Discrete Phone or GPS under-dash mount?

my son mentioned the same thing Sunday as we tooled a back road nearby. He was holding my iPhone with a (mph) speedometer so I could show him the shift-points/speeds at 3,000 rpms and he commented on how nice a mount would be.

I just threw it into his court, he's a machinist at a shop responsible for much of the hardware floating around in space. Jesse made the lense covers that magically blew off after the Mars Rover touched-down, so we could all enjoy the footage here on Earth, I figure he should be able to come up with a phone mount that disappears and appears on our plastic cars?

RMAC - I modified an inexpensive suction-cup phone holder that I got at Pep Boys (or your neighborhood auto supply store).

I removed the suction-cup portion and bolted the holder onto the bracket holding the radio. In this position, the phone is still visible from the driver's perspective. Might be difficult to see the images on the phone screen in bright daylight.

I put the phone mic on the dash eye-brow (caller's voice comes from stereo speakers in the footwell (under dash). Obviously its almost impossible to have a conversation while car is moving, but it is convenient when I pull over to conduct (hands-free) phone calls.

Click on pics to enlarge...

Will Hesch posted:

...Jesse made the lense covers that magically blew off after the Mars Rover touched-down, so we could all enjoy the footage here on Earth, I figure he should be able to come up with a phone mount that disappears and appears on our plastic cars?

Ha. Why build only 1, when you can build 2 at twice the price!? Count me in on one of the prototypes. I've got a VS in California too, so it shouldn't be too much hassle to make it work.

While he's at it, can you ask him why the existing car mounts all look like they were built to hold phones 10x as thick? It's like the manufacturers used 1990 car phones to size the gargantuan claws.

MusbJim posted:

RMAC - I modified an inexpensive suction-cup phone holder that I got at Pep Boys (or your neighborhood auto supply store).

I removed the suction-cup portion and bolted the holder onto the bracket holding the radio. In this position, the phone is still visible from the driver's perspective...

This is nice. I suspect you can push the arm back into the dash if you wanted to hide it.

Does that arm shake a lot? I'm concerned about arms like that because shaking could reduce visibility to zero.

That mount also contains those giant arm clips I was talking about above. It looks like you could fit 10 of your phones on that mount. Why do they make them so big!? Phones have gotten so thin over the past decade. But no one told the mount manufacturers.

Saw this one on Fleabay. it has a suction-cup but I think that could be removed and a bolt-on mount added for under the dash. It's $12.

Sorry for the tiny picture.

RMAC - yes this set-up does shake a little on bumpy roads. Its not an issue for me because I don't need to see the display (I don't use GPS either). I hit a button on the radio to make/receive calls. Less distracting for me.

This holder is a relic (found it in my garage junk drawer). I think its from the era of early phones that required a window mounted antenna on your car. 

MusbJim posted:

This holder is a relic (found it in my garage junk drawer). I think its from the era of early phones that required a window mounted antenna on your car. 

Ha. Well you'll be happy to know that I just went to the local electronics store to find a mount of my own and yours is still cutting edge technology, 20 years later. They all still have those giant grips meant for Zack Morris (Motorola DynaTAC) phones.

Scosche Magic Mount is a product that our Task Force guys use. It is very modern and very compact. There is a variety of mounting options available such as: Suction cup, power port mount, surface mount etc. Very cool product. If you go to the website you'll see they have one that has an arm that fastens in the cigarette/power port. That should get it under the dash and you can remove it when necessary.

http://www.scosche.com/magic-m...-holder-tablet-mount

Thanks Will. That led me to this $9 contender. Looks like it could be attached to the tube underneath and telescope out as needed. Might be shaky there though. Maybe I can mount it directly to the back of the dash and fold down.

eBay link

I have a suction mount that was modified to clamp onto the mirror rod.  Not as discrete as you're going for.  There's very little moment arm on my holder, yet it vibrates a lot!

I'm almost ready to scrap it.

Any other location with a longer moment will be worse.

Just a heads up before you spend a lot of time and money.

Robert M (Not a Poopiehead) posted:

Scosche Magic Mount is a product that our Task Force guys use.

Thanks Robert. I don't currently sport a case that is conducive to magnet mounts, but those are slick enough to reconsider.

rmac posted:

Robert M (Not a Poopiehead) posted:

Scosche Magic Mount is a product that our Task Force guys use.

Thanks Robert. I don't currently sport a case that is conducive to magnet mounts, but those are slick enough to reconsider.

There is a wafer thin piece that mounts to the case or the phone so it should work. The cover photo on the video shows the part that attaches to the phone and works through the case so. If you have more than one case the Scosche piece stays on the phone. If you only have one case you could attach it to the case.

I think the right answer might also be using motorcycle mounts like these RAM mounts: http://amzn.to/2beDqAC ht...tp://amzn.to/2beCOLo or http://amzn.to/2bA12SA

IM has made built in Ipad units in the valence that they add to the dash.  I am thinking of getting one built but....

I find that most times if I want to use a phone in the car you must have the top up or at least be going slowly.  I have been looking at a a Parrot Trucker unit bluetooth headset. 

It seems to be the craze in the trucker world.  Seems a bit big but then you can talk for 16 hours and it has noise cancelling for a big rig I bet it would work for the wind noise as well.   For you long distance drivers you could keep you or your wife happy the whole trip with phone updates  

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c...headset_charger.html

Robert, I think that Magic Mount power model is great! I've got a 12v lighter socket about 6" back, under the dash this will be perfect for stealth install!

Will Hesch posted:

Robert, I think that Magic Mount power model is great! I've got a 12v lighter socket about 6" back, under the dash this will be perfect for stealth install!

