interested

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by KEVIN88GT

josh looking forward to lots of pics...and since I'll be getting an e92 soon I'm even more interested

Hey congrats Kevin..

I'll try taking a lot of pics.. Until it's fully assembled. Then it's kind of hard..

[Josh49]

Measured up the headrests, plugged them in. Adjusted accordingly. Fit hardware.

Material: Delrin (w/ inserts), all 18-8 SST hardware..

Some pics..

[lkraven]

That looks really solid! Adjustable... not so much

[Josh49]

Some explanation. Starting at the camera -

Plate gets attached to bottom of camera using 1/4-20 thread in bottom of camera. Two cylinders (of a soft material) will be pushed up against the opposite site of the camera, to constrain rotation of camera during acceleration and braking. This plate also is designed to adjust in this direction +/- 12.5 degrees by loosening two bolts on the bottom of the cylinder, adjusting, and locking down. What is nice about this constraint system is I don't need to really crank down on the threads inside the camera to get it to not rotate. Moving further, the cylinder can rotate 360 degrees within the block, allowing me to adjust that direction (roll). It can then be cranked down so the camera/cylinder assembly doesn't roll. For now I will try 4 pts of tightening in the groove, although if I need to I could easily add 4 more pts (top and bottom). Split in box allows each half to go on a side of a post. Holes and taps to crank that down. I'm going to use .060" RTV (dark orange/red) between post and aluminum, and again between aluminum and camera to reduce the amount of vibration that goes into the camera. All holes are counterbored so they are not sticking out to get caught on things...

[Josh49]

Originally Posted by lkraven

That looks really solid! Adjustable... not so much

It's very adjustable..

It's all in the connections underneath that you can't see..