[Nexus 7 Accessories] JaSauders:
So lately I've been trying to figure out a way to get my tablet mounted at the optimum position for GPS usage without obstructing anything. In my van I have the Arkon seat bolt tablet mount, which is perfect because it keeps the tablet lower in the dash area so it's not blocking my view or baking in the sun, and it's also a solid mount point. I'd have no where else to mount it in the van aside from the window if it wasn't for this mount, and I absolutely don't like window mounting anything bigger than a cell phone. So in that instance, things work out great. Recently I put that Arkon mount in my car, which is a Hyundai Elantra. I thought since the distance from the seat bolt to the mount area would be less, I'd have more (if anything, too much) "neck" to work with. It turned out to be the opposite. My Elantra is stick shift, so when I had the tablet mounted in the most convenient spot that reached, I was all but punching the screen when I went to 3rd/5th gear. The only other alternative was to have it sitting over in the passenger area, which works for me but it adds as a huge inconvenience to any passengers in that seat since their left knee is where the tablet is. As a result I decided to put the Arkon seat bolt mount back in the van and work on something else for the car.

I have an empty space under my head unit for random storage, etc. I began to wonder if I could somehow utilize that space for incorporating a mount there. It would be the perfect height because it's higher up from the gear shift and it would definitely be optimum viewing for GPS usage. Originally I made the perfectly sized wooden block that had a slight slight slope to it so it would wedge itself in place. I then epoxy'd a BluRex Amazon case to it that I wasn't too happy with and was no longer using. This proved to be an awesome 10 minute mount, but it also gave me zero adjustability. I began to think was going to be important since last time we were on a road trip when the road I was on was going to be 3 hours long my wife watched a movie, so I knew I'd want a way to move it around for best viewing in multiple scenarios.

Here's two pictures from that build:

http://i.imgur.com/dsfQx.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/guw86.jpg

I began to give it more thought. I knew that the empty space under my head unit was going to be the mount point, but I just had to figure out how. I searched through multiple mounts, particularly from Arkon. In the end I bought this mount on eBay for about 20 bucks. It came with a suction cup which I knew wouldn't work for my uses. My plan was to cut the arm off, drill a hole into a wooden block, then fill it with epoxy and shove the arm in. The block of wood in question would be a piece that I cut to perfectly fit the open slot under my deck with a slight slant to it, that way as I pushed it in, it wedged itself in place (much like the last mount)

When I got this mount from eBay I began to wonder if I even needed to cut the arm off. Fortunately the height of the suction cup base was ALMOST the height of the opening in my dash. I figured all I had to do was wedge that in place and I wouldn't have to do the whole sha-bang with the wooden block and epoxy. I ended up cutting off the suction cup since it was useless in my case. The bottom of the plastic suction cup area had some flat ridges, so I figured I'd use double sided tape instead of epoxy to adhere it to a flat piece of wood. The flat piece of wood was to bump the thickness up just enough to replace the need for that wooden wedge.

http://i.imgur.com/yHOLR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/l9mRO.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/O4Gin.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KFJad.jpg

In the last picture you can see that I flipped things around. Originally I had the arm facing downward, but when I had the tablet mounted, 5th gear was still a problem as the gear shift would nearly hit the tablet. I knew if I flipped it upside down the arm would be facing upward, giving me some height... so I re-did the tape and put it on the other side. Since I mounted it more to the right (to ensure there was a super low chance of the steering wheel ever obstructing view, even if I was leaning far to the left while driving) I sensed a small amount of uneven stability since there was nothing keeping the left side tight against the roof of the opening. A small wooden wedge later and we were golden.

http://i.imgur.com/t7v4P.jpg

I ended up painting that wooden piece black to blend it in a little bit. I also noticed while driving that some roads had a degree of ripple to them, which would cause the tablet to sway back and forth. It didn't obstruct my view-ability of the screen at all, but if I was in an area where the tablet was casting a glare from the screen it became more obvious. On a hunch I pulled out two quarters and slid them under the arm mount, which is where I thought I was seeing a degree of flexing. Surprisingly it helped quite a bit and that area no longer has any flex. Not bad.

http://i.imgur.com/gzcV0.jpg

Final product:

http://i.imgur.com/LoUZT.jpg

Hopefully those of you out there who are finding some tablet mounts are *almost* perfect but not a home run can utilize some sort of DIY ideas like I did to make it work. I now have a solid mount for both vehicles, so no more worries about where the tablet will sit, etc. No complaints there. :good: