As part of my lightening-up bender, my old beacon pouch got the chop and was replaced with a new one. The old one was fine, but it succumbed to the Law Of Luggage, which states that the amount of crap you take with you will fill all existing carrying space and then some. It was a fine pouch, but it was too heavy as I always had it filled with junk because I could. Plus, it had a pocket for a GPS/cell phone/multi tool right next to the beacon, which caused E22 messages – electronic interference. My old pouch is on the left, the new one on the right. Continue reading ‘New Beacon Pouch’
Archive for the 'Projects' Category
If you have an old helmet, a Point & Shoot Digital camera and about $2.00, you have all the fixin’s for a dirt-bag helmet cam. More often than not, I’ll shoot POV footage just by holding my G9 camera in my hand and skiing with it, but at times, two hands come in handy for skiing and with this design, it is a simple matter to bolt your camera to your helmet.
First off, you need to find a 1/4-20 NC Allen Bolt and a plastic thumb knob at a hardware store. This is the bulk of your expenses. The length will depend on your helmet thickness, but I think the one I used was about 1.25″ long.
The heart of the Dirt Bag Helmet Cam. The universal size for camera tripod mounts is a 1/4-20 thread.
Next, cut a 1/4" wide slot in the helmet (voiding the warranty and weakening it). After that, cut up an old blue-foam sleeping pad and glue the foam to the helmet with Contact Cement. When it is dry, use a sharp knife to level the top plane of the foam where your camera bottom will sit. Depending on the design of your helmet, you may need to Dremel out a slot on the inside to keep the screw knob from digging into your noggin. Stick the screw up through the slot and bolt the camera on to your helmet. A camera on a helmet, aka a Helmet Cam.
The purpose of a slot instead of a single hole is that it allows you to slide the camera fore and aft, which means you can focus it on your hands or match your field of vision looking outward. I turn all those annoying little chirps and beeps on within my camera so that I get an audio confirmation when the camera is turned on (bliing!) or when the shutter is tripped (kerchick). It’s not nearly as good as a full-on VIO POV rig, but then again, it costs about two bucks.
Here’s a 90 second kiting video shot with the DB Helmet Cam:
The rig in all of its glory:
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