Homemade PDA/Car Mount Sort of....

Bucky · 03-20-03, 11:07 PM

I was looking for a gooseneck style car mount for my pda. Not wanting to have some big monster mount and spend $50 for some of the ones I had seen, I started to do a little shopping. I found out that Radio Shack sells an "Adjustable Subcompact Universal Phone mount" (stock # 17-551) for $19.95. On one side of the gooseneck it has a good size suction cup with a small lever to burp the suction cup to make it seal and hold better. It also comes with an attachment to make it switchable back and forth from an adhesive mount to a suction cup mount. The other end of the gooseneck has a flat piece about roughly the size of a book of matches but maybe a little bigger. The unit comes with a nice holder that holds a cellphone. The jaws of the holder will not open wide enough to hold the Axim so you can give that piece to your dog to chew on or better yet...throw it at the neighbor's cat. On the flat piece there are four plastic nubs about the size of a match head. I whacked those off first thing. My first thought was to just use velcro on the universal mount to hold my Axim. Well I decided I wanted something really high tech and futuristic. Next I went to the Super Walmart across the street and purchased a G.E./Sanyo "Belt Clip & Dash Mount" (stock # 41083). This was $4.95 which was half as much as the one at Radio Shack. Man this is getting long. I swear it's a lot easier than I'm making it sound. It's a Nokia style setup where you use the supplied adhesive to mount a button on the back of the device. It then slips easily in and out of the matching counterpart piece which you will adhere to the Radio Shack Mount. Total cost... about $25. I also believe I have a better mount. Some of those mounts that you buy look pretty gaudy... especially if there's no Axim resting in them. I use my pda solely for a gps so I expect this setup to work like a charm. The only downside I see is that the Axim now rests at an angle if I set it on a flat service but this makes for a slightly better viewing angle but wobbles if you go to use the stylus. Like I said though, my setup is a gps for in car use only. This may change in the future who knows. If anybody is interested in this let me know and I'll snap a couple pictures and post them.

***UPDATE***
I had to do some more "engineering" on my unit. I found that the female part of the clip got soft when the interior of the car got hot causing the Axim not to hold as well. No problem. I went down to Radio Shack again and bought a metal CB radio microphone holder (stock # 21-923) and used a sharpie pen to make it black. Presto! Now my setup is complete. If you could find that little Nokia style button somewhere for $1 or so you could cut the cost of the setup quite a bit. I'm into this setup for $26 and have one that looks good and is not big and bulky looking.

obsidian · 03-21-03, 02:08 PM

I'm also looking for a car mount solution, and this one sounds like the best one yet.

The arkon one looks good, but I hear negative things about it in combination with the axim...

Excellent work Bucky!

btw, how did/do you power the axim??

Bucky · 03-21-03, 02:33 PM

Obsidian...

I have ordered a car cigarette lighter adapter from Dell but evidently is on backorder. Lately I have been running just off of the Axim battery. I originally intended to run a power cord directly from my fusebox to the axim because they are only a few inches apart and it would be very easy to hide the cord. I may still go that route.

A lot of finding the best mount solution is trying to find the best mounting spot and the type of vehicle involved. My mounting location is on the inside of my windshield next to the windshield/roof pillar. Maybe you call it a windscreen in the Netherlands. ;) Thanks for responding to my post.
:)

obsidian · 03-21-03, 03:34 PM

Windscreen is ye plain olde english, in dutch = voorruit.

I've still got the dilemma of sorting out which GPS to use, in combination with what GPS software, should I use CF or a GPS mouse, etc etc etc. That's why I'm so keen on a 'fresh' view on car mounts... :D

Remember to run a fuse between the axim and the power source... in my experience, the 2000 euro server will save the 200 euro surge protector by blowing it's powersupply first...

Alas, the search continues.

Obs

Bucky · 03-21-03, 03:50 PM

I wanted to go the mouse route at first but there were some cable issues at the time plus it is not a good portable setup. From my many hours of internet research and talking with people I decided to go with the setup listed below. One thing to keep in mind is that sportier cars usually have a steeper rake or angle to the windshield which is good if you have the gps in the same general vicinityas I do. I have a big truck and aerodynamics were not a major consideration when it was designed but my gps setup works well even laying on the console next to me which is at waist level. With my new mount setup, the CF gps has a good view of the sky, although not perfect of the sky. It still solidly pulled in eight satellites the other day when I was doing some testing. I suspect you want to go the mouse route for reception reasons. I think you would be surprised how well this cf setup works. My unit picks up eight satellites on my console just as when it is near the windshield even though the satellite strength is somewhat less when it is on the console. It must be really late where you are at now. How many hours difference is there between your time and New York time?

:)

Bucky · 03-22-03, 01:11 AM

Here are some photos of my setup.

Bucky · 03-22-03, 01:12 AM

Pic 2

Bucky · 03-22-03, 01:12 AM

Pic 3

NMkiD · 03-22-03, 01:28 AM

Very cool man, I just hope it dosent go flying out the window!

Bucky · 03-22-03, 01:56 AM

Yeah that wouldn't be too good... This setup seems to really work well. I don't see that good and can still read the smallest of characters. :)

obsidian · 03-22-03, 04:50 AM

Depending on where you are on the american continent, the time difference is between 6 and 9 hours. It's 10:44 am here, so it'll be somewhere early morning for you.

Last night when I was posting it was between 10 and 11, if I remember correctly. Was watching cnn in the background.

I'm leaning towards the CF way, to add mobility when not in the car. When in the car I can use an external aerial to enhance reception. I've organized software, tomtom 1.5, now I'm hoping I can find a decent CF card somewhere el cheapo.

Ta for the pics... good to see other mounting points, my mounting options were pretty much limited to the center console, already cluttered with a nokia car kit.

I've got a toyota corolla, so if I'd mount it on the air vents on the center console, I have direct vertical view, and I think about 10 cm to the rear too.

Let me go peruse the forum for advice on CF cards with tomtom.

ciao,
Obs

Bucky · 03-22-03, 12:30 PM

I responded to you in the GPS section located at:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showt...7029#post37029

esydnor · 03-22-03, 10:06 PM

Very interesting setup. Good job.

I am working on a little bit different setup. I have ordered the Delou mouse GPS and Routis (not here yet).

To get ready, I am working on my mount. I found a "universal" amplified cell phone holder at Target, on clearance for $15. This is a cell phone "pincher" as described above with a swivel mount that is attached to a cigatette lighter plug. There is a suction cup speaker with a clamp that is designed to go over your cell phone (or Axim) speaker and you tune your car radio to 100.1 and the sound is transmitted through your stereo. (For those navigatioin voice prompts, you know)

As far as the "pincher". Instead of throwing it at the cat, I cut off one side with a bandsaw and glued on a plastic extention to make it fit the Axim.

I plan to plug this into the cigarette lighter, clamp down on the Axim, clamp on the microphone and then run the GPS mouse up to the dashboard. We'll see how it comes together. I'll post photos if anyone is interested...

esydnor · 03-22-03, 10:12 PM

One thing I forgot to mention. With the Deluo mouse unit, the cable plugs into the bottom of the Axim to provide power as well as data. Thats one of the reasons I went the GPS mouse route instead of CF.

My car has an auxiliary power point (cigarette plug) on the console that I can use to power the GPS/Axim while the ashtray one powers the amplifier.

We'll see...

esydnor · 03-22-03, 10:29 PM

I think I'm ready to go, as soon as my GPS arrives. Here is how my mount turned out. I'm very pleased with it. I even played afew MP3's through te car stereo to check it out. Works just fine!

Here are a few photos...