Portable Car Mount for Mac mini

[admin]

Portable Car Mount for Mac mini
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Jeremy Hubbell has posted some pictures of a prototype portable car mount for the Mac mini. The mount attaches to your headrest and holds the Mac mini vertically. "On a recent road trip, I wanted to entertain the rear passengers with movies and shows during the 3-hour trip. But, I also didn't want to permanently install the Mac mini or the 7" LCD touch screen since I use them for other purposes when we're not on a road trip. Hence the following little project. It's comprised of a specially-made bracket for the car (A 2001 Acura MDX) that secures to the head rest and another bracket for the LCD screen that attaches to the center console," writes Jeremy.

At this time, we don't know if Jeremy will be producing this mount, but it definitely looks like an interesting concept.



http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/519.html

[SOCOMRAIDER]

I'm sorry... but... that looks too silly for any practical use. No front passenger seating and it screams "hey I'm a computer right by the window... steal me".

It would be better if you could put clips on it to clip onto air vents. Or if sticky mount on the dashboard with a quick releasing dock. But then it is just getting too complicated.

How about two MacBooks for rear passengers?
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[devo]

Actually, I think it looks pretty cool. But it might work out better if you could reverse it to the back of the car seat. By the way Socom, thanks for the file. My kids are back in heaven making funny faces.

[hlheavyd]

he also better patent it real quick...

[SOCOMRAIDER]

[nanomano]

Yeah, that looks awesome! But I would need to have one that could face the back of the seat. It would also need to have different holes for the headrests. We have a flipdown 7" LCD in our TrailBlazer and it would be cool to bring the Mac mini along for the ride. The only thing I'm not sure about it is how the video would look on it using the DVI to video adapter with S-Video. I would imagine it would be good enough for Front Row and MacTheRipper movie rips.

[jeremyh]

Hey guys,

I appreciate the kind words here. Honestly, I just wanted to make something easy to add/remove from my car. My wife sat in the back with the kids and their snacks rode along in the front seat, hence no need to accomodate the front passenger. The current design can be flipped so that it is facing backwards, btw.

The biggest issue I saw was that not all head rest posts are the same spacing. I have another Acura (a 2006 TSX) and it's posts are much wider-spaced than the MDX.

I hadn't planned on mass-producing these but I guess if there's enough interest I'm always open to bringing another product to market that the Mac mini community could benefit from.
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-Jh

[TonyMontana]

Any vibration damage to a spinning hard drive? I don't dare move my mini while in use. Other than that I think it's dope. Weird place for it, but hey to all the haters... build one better if you don't like it Keep building those modds!!

[jeremyh]

Vibration damage? On those seats? Naw...the MDX is designed to cushion just about anyone or anything. I was playing mpeg movies from the hard drive the whole way. No problems at all...
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-Jh

[Cory Cooper]

In addition...remember, the mini uses a notebook hard drive. It can take a few little bumps, but don't push it or go four-wheelin'.

C
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[idave]

I'm not that crazy about the neon green color, but it looks like a neat design. The only bad thing is the Apple logo is upside down.
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[jeremyh]

Yeah, the green ain't all that great. I had some extra material left over and decided to have a little fun.

Also, with respect to the logo, I just mounted the Mini that way so I could use the remote to control it. If you're hung up on that logo, you could always flip it around and just contort your arm a bit when you need to control Front Row via the remote.

I have also run across a white non-stick material that you can print on. If you're so inclined, you can always print your own Apple logo and "fix" the upside down problem by sticking your own logo on there. I thought about providing this with our mounts as a solution for those who had flipped logos but I'm not interested in tangling with Apple legal.
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-Jh

[idave]

[jeremyh]

The process is a bit involved, but it's also straightforward once you know what to do. Really, the key is being able to visualize what you want in the end and then somehow communicating it in the most raw, basic form.

I just use OmniGraffle to sketch out my designs, but the most recent versions, the Mini mount 2's, are all from grey matter to acrylic. No computer involved at all. Gasp! Did I say that??

At some point, I'll post pictures of how we do things.
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-Jh

[castufari]

I thought about making one for my car, I know just how to deal with the headrest posts issue.