Turn Your GPS Suction Cup Support Into A Camera Tripod

Now that mobile GPS technology is into its 5th or 6th generation, you have probably gone through at least one or two of these techological wonders. As new faster, sleeker and more feature rich ones come on the market, your clunky old Tom Tom or Garmin loses its appeal or simply breaks.

You can recycle the tech part, but what about this cool suction cup thing? Surely one could use this for some other purpose?

In this instructable, we will turn this piece of GPS ephemera into a useful camera support to use on safari or whenever you are near a smooth surface.

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Step 1: Concept and Stuff You Will Need

My Navigon GPS device served me with great distinction for years, however I moved to a section of the USA that was not included in my map set. The cruel economics of the cut throat GPS industy made it less expensive to simply buy a new GPS with the maps I needed than to buy the additional maps from Navigon. Feeling hurt and neglected, the Navigon took its own life rather than playing back up system for my younger and thinner GPS unit.

After giving my old GPS unit a dignified burial at the cell phone recycling center, I was left with the bendy suction cup support and cradle. It is this assessory that we'll turn into a "Tripod." Really should be call just "Camera Support" since there is only one leg, but I think people will know what I mean. Heck! Most cameras today have GPS built right in so what are you waiting for!?!?

Here is what you will need:

1. GPS suction cup support and cradle

2. Tripod bolt (I had a ready made one from my stash of photo stuff, but a regular bolt with the correct threading will work fine)

3. Rotory cutting/sanding tool (optional, but it makes things go much faster)

4. .25 inch closed cell foam (I recycled a hideous craft stamp)

5. Two part epoxy

6. Razor knife

7. Various clamps

8. Hole punch (I used a leather hole punch, but a paper punch should be fine as well)

9. Gorilla glue or equivalent

10. Scissors

11. Maybe 45 minutes of time (not including glue curing time)

suctioncupfan says: Mar 26, 2012. 1:46 PM

It never ceases to amaze me how the suction cup despite being so low tech has survived through the ages and always found its rightful place in solutions like this,

tswill2 says: Jan 29, 2012. 9:20 AM

Great idea but I'd be leery of hanging hundreds of $s of digital camera on one small suction cup. I have bought a much stronger 2 cup hand hold made for bathroom shower safety from Harbor Freight and am sure it would be an easy job to adapt it to the same purpose. A couple of worm drive hose clamps around the hand grip area could hold a length of channel aluminum to the handle and form the base attachment of a salvaged tripod head, etc...

Nano_Burger (author) in reply to tswill2Feb 9, 2012. 3:49 AM

Great point. In reality, the suction cup mount is of limited value as you need glass or a smooth impermeable surface to work with.

spin498 says: Jan 29, 2012. 12:22 PM

I'm going to have to go with the "neat idea" but sorry, not going to trust my DSLR to it. My GPS fell off regularly.

Nano_Burger (author) in reply to spin498Jan 31, 2012. 6:09 PM

I've only used it for my film SLR's. Probably more robust if dropped!

santy22 says: Jan 29, 2012. 6:34 PM

It's a good idea, but I wouldn't trust any camera to a suction cup, to be honest.
A GPS in one of those cradles sits inches above the dashboard, and your camera is like, at least five inches off the ground in that first picture.

Nano_Burger (author) in reply to santy22Jan 31, 2012. 6:07 PM

Your point is well taken! However, my experiments have shown that this particular mount can support a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens for at least a half hour (I took it down after that period of time). In practice, the mount would only have to support the camera for the duration of the photo...maybe 5 minutes. Of course this is a data point of one so your mileage may vary.

MrPumpernickel says: Jan 29, 2012. 2:42 PM

A regular bolt would probably work, as you say, as long as you can manage to find one with the right thread, they're not super common outside camera screws and is something you're not so likely to find in a hardware store. If you don't get one with the right thread and still try to force it you will damage your camera, especially so if your screw mount is plastic.

jimvandamme in reply to MrPumpernickelJan 30, 2012. 7:02 AM

They're 1/4-20, which is very common. However, you need one the right length. Not too long which will bottom out in the camera; not too short which won't have enough threads to grip well. You can cut a longer bolt, but you have to smooth it off afterwards. It's nice to have a thumbscrew so you can grip it rather that a hex head, or worse, a screwdriver head. And if you have an undercut area at the base of the screw like the one in the picture, you can put it through a hole in a metal plate and put a thin clip around it to hold it in, otherwise it will fall out when you take the camera off.

MrPumpernickel in reply to jimvandammeJan 30, 2012. 9:05 AM

Depends on where you are. They are very common in the states, and even though they have become the de facto standard all over the world for camera mounts that particular thread is not common in, for instance, Europe. Personally I could find no correct ones in Sweden, either locally or online. I ended up having to buy a die off eBay to be able to cut the right thread into a piece of round bar (ended up being cheaper than buying the actual screw online for some reason).

jimvandamme in reply to MrPumpernickelJan 31, 2012. 5:52 AM

Yeah, I live in redneck territory, where they just can't imagine why the rest of the world doesn't use "reg'lar" english measurements.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 1/4-20 thread mount disappear if everybody finally decided it was stupid.