iPod car mount
Today I finished my extremely ghetto car mount for my new iPod Nano:
Yes, that’s right, it’s bright orange and mounted with wires. It matches the outside of my car. It’s also about the only color paint I had lying around. And yes, that is a sticker from Wal-Mart.
I got sick of the vent-mounted holder I had before always falling off, so I wanted something a little more secure (while still being non-permanent). I made the actual holder out of a soft wood I had lying around by routing it with my Dremil. Routing is a real pain, so if you want to try something like this, I recommend routing very thin layers at a time to avoid frustration. The connector is attached with a zip tie, which serves the second purpose of holding in the tabs that would normally lock the iPod in place. As for attaching it to the vent, I went with the simplest solution: cut two strips of solid wire that would keep its shape and wrap it around some screws on the holder. It works pretty well, though I suspect it will bounce around a bit on the road. As long as it doesn’t fall off, I don’t care.
Retrospective look at the project:
- I hate routing, but it isn’t as bad if I work in thin layers.
- Because I tried routing a lot at once, I ended up with some rather rough areas that required me to cut the opening larger than I would have liked to fix my mistakes.
- Poking holes with an awl is a stupid idea with thin, soft wood. The wood started splitting, but hopefully the paint and clear coat will help keep it together.
- The mount is a very single-purpose project. Anyone with a different iPod can’t even use the connector.
- Had I been less lazy, I probably would have gutted an old car outlet plug (so it doesn’t actually use up the car battery) and attached the holder to that somehow.
Luckily for me, I won’t need my car for much longer, so it really doesn’t matter how crappy the mount is as long as it works.