Car mount kit.

[Steve Goodey]

Good news, Gemini car mount kit has just arrived, via DHL from Hong Kong. Thanks Planet.

[DJO]

Good news, Gemini car mount kit has just arrived, via DHL from Hong Kong. Thanks Planet.

From the pictures it looks like the kit holds the keyboard part but is there anything to stop the screen part from moving when accelerating or braking?

It'd be interesting to get a report from a user rather than the sales pitch from Planet.

[Steve Goodey]

DJO,

Yes, unfortunately your fears are confirmed. On mine the screen does tend to flap backwards and forwards under acceleration/braking. I have not 'tweaked' my hinge at all as I believe some people have.

I am looking into finding a way of supporting the screen to stop this flexing and a quick bodge is to use a clothes peg. I also tried one on the right hand side but that tended to keep the enter key depressed. Any suggestions as to a better method appreciated.

I've attached a couple of photos.

Regards, Steve

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[Daniel W]

Good news, Gemini car mount kit has just arrived, via DHL from Hong Kong. Thanks Planet.

Nice. As I was one of the very first backers, I wonder when mine will arrive. If sent directly from HongKong via DHL, Scandinavia shouldn't be THAT much further away than England. Sorry to hear about the floppiness. As the main use case for mine will be to try making a tripod mount for a Cosmo, I hope it will turn out sturdy enough for that. Does that clothes peg make any significant difference?

[Steve Goodey]

It helps but it's not a permanent fix. I'm looking into something better.

Steve

[Penorek]

Gemini car mount kit has yesterday arrived in Germany near berlin, via DHL from Hong Kong. It feels unstable i report after installation.

Penorek

[Penorek]

It helps but it's not a permanent fix. I'm looking into something better.

Steve

Hi Steve if you find a better way pease inform us.

[DJO]

It helps but it's not a permanent fix. I'm looking into something better.

Steve

Hi Steve if you find a better way please inform us.

Without having seen one I wonder if it would be possible to mount a bent metal plate to the bottom of the clamp so it rests against the back of the screen, then stick a few magnets on the plate to align with the magnets in the lid. If done right it should stop the screen from moving and being behind it won't foul the keyboard.

Getting magnets not too strong and not too weak will be fun, old hard drives are a useful source but the magnets are powerful and brittle. They are almost impossible to cut without exceeding the Curie temperature but they can be broken (or shattered) into smaller magnets. (with very sharp points - take care).

[Daniel W]

Oh, I forgot... mine arrived in Sweden last week, on Wednesday September 18, 2019. Apparently it was supposed to have arrived much earlier, because when I e-mailed Planet Computers on Wednesday August 28, they replied that, since it hadn't already arrived, they send another one. Apparently the first shipment was sent without tracking directly from Hong Kong. The second was sent, with tracking, from the UK.

As for the product itself, I intend to use it to cobble together a way to put my Cosmo on a tripod. Preliminary experiments with whatever scrap I had nearby, shows a bit of promise. If I can attach a thin piece of sturdy enough material vertically on a tripod, I should be able to clamp the ventilation grille mount onto that. Or maybe I can somehow strap either other other two options to the tripod somehow. In an ideal world, the kit would have included a plastic ball of the correct size, with a metal female tripod mount threading inserted into it. Maybe something for a future model, or perhaps something to 3D print, should a threaded insert and a suitable printer happen to cross my path.

Here's some pics. As these are more for illustration than for analysis, I've chosen to save a bit on my upload quota, so they are both scaled down and heavy-ish compressed. Anyway...

Here's a box shot.

And from the rear.

This is how the contents are presented.

One side of the clamp slides outwards by spring force when the two release buttons are pressed. It has a ratchet, allowing it to be set in small increments. The other side is under constant spring tension inwards

With a bit of fiddling, a Gemini can be reasonably centered in the clamp.

With some more fiddling, the Gemini can be slid forward to around here. In this position, the screen gets a tad of support from the sides...

...and the headset jack becomes accessible. There's no hole on the other side, so forget about the right-hand USB port when using this kit.

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Here's one of the mounting options attached. As you can see, its neck can telescope a bit. The angle can be set in relatively fine increments.

