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Accessories How-To Windshield Mount **CHEAP**

Taking credit for this would be just wrong so first thing to do is acknowledge the thread started by hngu7721 where he adapted a mount using parts from a couple existing mounts. Here is his thread http://androidforums.com/accessories-droid-x/139794-custom-tetrax-garmin-car-mount.html#post1294517

In his thread I suggested he use a heat gun to soften the plastic clip which would allow it to be reshaped so the clip would actually secure the phone.
http://androidforums.com/1294206-post10.html

So, not having two mounts to make one out of I got on Ebay and started looking around for donor parts. It wasnt a long search because once i searched "Garmin car mount" I came up with many many hits and they were CHEAP! These mounts are practically identical to the actual mount you get with Nuvi GPS units and I gave one to the g/f for xmas this past year that I compared it to.

I opted to go with a US seller as I dont care to wait weeks for items to arrive from Hong Kong. The unit I purchased was about $9 shipped. However, if you dont mind waiting for the Hong Kong express to arrive you can buy this mount for $1 and a couple bucks shipping (under $4 total).
Example
1
FOR Garmin Nuvi 265WT 270 275 275T 465T GPS CAR MOUNT - eBay (item 270611662520 end time Aug-21-10 21:23:43 PDT)

This is the guy I ordered from. The part was here in two days!
1
Garmin Nuvi 260 265 265wt 285wt 465t Car Suction Mount - eBay (item 160430928218 end time Aug-31-10 19:16:40 PDT)

What I got was this. It has a quality suction cup with a lever and a nice tight ball joint. The Garmin Nuvi that we have has zero shake or vibration and neither does the mount I received.
DSC02590.jpg


In order to make this firmly secure your DroidX you need to modify the open width of the clip so it has to be spread open a bit to receive the phone.

Here is a pic of the DX without a case. As you can see it comes far from contacting the phone or holding anything.
DSC02602.jpg


In this How-to, Im using a BodyGlove case which adds a fair amount of bulk to the size. The g/f has a DX as well and her phone lives in much thinner silicone one piece case. The approach with either case or even no case is to use a heat gun/hair dryer or other heat source to soften the plastic just enough to allow the business end(s) of the clip to be bent inward. With a heat gun this took about 30 seconds of warming and a slight amount of thumb pressure when the plastic became soft. Once you bend/flex the clip remove the heat and hold it in place until it cools. Once cool, it will retain its new orientation. With my phone case I only moved the bottom (wide) part in about 1/4". With a thinner case or no case I would recommend that both the top and bottom be heated and relocated but do this one end at a time with a test fitting before you do the other end.

I took some general pictures along the way to help illustrate how easy this was.

This shot is of how the part came to me. Noted on the picture is where I heated and bent the clip inward. The tape measure is there to show before and after open width of the clip.
DSC02592.jpg


After heating and bending the bottom of the clip. Remember, I have a thick case. Doing both ends equally will be needed for thin or no case situations. As you can see, I didnt change much at all. Just closed the gap about a 1/4".
DSC02606.jpg


My tool of choice was a heat gun. I cant stress enough that I only HEATED the plastic. I DID NOT melt it anywhere. You cannot see anywhere on the clip that it has been altered. If you melt yours down to a goo pile it's your fault for not following directions, not mine!
DSC02605.jpg


Here it is in the modified mount.
DSC02599.jpg

DSC02598.jpg

DSC02611.jpg


And here it is in my 300zx
DSC02614.jpg
 
Very nice alternative!!! How hot does your heat gun gets? Today I took my first long drive with DX in Arkon mega grip on suction cup to windshield using as GPS. We are getting close to 100deg here in Jersey, and the back of phone cover (argyle soft plastic) got pretty warm after an hour of driving. I can imagine that heat gun has to get much hotter to soften the plastic clip, but still I would worry that after awhile the grip of your clip might loosen up with aging. But than, I assume you can always get a few replacement clips for a buck.

BTW considering you are driving 300zx, do you get any vibrations from the windshield on to the phone? Since I have used in the past beanie bag mount for my Nuvi, I never experienced any nav screen vibrations in my GS350. But I did noticed mounted with a suction cup and going most of the way 80mph with my 300+ ponies, DX screen was a little jittery. Could be also that I need to re-balance my tires lol!!!
 
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I used the low setting which is 750*F. I dont think there is a chance in hell the sun will heat and soften the clips plastic. My 300zx is riding on a stiff aftermarket suspension as well. Nowhere near as soft as the GS350 and not to be car bragging but im at the 420 rear wheel HP level and it stays put. I plan to go shoot some boosting driving footage this evening if the rain holds off. Ill post it up so you can see what the setup does when you put the beans down.
 
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It's working out great guys. I shot some video a couple nights ago and then noticed that Windows 7 doesnt come with Movie Maker. Each video is close to a gig and I didnt want to upload anything until i edited out the dull stuff.

Also, I ordered two more mounts from a Hong Kong seller to put in put in the other Z car and the pickup. Figured spending $1 each and waiting was OK now that I have one modified and Im happy with it.
 
Upvote 0
Taking credit for this would be just wrong so first thing to do is acknowledge the thread started by hngu7721 where he adapted a mount using parts from a couple existing mounts. Here is his thread http://androidforums.com/accessories-droid-x/139794-custom-tetrax-garmin-car-mount.html#post1294517

In his thread I suggested he use a heat gun to soften the plastic clip which would allow it to be reshaped so the clip would actually secure the phone.
http://androidforums.com/1294206-post10.html

So, not having two mounts to make one out of I got on Ebay and started looking around for donor parts. It wasnt a long search because once i searched "Garmin car mount" I came up with many many hits and they were CHEAP! These mounts are practically identical to the actual mount you get with Nuvi GPS units and I gave one to the g/f for xmas this past year that I compared it to.

