Make a Swiveling Kinect TV Mount

Recently, I purchased a Kinect for mys…er…my son. The Kinect is pretty fun. Finding a place to put it, particularly with my layout, is not.
My couch (and a wall) is opposite the TV about 7’, great distance for sitting and watching TV, or sitting and playing video games, or sitting and surfing the web..standing and jumping up and down like a buffoon while making sure it’s caught on camera, not so much. It worked okay with one player, but two players – particularly with one player being 6’ tall and the other 3’ – gave it fits. Not to mention the limited space we had.
In order to satisfy both the Kinect’s field of vision and the player’s personal space, we turn the TV to face an adjacent open area when multiple people are playing (the TV is on an articulating wall mount). I cruised the internet and discovered I could either buy the PDP TV mount for $40 or make my own. I may have gone for the PDP mount, but it doesn’t swivel. Since we don’t directly face the TV some of the time and do face it head on at others, I needed it to swivel and move with the TV.
Now you know why I wanted a swiveling mount, even though you surely don’t care. Here’s how I made it, in case you do care. Keep in mind, I didn’t put a lot of engineering hours in this thing, and I used stuff I either had laying around the house or can be picked up at the local hardware store (with the exception of the PDP wall mount). Additionally, it is unique to my TV's wall mount, although it may work with others.

Step 1 Parts

I tried wishing for the mount to materialize and assemble itself, but I ended up needing to buy some stuff…
• PDP Kinect Wall Mount (You only need the base) - This is where the 'Kinda' in the title comes from. I’ve seen other DIY mounts made using either Velcro or tape to hold the sensor in place, but I needed a more secure hold on the sensor given that I will be turning the sensor frequently.
• U-Bolts
• Pipe/rigid tubing – Length will vary with TV size and diameter is up to you. I actually used a piece of a curtain rod I had laying around.
• Flexible tubing – Again, length will vary. The diameter of tubing should be such that it fits closely over the pipe/rigid tubing, making a sleeve.
• 1/4-20 thread stock. You could also cut the head off a 1/4-20 bolt.
• 1/4-20 nut
• Washer
• Spring (make sure it can fit around the 1/4-20 thread stock)
• 1/4-20 expansion anchor (not shown). The piece of curtain rod I used already had a threaded anchor in the end.

Comments

[the_burrito_master]

i like how the kinect is almost as big as a wii.

Seriously awesome project man.

[andreblue]

PS3 and xbox, nice and its the older one by the looks of it. i have both too, ps3 older version so i can play ps1 and 2 games and then a black xbox elite

[Adum24]

I care why you wanted a swivel mount.