OK, another update on Project Dash Box...

OK, an update on Project Dash Box...

I hit a snag as I was working on the design today. While I no longer need to mount the dash camera to the new box (it's fitted to a bracket mounted on the rear-view mirror now), I still need to find a way to mount the phone to the dash in a way that is a solid mounting, not something that meanders all over the shop every time I go over a pothole. So, mounting it to the top of the dash box seemed to me, to be a good idea.

Uh-uh.

I checked this out today, and the damn thing blocks my view of the road to the nearside (left front), with a good 30 degrees of view completely blocked off, which is obviously unacceptable.

So, mounting the phone on the top of the box is a no-no, then. I can't fix the phone to the window, due to the inexplicable inability of both suction cups and self-adhesive mounting systems to remain attached on the windscreen. Likewise, due to the spongy nature of the dash trim covering, I can't fix either of those types of system to the dash.

So, I'm left with either drilling holes in the dash, or using something to attach the phone mount to the side of the dash box. I *think* I have a solution, and it involves the items in the photo below.

These are camera mounting accessories for tripods and the like; the one on the left is designed to fit larger phones to tripods for photographic or video purposes; the item on the right is a friction dual ball-head articulated armature (hey, don't laugh, this is what the damn thing's called!); both use the de facto standard 1/4"-20 threading standard to camera, tripods and photographic quick release systems.

If I can somehow screw the armature into the side of the dash box, and extend it to the front, the red phone mount will screw into the other ball joint, thus providing a fully articulated mounting for my phone.

That's the plan, anyhow.

I'll look further into this tomorrow, and if it works, I'll add links to these items at that time.