Mount your iPAQ in the car with pegs

Making a iPAQ cradle car vent mount

By Christoffer Järnåker

I bought myself an iPAQ hx4700 last Christmas, together with a swan neck car mount kit as I needed something that would fit in my two cars as well as something that could fit into other cars I drove. The swan neck is perfect as you can mount it everywhere, but it’s not only ugly, it’s also bulky and unstable as it’s quiet long. I try to bend it in such a way that I create a downwards tension so that it presses the iPAQ holder to the dashboard. That does work in most situations after adjusting it a couple of times, but it doesn’t take away the ‘un-handiness’. And it’s also located in my view of the window which might not be that good out of a safety stand point.

I started looking around for solutions to mount my iPAQ in a nicer way. Basically you have three solutions available. 1. A suction device like the swan neck. No thanks! 2. Screw it into the dashboard or a plate that is attached to the dash board. Nice, but very permanent. 3. Vent mounts, clicks on to the ventilation outlet in you car and can be moved. Yes! Want one of those!! Nagging as I am, I found two major reasons for why the available vent mounts were not good enough. 1. The stable ones are specifically made for one brand and model of car, so it can’t be moved (unless you have three cars of the same model). 2. The movable ones are not stable as they usually only attach at the top of the mount and then lean against the vent at the bottom. So, I decided to build my own - with the help of some nuts and bolts and washing pegs. The advantage with using washing pegs are that they’re widely available and that they pinch hard and are flexible at the same time. And they are available in all different colours!! That’s definitely a plus.

Start with shortening the pegs as on this picture. It’s important that they are levelled with the spring as they will rest against the back of my existing iPAQ holder. The whole idea is to then put two of them at the top and two at the bottom of the back of the mounting plate. By then running the two bent bolts trough the pegs they’ll be fixed very hard. By the nature of plastic and the design of the peg they’ll be allowed to flex a bit, up to 5mm, in all directions. This is important as I want this kit to be mountable in as many cars as possible and the vents in different cars have different spacing.

6 Responses to “Mount your iPAQ in the car with pegs”

1. GPS Notes Says:
   November 2nd, 2005 at 13:44

   Mounting a iPAQ cradle car vent mount

   I love this hack because it combines a proper iPAQ mount with four washing line pegs to make a car vent cradle for the iPAQ! Interesting hack - but as with anything that you fix to your vehicle, make sure…

2. MAKE: Blog Says:
   November 4th, 2005 at 21:28

   Mount your iPAQ in the car with pegs

   For those of you who have Pocket PC, specifically the iPAQ - here’s a good how to on mounting your iPAQ in the car with washing line pegs in the ventilation outlet. I’ve seen versions of these sell for $30+ and this looks like it will work better. Link.

3. Roman Says:
   November 24th, 2005 at 15:38

   Excellent hack! Too bad that outer blades on my car’s vent are vertical, not horizontal,
   and the peg just slides down on those. Oh well, I’ll keep looking…

4. dar Says:
   August 27th, 2007 at 10:48

   what a shity idea not worth it ,by proper and nice looking mount just 4 few box fuss free

5. stu Says:
   September 25th, 2007 at 19:10

   Doesn’t this block the airflow from the vent?

6. PaulNoize Says:
   January 7th, 2008 at 9:46

   Nice mount….stu, of course it blocks the one vent’s airflow….the other vents will have to suffice. It is either that, or else attach something to your windshield (ugh) or to your dashboard (i agree - too permanent).

   i think this is a good tradeoff….and i love the KNIPEX pliers i see in your pics, they are awesome tools!!!

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