Back to the video stuff!

Now that I've got all my drivetrain tweaks made I can get back to the video stuff. I hadn't touched the VioSport Camera or the Archos AV500 in a couple weeks. On our weekend ride around the mountain I attached the camera to my helmet and put the AV500 in my saddlebag. It recorded well, although it gets kind of boring just seeing straight ahead all the time. With the camera attached to my helmet there are not a lot adjustments that can be made.

I decided that I needed to mount the camera to the front of the trike with a pivot so I could point it in any direction. I also decided that I needed to mount the AV500 on the front so I could see it while seated, thus allowing me to adjust the camera angle and such.

Mounting the AV500

I decided that a good position for the AV500 would be the stock accessory mount at the base of the seat. That mount is no good for a drink holder anyway because it is horizontal and too close to the bend in the tubing to allow for good drink retrieval. I decided to start with a Bell drink holder that I found at walmart for $4. It has a nice aluminum mounting setup with some bars that could be bent. I started by taking off the plastic strap and bracket that holds the drink in place. Once I had done this I realized that this unit itself was not going to be enough to safely hold the AV500.



I dug through some old boxes of junk in the garage and fount a piece of 1/8" aluminum sheet that I had been saving for about 15 years. At one point in time I thought I could use it to make a cool RC car chasis out of it. I cut it with a wet diamond-dust tile saw, drilled some holes in it, cut it some more with the jig saw, beat the heck out of it with two hamers a vice and an anvil, smoothed it all out with the belt sander and ended up with a perfect receptacle for the AV500.



With my carrier plate made, I drilled some holes in it and attached it to the Bell drink holder. I then bent the tubing on the bottom around so it would wrap in front of the AV500. I tried doing something with the top tubing, but in the end I decided to just cut it off and grind it down. I must say that I am very happy with the way the unit ended up. To secure the AV500 in the carrier I attached a small piece of velcro to the top. With the unit bolted to the frame I tested it out and found it to be a very good position, just as I hoped.

Mounting the Camera

I found some good ideas about mounting cameras to handlebars on the web, and they pretty much went along with my original ideas, so it went along very easily. I started by using a handlebar mount from a cheap headlight kit I found at walmart. I punched out the threaded screw and cut off the bottom to get me a flat surface for my new screw. For the shaft I used a 3" Stainless Steel 1/4"x20 bolt with a wingnut on it and inserted it up from the bottom of the mount. I then put two neoprene washers, a flat washer, and another wingnut on the bolt. These two wingnut would allow me to tighten the mount to my bar. For the base of the camera I used another upside-down wingnut, a flat washer and two more neoprene washers. Those would be used to tighten the camera on the shaft. Of course, all of this is possible because the Viosport camera has threaded camera mount holes built into it.



With the camera threaded on the shaft I mounted the assembly to my accessory mount and everything seemed good to go. I had to wrap the camera wire around the post over to the AV500. My trike's sleak appearance is starting to look a little junky with all the wires building up. Connecting the camera to the AV500 is not a problem, but connecting the camera's battery pack does present some problems because the cable is fairly short. I strapped the battery with some velcro in the meantime. With some duct tape I'm sure I could make my trike look really junky.

Now it's time to get some sleep. I'm looking forward to trying it out tomorrow.