EDIT Sep 24: The Planet Computers web store correctly says that the dashboard stand mount has an adhesive suction cup. For the gooseneck it just says "suction cup", but it is adhesive too. This means both suction cups are about as sticky as regular sticky tape, though I suspect its main function is to ensure a good seal between the suction cup and the surface it sits on, rather than to glue the suction cup to the surface. The adhesive is designed to stay on the suction cup, and dandruff, debris and dust are supposed to just wash off with water, though I guess anything greasy, such as fingers, is better kept away from the adhesive.

So, is this kit any good? Well, while there isn't anything really wrong with the kit, the Gemini doesn't really lend itself to this kind of mounting very well. Is IS going to flop around a bit. Maybe they could have done a better job supporting the screen, but then the whole thing would have gotten quite a bit more complicated. My general advice would be, save your money unless you really need to somehow mount your Gemini or Cosmo.

[novaldex]

Please excuse the silly question, I appreciate seeing your efforts at how the Gemini looks mounted in the mount.

But has anyone tried mounting it by the screen rather than the keyboard to test for stability?

Just thinking out loud, i'm sure there are other reasons why it's not a good idea, i'm just curious..

[Daniel W]

...has anyone tried mounting it by the screen rather than the keyboard to test for stability?

Technically, it would be possible. It would look like this from the front...

...and like this from the back:
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While this keeps the screen from wobbling, now the keyboard is unsupported, which, typically, would strain the hinge more, partly because the keyboard half of the device is heavier than the screen part, and partly because the keyboard, when held at a reasonably user-friendly angle, tends to be more horizontal than the screen, and would thus gets a longer momentum arm, perpendicular to gravity. That is, unless the keyboard is almost vertical, its weight will try to open then hinge more than it was built for. Imagine typing on the Gemini above. Every keypress would cause the entire keyboard to work as a lever, transferring force to the hinge. Something similar, but much stronger, might happen if mounted in a car and hitting a pothole.

This effect could be minimized by holding the device such that the keyboard is as close to vertical as possible, though it might not desirable ergonomically. Also, with the device held by the keyboard, at a reasonable angle, gravity will try to work the device further into the clamp, but if the device is hanging by the screen, gravity will try to work it out of the clamp instead. If the device can be arranged such that, when held by the screen, the keyboard could rest on something, that might both prevent the device from slipping out of the clamp and lighten the strain on the hinge. That could perhaps be workable, provided the keyboard can be kept from rattling against whatever it rests on. Maybe a bit of something rubbery could alleviate that.

One advantage of holding the device by the screen is that all ports and both microphones remains freely accessible. The clamp might cover the speaker grilles a bit, though I doubt it would matter much.

[Eldkatten]

Hello Daniel,

here's my stupid question   : To what purpose do you want to mount the Gemini on a tripod?

Hälsningar till Sverige  

[novaldex]

Thanks Daniel, and for taking the time to give it a try! Question answered.

[Daniel W]

here's my stupid question   : To what purpose do you want to mount the Gemini on a tripod?

You are welcome. It's mainly to find a way to put my Cosmo, without having to wait until it arrives, on a tripod, for photography purposes, but as my Gemini does have the camera add-on, I might want to snap some lo-fi pics with it too.

Currently I'm using my Gemini a complementary device, mainly for notes and e-mail. For my current "main" phone, I have a tripod clamp, which I find helpful to get less blur in low light photos, to frame pictures relatively precisely (say, documents that won't fit my scanner) and/or to take multiple shots from the same spot. When it arrives, I would like to use my Cosmo as my only phone, so I will likely want to occasionally put it on a tripod too, for the same reasons. Since the clamp for my current main phone doesn't fit the Planet Computers devices, I figured the car mount kit could be my next best option. Before it was announced, I was thinking about gluing a tripod-threaded nut to a Cosmo-sized plywood piece and somehow work from there, but I hope this will turn out to be easier.

Hälsningar till Sverige  

Tack så mycket. Hälsningar tillbaka till var du kommer från. Since your user name means "the Fire cat" in Swedish, and you avatar is a fiery cat, I presume you have some sort of relation to this part of the world.

EDIT: Ok, while I'm at it, here's my second prototype (the first one kind of fell apart if looked at the wrong way...)

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As can be seen, The thread of the tripod {A} screws into my old phone clamp {B} which, by means of a zip-tie {C}, is held to a plywood piece with two holes in it {D} (which happened to be left over from some other project of mine), onto which is stuck the ventilation grille mount {E}, secured by its screwcap {F} and stuck into the receptacle of the device holder {G}, secured by its screwcap {H} and holding on to the Planet Computers device {I}. Phew...