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Lutz in-car Mount

29th July 2003

   

I recently got a new car since moving to the states, and while being very nice it didn't really have a place for the Pocket PC. Main problem was the windshield was too far away, so the suction cup was not an option.

 

The Brodit mounts wouldn't work either because they go in some weird places that I need for other activities (obstructing the CD changer etc).  So finally I remembered a mount created by one of the folks in Europe and thought a quick and dirty solution around it. So far it works well.

 

Basically I took a spare iPAQ cradle (either USB or Serial will do) and chopped off the hind part of it. The remainder fits nicely onto the vent next to the driver's instruments (en route also adding some nice cooling to the device). I attached it with double sided sticky tape - sounds odd at first because normally these constructions fall off momentarily when exposed to heat, but this time there is no other force but the downward push of the cradle/iPAQ towards the vent (the iPAQ sits in the cradle up straight) so I hope that this will not be affected by the heat problem.
 

Next I re-soldered the cradle - I chose to hard wire the GPS receiver but you may want to consider an intermediate connector (to keep your warranty and mobility). You just need four pins connected, two to the cradle base PCB (power and ground) and two to the iPAQ connector (RxD and TxD), so soldering is relatively easy. (Anyone interested in the cabling schema please let me know)

 

As a conclusion I can say that this is the most convenient mount I ever had - just put the iPAQ into the cradle and off we go. When you park somewhere, just take it out again and hide from view. I am still watching the reliability, especially over bad roads but so far it hasn't jumped out or worn out the connector yet. I love it when physics actually work

 

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