DIY Cellphone Tripod Mount

So my camera [along with pretty much everything I had] was stolen.

Acquire new mobile, with a good camera. Check

Ready my homemade macro lens. Check

Get prepared for time-lapse and stop-motion mayhem... not quite.

You see, the problem with mobile phones is that even if they have a decent camera, they can't be screwed to a camera tripod. This complicates things for stop-motion or time-lapse situations, among others where one might need a tripod. So what do we do? We make it fit, of course.

All we need are the following materials:

• Cellphone with a camera.
• Regular camera tripod.
• Cassette case [your local librarian might have info on these]
• 3/8 Hex Nut
• Epoxy putty [Mighty Putty, Bondo, PlastiLoka]
• Dremel or Xacto
• Sandpaper [grit 200 is okay]
• Rubber band [optional]
• Patience

Alrighty then. This is, more or less, what the product of your effort will look like:

Marvelous.

By now you must have already guessed how it's done, being a very simple project. However, I'll go on and explain the whole process, since I have nothing else to do at 4am with insomnia.

So. The first step could have one variant. If your phone fits in the cassette case, you make a hole on the front side, where the camera lens goes.

But I suspect that more often than not, the phone will be longer, and will need to sit through one of the edges -the left one. And we need to cut that off with the Dremel or Xacto knife.

Be very careful not to cut yourself!!

Once the left side is gone, sand off the sharp edges. You don't want to scratch your phone ;]

The next step is quite important. Depending on your phone, the case will be attached to the tripod a little bit more to the left or a little bit more to the right. You need to place the phone in the plastic case, and find its centre of gravity. That's where it will be completely balanced, and where the hole for the hex nut will go.

Once you find out where, mark it with the Xacto, and make that hole. If you're doing it with the Xacto, like me, it's going to take a while, so be patient. Do not cut yourself by rushing it! If you're doing it with the Dremel, don't overdo it.

Don't make the hole too big, so the hex nut fits snugly in it. When you have listened to all the songs in Dude Ranch, you've probably ended up with something like this:

The rest is pretty simple: get the hex nut in its hole. Make it stay completely horizontal, so you don't end up with crooked photos. Once it's in its place, prepare the epoxy putty, and apply. Make it, if possible, fill the tiny gaps between the hex nut and the plastic, and cover up to the nut's level. Remember that the inside of the case should NOT have the hex nut or any epoxy protruding; it must be totally flat because that's where you're going to place your phone.

And then we add a second dose of patience, and let it curate for the next 24 hours. 

Et voilà! Screw the case to the tripod, and put the phone in the case. You might want to put a rubber band around the case and the phone, so it doesn't move or falls accidentally.

Ta-daaa!!

Tiki USB Hack

Hi! ^_^ Okay, so it's not a giant Easter Island stone head [those are called Moai]... I made that picture hehe. But it IS a small Moai. You see, the story is quite strange, and at the same time common, you'll see why. My final project was due to midnight, and my computer's clock was screaming 12:01am. You can prolly imagine my face [and my teammate's] and humor. Programming a game was not an easy task, especially under our circumstances [also ridiculously akward... trust me] So at that point, I compile the game.. and my laptop [brand new] died. Instantly. Shouldn't have messed with direct hardware accessing and using lots of resources at the same time. Anyways, I try to save something into my PNY 512MB green usb drive, booting from 3 different linux live-cds until it worked [let's not forget we're almost one hour late here... and it's late at night and we hadn't sleept for 2 days in a row]. I plug my usb drive to my team's laptop and... it cracks. IT'S FREAKING UNBELIAVABLE! I break it appart so I can plug just the chip. We rescue some files, we finish our final project at 9am. My laptop is dead. My USB drive is broken. I am in the middle of finals. Funny as hell :) Anyways, vacations came. What to do with my broken drive? Mod it. How? With a toy. And lots of hot glue. WARNING! Hot, burning stuff is involved here. Burn yourself at your own risk - ask for help if you are a kid ;) And damage to your usb drives are not my responsability. I only state here what I did and worked for me.


Okay... MATERIALS [everything 'I' needed]: -A [preferably broken] usb drive; this PNY has a small chip, dunno about others -A hot glue gun -Glue sticks [yyyyup, for the glue gun :o] -A hollow toy. -Magic tape -A knife -A fridge -A little brother HOW IT'S DONE:

Step 1. Find several toys as candidates for your project. I first saw some Mega Blocks, a Mew figurine, and some other toys around in my bedroom. The Moai head was my choice because of it's size and shape; it's hollow, about the width of the usb's chip, and not too big. I also liked the color, pink is one of my favorite colors [so what? xD], and it made me remember the head in the movie Night at the Museum... ohhh did I laugh with that movie! hahaha. The downsides were some holes at the top of the head [it was a Play-Dough mold, kinda] and the bottom is kinda big, so plugging it could be difficult in some circumstances.


Step 2. Have your little brother firmly grab the tiki head[he's 11 by the way, and I was taking care that he wouldn't get burnt]. Now with one hand place the chip in the desired position. MAKE SURE ENOUGH PART OF THE USB PLUG IS OUT OF THE TOY OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO USE IT LATER! Fill with hot glue. Be careful, though, since you have to start from the bottom, so if it gets solid before going all the way down, the head will be half empty!
Also, I had to cover the holes I mentioned at the top of the head with some magic tape. No big deal.


Step 3. Put it in the fridge so it cools down faster :)


Step 4. Now it's all solid [make sure of that] take the knife and carefully clean the USB plug and the glue "hairs" that could be around there. And that's it! :D YAY!! If you want, as an optional 5th step, reburn VERY carefully the little glue edges so it's all neat. I chose to put the chip upside-down because the face side is thicker, and it would have been really difficult to plug it anywhere, so I have to turn it face down, and plug it to my laptop. The green led looks cool through the glue ^_^

My next project: a cap for the usb plug xD jk... I hope this mmm "tutorial" helps in case someone wants to do something similar to mine. If you do, let me know! Peace. Ð