kickingtyres

DIY Camcorder mount

Posted by Andrew on 25 January 2012 | 0 Comments

Tags:

This evening, I decided to take a break from wiring the Emerald ECU harness for my supercharger project. I've got one wire left to attach, but it's right in amongst a forest of wires, and I can't be bothered right now.

So, tonight's fun was making a camcorder mount.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up an HD camcorder from Lidl (1920x1980p) for £99. Not a bad deal, and pretty compact. Since it's going to be fitted to cars, bikes and boats I wasn't too fussed about spending a fortune on uber high quality kit.

I had one of those little mini tripods lying about (similar to this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Tripod-Ball-Tilt-silver/dp/B0002W6E3S )
I found that the legs of the tripod unscrewed leaving an M10 threaded shaft protruding about 1cm from the bottom of the head.

I also happen to have some 1" aluminium alloy bar lying about, so I stuck it in the lathe, turned it down, bored and threaded a hole in the end and made this.

It's mounted straight onto the wind-blocker. I drilled two 7mm holes and attached it using allen bolts and large 'fender' washers (My memory fails me.. what are they called in the UK?)

I mounted it high enough that it can still be used with the wind-blocker up, and it can also be rotated to face the camera backwards.

Went for a drive around the town (I needed fuel anyway) and tested the image quality. There's a bit of vibration, but nothing major. Can certainly still see what's happening.