Can you take some pictures of your 12v lighter socket? I'm looking to do the same. I checked all up in there and I don't have one on my VS.

rmac posted:

Will Hesch posted:

Robert, I think that Magic Mount power model is great! I've got a 12v lighter socket about 6" back, under the dash this will be perfect for stealth install!

Can you take some pictures of your 12v lighter socket? I'm looking to do the same. I checked all up in there and I don't have one on my VS.

Mine is more on the passenger side but it can certainly be moved closer to the driver's side.

Can you take pictures of how it's actually wired/installed/mounted Robert?

Rmac, here you go, I had VS put it in as part of the build but you just need a power and ground wire, preferably fused.

I used a kitchen door hinge to mount a reversing camera screen (made a holder for the screen) to flip back when not in use and down when reversing.

srblower posted:

I used a kitchen door hinge to mount a reversing camera screen (made a holder for the screen) to flip back when not in use and down when reversing.

Whoa. Can you post pictures?

Hi. The pictures aren't great but I think you get the idea. The first two are the kitchen cupboard door hinge, one with the camera folded up the other as if the screen folded down - not a great pic , too much flash (90 degree change) The second two are the screen down and then back up. The back up still shows the side of the screen as I didn't mount it higher behind the dash which I know you can do as it depends where you mount the hinge (I did it on a piece of wood block  which was glued to the back of the dashboard) By the way, you may want to use more than one hinge if the piece of kit you want to fold away is bigger.

SRBLOWER - THAT is pretty dang clever! Nice set-up. 

My phone fits nicely in my pocket where it belongs while driving...you all should try it sometime!

Robert M posted:

Scosche Magic Mount is a product that our Task Force guys use. It is very modern and very compact. There is a variety of mounting options available such as: Suction cup, power port mount, surface mount etc. Very cool product. If you go to the website you'll see they have one that has an arm that fastens in the cigarette/power port. That should get it under the dash and you can remove it when necessary.

http://www.scosche.com/magic-m...-holder-tablet-mount

Tried this, for me it popped off when hitting big enough bumps.  My magnet was on the inside of the case.   I did not try it on the outside but I'm sure that would be more effective .  

I scored a Scosche Power (the one that plugs in a 12v power plug) for $13 on Gleebay this morning. There are a couple more for $15 which is half of MSRP.

Marty, I guess I'll have to stick to smooth roads

Bill, my phone is my speedometer via GPS, I'm just not used to km's per hour nor are my roads listed in them.

crhemi (Bill) poboiinhawaii posted:

My phone fits nicely in my pocket where it belongs while driving...you all should try it sometime!

For the directionally challenged it is a GPS/Mapping Device. 

For me it is my music storage device as I have well over 1,000 songs on iTunes.

Will, my speedo is something of a joke even though it's in mph - especially over 60, BUT the tach is pretty reliable and steady.

When I got the 3.88 r&p, I went for a drive with my phone and a GPS speed app, and took some notes.

It turns out the speed is about double the tach reading, plus a little bit. After a while it was pretty easy to get the speed from the tach:

2000 - 40 mph

2500 - 52 mph

3000 - 64 mph

3500 - 74 mph

4000 - 85 mph

Another useful thing - tach needle straight up (about 3250) is 70 mph.

Use the phone for what it was intended - texting while driving.

I've got a clip-on mount that clamps to the dashboard and then clamps the phone. There's a swivel ball between them. Works pretty good. I can't find it for sale anywhere now tho.

Thanks Mitch. My 4:12 is a bit different: each gear at 3,000 rpm is:

1st  15mph

2nd  25 mph

3rd  40 mph

4th  60 mph

I still like knowing what 3,500 in 4th is and such.

I've also been doing been doing some carb-tuning and need to know when certain things are happening and the speedometer app is helpful.

I use this guy, it's small and easily removed from the windshield, and it keeps the phone up where I can see it.

I bought the $8 eBay listing above. Preliminary drive is acceptable. See below for photos of my newly installed lighter & USB charger, retractable phone mount, bluetooth speaker (UE Roll), and FastTrak. I also installed my garage door opener hidden on the left for quick touch access.

Lighter/charger is wired only to turn on when accessories or engine is on (saving my battery).

So far I'm really liking this setup. Phone mount shake isn't bad at all. Especially for an $8 eBay auction. And it is pretty discrete when I want it out of sight. I didn't have to mod it at all.  I just zip tied the suction sticker to the bar and it's pretty stable. It also came in handy holding the phone as a flashlight under the dash while I was taking out the radio and wiring the rest.

And the Bluetooth speaker just attaches to my phone whenever it's nearby automatically, charges itself when I drive, and even keeps playing music when I turn the car off (until I walk away or pause the music). This was fun when I took one of my sons out for ice cream and kept the party going, while we enjoyed our cones.

I was going to get a hidden Bluetooth radio installed from Woody's Custom Shop, but I might leave this be. Sound is pretty great for a vehicle like this.

I wish both were an inch more hidden but it's the right compromise for my needs.

I'm also digging the hidden garage door opener. Not more fumbling with the door pocket.

All in all, I'm really happy with this setup.

Paul Mossberg posted:

I use this guy, it's small and easily removed from the windshield, and it keeps the phone up where I can see it.

I already recycled the box from my eBay auction mount, but the box looked nearly identical to this one. And the gel sticky looks identical. I suspect they're the same company. Nice little device. I just didn't want a windshield or dash mount.

Paul Mossberg posted:

I use this guy, it's small and easily removed from the windshield, and it keeps the phone up where I can see it.

Paul,  I ordered one of these in the suction cup is super sticky and even holds onto the dash.   Good call .