I opted to go with a US seller as I dont care to wait weeks for items to arrive from Hong Kong. The unit I purchased was about $9 shipped. However, if you dont mind waiting for the Hong Kong express to arrive you can buy this mount for $1 and a couple bucks shipping (under $4 total).
Example
1
FOR Garmin Nuvi 265WT 270 275 275T 465T GPS CAR MOUNT - eBay (item 270611662520 end time Aug-21-10 21:23:43 PDT)

This is the guy I ordered from. The part was here in two days!
1
Garmin Nuvi 260 265 265wt 285wt 465t Car Suction Mount - eBay (item 160430928218 end time Aug-31-10 19:16:40 PDT)

What I got was this. It has a quality suction cup with a lever and a nice tight ball joint. The Garmin Nuvi that we have has zero shake or vibration and neither does the mount I received.
DSC02590.jpg


In order to make this firmly secure your DroidX you need to modify the open width of the clip so it has to be spread open a bit to receive the phone.

Here is a pic of the DX without a case. As you can see it comes far from contacting the phone or holding anything.
DSC02602.jpg


In this How-to, Im using a BodyGlove case which adds a fair amount of bulk to the size. The g/f has a DX as well and her phone lives in much thinner silicone one piece case. The approach with either case or even no case is to use a heat gun/hair dryer or other heat source to soften the plastic just enough to allow the business end(s) of the clip to be bent inward. With a heat gun this took about 30 seconds of warming and a slight amount of thumb pressure when the plastic became soft. Once you bend/flex the clip remove the heat and hold it in place until it cools. Once cool, it will retain its new orientation. With my phone case I only moved the bottom (wide) part in about 1/4". With a thinner case or no case I would recommend that both the top and bottom be heated and relocated but do this one end at a time with a test fitting before you do the other end.

I took some general pictures along the way to help illustrate how easy this was.

This shot is of how the part came to me. Noted on the picture is where I heated and bent the clip inward. The tape measure is there to show before and after open width of the clip.
DSC02592.jpg


After heating and bending the bottom of the clip. Remember, I have a thick case. Doing both ends equally will be needed for thin or no case situations. As you can see, I didnt change much at all. Just closed the gap about a 1/4".
DSC02606.jpg


My tool of choice was a heat gun. I cant stress enough that I only HEATED the plastic. I DID NOT melt it anywhere. You cannot see anywhere on the clip that it has been altered. If you melt yours down to a goo pile it's your fault for not following directions, not mine!
DSC02605.jpg


Here it is in the modified mount.
DSC02599.jpg

DSC02598.jpg

DSC02611.jpg


And here it is in my 300zx
DSC02614.jpg

What Launcher are you using? And what (horizontal) widget is that with the shortcuts and four white dots at the bottom? This looks nice!!
 
Upvote 0
The launcher is called GDE with a Hero add-on theme. I really like the GDE, it has all the features I need and the pages can rotate in a cube and spin and stuff. There is about 4 different ways you can set it up to change screens. It costs a couple bucks. The Hero theme is free and comes in black or white. The bar launcher is called Launch-X Pro. There is a free version of it but im using the paid which will let you setup 49 apps in rows. Its kinda like making your own widget and then placing it on whatever screen you like. There is a Application Dock widget that comes with GDE that does about the same thing but scrolls left and right.
 
Upvote 0
The launcher is called GDE with a Hero add-on theme. I really like the GDE, it has all the features I need and the pages can rotate in a cube and spin and stuff. There is about 4 different ways you can set it up to change screens. It costs a couple bucks. The Hero theme is free and comes in black or white. The bar launcher is called Launch-X Pro. There is a free version of it but im using the paid which will let you setup 49 apps in rows. Its kinda like making your own widget and then placing it on whatever screen you like. There is a Application Dock widget that comes with GDE that does about the same thing but scrolls left and right.

Thanks!!
 
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Finally got some time to mess with the vid and clipped out a small chunk. Im not all that clear on how to upload to the Tube and keep the quality like it was. Guess ill have to do some more learning. This road is both smooth and bumpy in places so overall the mount holds pretty damn steady.
YouTube - DroidX Cam
 
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Looks good to me. If you wanted to dampen the vibration, you could probably wrap an old tshirt around the holder.

Course that would look like hell.. LOL!

There is a time shift setting on the camcorder thats pretty cool... basically it makes hi speed video recordings.. you might wanna try that out for kicks.
 
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One of ours came in 4 days ago, so it takes about 2 weeks for delivery on these. They do not put mulitple orders in the same package, so our second one has yet to arrive.

I had zero issues using my heat gun, and making the adjustment here, and this is the absolutely perfect solution in our case!

Nice thing is, if you do end up adding a case, you can always heat it back up again, and readjust the size as well.

Again, thanks for putting this thread together for us!
 
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Hey Greav... did you have any problems getting them to stick securely to the window? Ours fell off twice before I managed to get a good solid grab.

I wonder if these will hang on well over winters, or if they'll fall off?

Depends on your definition of "winter". They don't do well in ND winters and if they fall off, you have to warm the windshield and cup to get them back on.
 
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