A Phone Mount for my Legal Eagle Ultralight
I 3D printed a phone mount so I could have a moving map on my Legal Eagle ultralight.
This page is a quick construction log of that Saturday morning project.
Design
After a couple of prototypes, this is the final design:
OK, that is backwards... That is where the project was finished. Let us start at the beginning.
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The first thing I did was to model the aircraft panel (the dashboard for you non-aviation types). The only reason for that was to get that curve that the bottom of the mount will need to match. You can see that in the image above.
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The next thing was to get an old phone which will be used exclusively for a moving map. The reason behind this is that the engine vibration ruins phone cameras. So use an old one.
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Then I printed a case for the old phone. That can be found here: Worktable CNC Phone Case.
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I loaded the moving map app SimpleFly. That can be found here: Worktable CNC SimpleFly. SimpleFly works best with an internet connection while in use, and I just connect this old phone to a WiFi hotspot provided by my good phone (which is stored safely in my jacket pocket).
The phone case has a Quad Lock phone mount type connector on the back. You can get a case and mount from Quad Lock here: Quad Lock USA. I already had a import knock-off mount and I 3D printed a case, so yeah, I feel guilty for not supporting Quad Lock.
Back to the design... The mount must have a curve on the bottom to match the Legal Eagle panel, and a connector which matches the phone mount fitting. And the plan is to use really strong double-sided tape to stick the mount to the panel.
Back Side
The Quad Lock type phone mount components have a interesting connector design. Not only do I need to match a bolt hole, there is this star pattern which keeps things from rotating:
Prototype
To test out my 3D design to see if it matched, I created a prototype:
At this point I would have been finished. I have mount which matches the interesting connector, and it has a base curve which matches my Legal Eagle panel. But as thin as it is there is simply not enough bottom area for an appropriate amount of double-sided tape. So it must be wider. This will require a longer bolt (I will explain that a bit later).
3D Printing
Push the print button, go have coffee:
Longer Bolt
Explaining things backwards again, this is what I mean by needing a longer bolt. With a wider body, I either needed a really deep recess for the nut (not good practice), or a bolt which reached all the way to the back side of the mount:
Parts
Unfortunately, to change the bolt the whole assembly had to be taken apart:
What can be built can always be un-built!
Assembled
I re-built the un-built stuff:
And stuck a phone and some double-sided tape on it:
Installed
And then stuck that on the Legal Eagle:
Pretty cool, right?
Keep building!