Has anyone tried using one of the large pump-up suction cups with the handle, that you see windshield repair places using to lift the glass, to mount an external camera? Are they strong enough to hold for a full session, and will they pass tech inspection? I wouldn't mount a camcorder to it, but maybe an external lipstick camera that feeds a camcorder inside the car, and I would have it teathered to the car as well.

Any thoughts?

 

I though about that same thing and I tested something, in our data center at work we use those suction cups like you stated to pick up floor tiles. These tiles are at least 30 pounds. I picked a floor tile up a shook the hell out of it and it didn't break free. Now that being said, those suction cups are over kill. I saw somebody at the VIR event we attended in February using a regular old run of the mill suction cup to hold his lipstick camera. That thing never flew off and he said the vibration from the wind really wasn't a problem either. I have a question for you, are you just going to run 1 camera or multiple cameras? It you are going to run multiple cameras how are you going to switch between them?? I have really though hard about how to make a multiple camera in car setup and if you would like any ideas I would love to share them.

 

I just sent you a hella long IM

 

will you leave already?

tr00ls suck my nutz...

 

Please don't even waste the effort on this guy. Ignore him.

 

I'm building a version of the Honda Hybrid board camera mount for my car. Some people have mentioned that this might be dangerous for a passenger in the car to have an open piece of box end tubing aimed in their direction. I'm going to try and put a curve in the tubing so it moves the end of the tubing toward the back of the car where it can't be contacted. I'll see what I can do, I'm about to go work on it. I'll post later if it turns out well

Chris, who likes building things


[Modified by WRXRacer111, 10:25 AM 5/23/2002]

 

If you want one like the Hybrid mount check out http://www.speedmount.com I ordered one, but they hadn't made one for the integra so I had to use a dial caliper and send in the measurements. I'll give a review when I get it but it looks like they use quality materials and the protruding edges are rounded.

I also made one for the rear of the car mounted to the rear cargo cover. I haven't tested it out yet but the parts I used for the mount came from http://www.ram-mount.com/ I bolted a 6"x6" piece of 3/4" plywood to the cargo cover and mounted the ram mount to the wood. I used U bolts so I could have a way to tether the whole thing from the bottom and to put a safety strap on top for the camera. I'll post up some pics if anyone is interested.

-Mike

 

I've been thinking about the same thing over the past few months. Using a multiplexer doesn't seem feasible, because they are too expensive and usually are pre-programmed to split the screen into fourths (4 cameras). No way to have one camera fill the screen with another camera in a small box in the corner (like Picture-in-Picture on some TV's). The best idea I could come up with is to have multiple cameras/recorders, and then combine the videos in post (on the computer). I was thinking you could have the audio inputs to all the cameras in one central place in the car...turn all the cameras on...then make a 'beep' or 'click' sound which would be recorded by all the cameras. Then in post, if you pull up the waveform of the audio track, you should be able to see the 'beep' and use it to line up all the different video sources so they are synced. Make sense ?

I haven't actually tried this yet. And it requires you to buy multiple cameras. What would be cool, and maybe cheaper, would be to use multiple lipstick cameras feeding into multiple recorders (instead of using multiple camcorders). Does anyone know if they sell a plain recorder (i.e. no lens or anything, just something that takes audio and video inputs and writes them to tape) ? Something not too expensive, and something better than just plain VHS. Like your home VHS machine, but much smaller, and would run off 12V. Or am I asking for too much ?

Chris

 

You may be asking to much Chris but I can say for sure that you can overcome the 12v problem with a $28 power convertor from Sam's. You're right on with the post editing ideas. I've thought about the same thing, there's a store here in town that sells the bullet cameras. I don't think you can get around the need for multiple recording devices. At least with a power convertor they can be 120v AC w/o a problem. Of course all of this would start to add up in the weight department.

-Mike