Thingiverse
Inspection Cam Tripod Mount by ottaross
by Thingiverse
Last crawled date: 4 years, 8 months ago
A tiny inspection camera is intended for feeding into small spaces, but since it has a good near-field focus it works well as a table-top capture tool if you have a tripod mount available for it.
These little USB endoscope/borescope-style cameras are easy to find online from various sources, and quite cheaply.
This little camera mount simply slides over the screw-mount of my mini-tripod. The cylindrical 9.6mm (3/8") camera snaps into place. There's even a little cable management bit at the back to strain-relieve the camera. (4mm thick cable).
I've avoided the challenges of the threaded nut for typical tripod screw-mounting, as the mass of all the parts involved is quite tiny and the simple friction-fits are plenty secure enough for these purposes.
The mount is also helpful as you can mark the top of the camera easily and then have it properly oriented all the time. Otherwise, using it hand-held, one is constantly twisting to figure out which way is "up."
Certainly, you may not have all the same parts laying around, so the usefulness will perhaps only be realized by a few of those who stumble across this. Perhaps you'll want to adapt the STL to your tripod/camera. Perhaps some element of the design will inspire you for something you're building.
This camera setup is proving useful for circuit board inspection uses, but it is also fun for close-up stop-motion capture and time-lapse applications.
(My print quality was a little wonky as seen in the photos. Some skipping in a few layers appeared in this print. I'm just finishing off a spool of filament that is rather past its expiry date.)
These little USB endoscope/borescope-style cameras are easy to find online from various sources, and quite cheaply.
This little camera mount simply slides over the screw-mount of my mini-tripod. The cylindrical 9.6mm (3/8") camera snaps into place. There's even a little cable management bit at the back to strain-relieve the camera. (4mm thick cable).
I've avoided the challenges of the threaded nut for typical tripod screw-mounting, as the mass of all the parts involved is quite tiny and the simple friction-fits are plenty secure enough for these purposes.
The mount is also helpful as you can mark the top of the camera easily and then have it properly oriented all the time. Otherwise, using it hand-held, one is constantly twisting to figure out which way is "up."
Certainly, you may not have all the same parts laying around, so the usefulness will perhaps only be realized by a few of those who stumble across this. Perhaps you'll want to adapt the STL to your tripod/camera. Perhaps some element of the design will inspire you for something you're building.
This camera setup is proving useful for circuit board inspection uses, but it is also fun for close-up stop-motion capture and time-lapse applications.
(My print quality was a little wonky as seen in the photos. Some skipping in a few layers appeared in this print. I'm just finishing off a spool of filament that is rather past its expiry date.)