Tertial Webcam

by brianandrewparker

52K23133

Intro: Tertial Webcam

The Tertial light offered by IKEA has the potential to be much more than just a work lamp. Its adjustable arm and many points of articulation make in an excellent platform for mounting things. In this Instructable, I'll show you how easy it is to combine the Tertial swing arm with a webcam to make an articulated camera.

STEP 1: Supplies & Materials

Required materials:
- Tertial Lamp
- Sugru, or all purpose adhesive
- needle nose pliers
- philips screwdriver
- rubber bands (to stabilize the cam while the adhesive dries)
- a few zip-ties for cable routing (optional)


[If you don't already have a Tertial you can get one at your local IKEA for around $9.00]

STEP 2: Preparing the Tertial Arm

- Start by removing the shade from your Tertial.

- Remove the two screws holding the switch and socket assembly the arm.

- Take a moment to make sure your lamp is NOT plugged in.

- Now cut the cord, freeing the socket and housing.

- The lamp cord can now be removed, perhaps for use in another project, or just to get it out of your way.

- The springs can also be removed now.  Unless your webcam is extremely heavy, they won't necessary.

STEP 3: Choose Your Cam

I managed to find this Logitech C200 on clearance for $5.  Any web-cam will do, so find one that meets your needs.

STEP 4: Prepare the Webcam for Mounting

Remove the clip assembly from your webcam.  Mine had a fairly involved clip assembly and despite my attempts to disassemble it properly, ultimately it came down to brute force.  Your model may differ, but mine didn't seem as though it was made to be taken apart.

Now is a good time to look for a mounting point on the back of your webcam.  The C200 has a nice void just below the data cable exit point.

STEP 5: Choose Your Glue

There are a few options for mounting the camera. While any all purpose adhesive such as epoxy or super glue would do the trick; I went with Sugru.

STEP 6:

I wasn't sure if Sugru would stick properly to this particular type of plastic, but I need not have worried – it has a strong hold.  Apart from being extremely user friendly, I also appreciated the ability to colorize my bonding agent to match the project.    Given the colors of my components and the fact that I had access to black and white Sugur, I opted to mix up some gray.  One packet of white (5g) and a very little bit of black got me the color I wanted. 

I applied  two grams of Sugru to the end of the arm and pressed it into the back of the web-cam. 

I used rubber bands to hold the cam in place, and then proceeded to use the rest of the Sugru covering things up and filling a small hole I made when removing the clip mount.

Allow 24 hours for Sugru to cure, or wait the specified amount of time for your adhesive of choice.

STEP 7: Finishing Touches

The USB cable was routed along the length of the arm, zip-tied in place with slack to allow for movement.

STEP 8: Finished Product


STEP 9: Action Shots

The images and videos were taken with the webcam.

32 Comments

brianandrewparker 12 years ago

For those of you who asked (Boomshadow, jackruby1123), I did a little test to see how much the arm would support, both with and without the springs.

I began with a starting weight of 250g (8.8oz) and increased by 50 gram increments until the arm failed.  "Failure" was the inability to maintain position at any given point in its range of motion.  

The Tertial held both with and without springs loaded to 250 grams.  
300 grams proved too much for the Tertial without springs, it couldn't maintain position fully outstretched.  

With springs it handled 300 grams just fine.  350g also not a problem.  

At 400 grams it was clearly under strain, creaking springs and all.

I wouldn't recommend a load of more that 400 grams (14.1oz) in an overhanging situation where the center of gravity is far beyond the anchor point on the desk/table etc.  

In a non-overhang situation the arm could hold more; how much exactly would depend on the particular position.

So, if you want to mount a kindle touch (212g) - no problem.  A kindle fire (413g), maybe.  An iPad 2 (600-610g) - look elsewhere.

Amon-100 9 years ago

Nice idea, i had thought about doing something similar to use with Evernote to capture notes and book pages. If you have any experience using your setup to do the same I would love to know.

contactscolored 11 years ago

Thank you so much for sharing this! I did this project in school - many years ago and forgot how to do it. Now that I have a son I have been wanting to share this with him.

softenersreviews 11 years ago

Thank you so much for sharing this! I did this project in school- many years ago and forgot how to do it. Now that I have a son I have been wanting to share this with him.

JensonBut 11 years ago

Those pictures are amazing. I made this with my science class, but never that much. Wowzer.

ruudcreates 11 years ago

I like it. Started my build at the moment I saw this one. But I actually put my webcam, a Trust spotlight pro, in the backpart of the shade. I also remounted the shade for better looks.

brianandrewparker 11 years ago

Very cool! Having the camera inside part of the original housing looks great.

Boomshadow 12 years ago

Awesome project! How much would you say the arm holds with and without the springs? I would be interested in mounting other things on it, such as a microphone and reflexion filter.

brianandrewparker 12 years ago

look like 250 grams without the springs, around 400 grams with the springs (I made a comment describing my testing process on the instructable itself.)

Boomshadow 12 years ago

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. (Clearly I won't be able to use the Tertial for my condenser mic/reflexion filter assembly, as the condenser itself weighs about 1 kg or so.)

Agentfern 12 years ago

For anyone who wants to know how much weight it can hold, just leave the springs on. Then, after you take the lamp bit off, weigh it (the lamp bit). The monopod thing will be able to hold that amount of weight, possibly more.

jackruby1123 12 years ago

Fantastic idea! One question though. How much weight do you think i could put on the arm? i have a couple nice microphones that could use proper swing arms but they are considerably heavier than a small, cheap webcam is.

rlambertnj 12 years ago

Did you remove the springs as well?

brianandrewparker 12 years ago

Nice catch, I did remove the springs. I've updated the project to mention that they're typically not necessary. Thanks!

rlambertnj 12 years ago

It wasn't so much a catch, I have trouble doing these things and so.... Now for my next gotcha. The nearest IKEA is 5 hours away and the Tertial isn't available on the net. So I might go to a local big-box hardware store and try this with one of their lights. will let you know how it goes. :-)

... and thanks for your response

MisterHay 12 years ago

I love that lamp, I've used one as a microphone arm as well as a webcam document camera (like your project here). Currently at my workbench I have one of these with a webcam attached to the hood, so it also works as a lamp :)

Great instructable.

leroym 12 years ago

I'm thinking that a further modification would be metal spike type thing to push into the ground. Maybe something like a tent stake. It would have a hole of the appropriate size drilled into the top so that this unit could be used to support a lightweight video camera such as the Kodak Zi8 or similar.
It could be folded and slipped into a backpack.
It's funny how things work out. I woke up in the middle of the night and was trying to figure out how to support a monopod for the same use. Then I crank up my PC and there's an 'Instructable' that would work better.
Thank you!
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