My team has been having trouble mounting the Microsoft camera onto our robot. Does any team have a solution to this? I have a 3D printer and would be able to print a piece, which is what we did for the axis camera but we want to use the Microsoft camera instead and i havent been able to find a cad of the camera or a mount another team has used.
Thank you
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Ours is zip-tied to a piece of Lexan with a rectangular hole that matches the area around the lens. The ties go in an X shape behind the camera body, through four holes in the Lexan, and vertically in front of it on either side of the lens.
The Lexan is actually a pneumatically actuated bracket that can pivot up and down, but it could just as easily have been bolted or riveted in a fixed position.
We did the same thing with ours. Then, had another student go wild and (carefully) take the arm off the camera and then mount it and a ring light right to a piece of windowed Lexan with double-sided tape from the KOP.
Oh, and our first one had some duct tape on the back for engineering completeness, excellence, or inspiration…I forgot which.
We extended the flexible mounting piece and clamped it between two parts of the robot that have a lot of weight— we then used foam to make sure the lens was immovable.
We drilled two holes in the base and bolted it onto the frame to hold it. Then we bent it into “square” format, stuck a piece of grippy wood inside the square, and zip-tied it down.
We use the attached 3D printed mount, which includes space for two concentric LED rings. In this version, the clips that hold the camera in require some sanding to allow the camera to be pushed in, or they could be made smaller in the model.
The mount is designed to be mounted behind a piece of lexan using the spacer (the other model in the zip).
There are also a couple of holes that are designed to allow zip ties to hold the camera in more securely.
Lifecam Mount.zip (712 KB)
Lifecam Mount.zip (712 KB)
Here’s our mount. You push the bendy bit through and bend it on the other side. You can ziptie it as well. The mount also has space for the standard size LED ring.
blaze lifecam mount.zip (24.3 KB)
blaze lifecam mount.zip (24.3 KB)
Here’s ours from back just epoxy glued the ring on front and took off bendy thing…it works and is solid. Old school mount.
217-4178 (VersaFrame 1" Wide VersaPlanetary Parallel Mount)
These work pretty good too. 
Fits very nicely inside of a section pf 2x2 box aluminium tubing. If you recess it slightly you have an almost indestructible mount / protective frame that you can then drill and tap or even ziptie to whatever.
Duct tape or zip tie the camera in the tubing for temporary mounting. Pot it with silicon for a shock damping semi-permanent mount.
We found that current pan/tilt mounts took up too much space, so we made on that’s smaller.
If you don’t need pan or tilt, just print the camera holder and go from there. Or, if you’d like I can send you some CAD files for either part so you can modify/integrate as you see fit.
We removed the circuit board from the housing and 3d printed a low profile case. We had size limitations that pushed the students in that direction. If anyone wants the files to print, just let me know.
Brian
My team currently cut into some aluminum, I’m not sure the size, but made a hole into it so the camera is within the frame but can not fall out, and a plate that holds the camera into the back. It’s hard to explain, I may be able to find a picture.