Nov 19, 2015 | By Alec
You might have forgotten about it due to the endless hordes of insecure teens using them all day, but GoPro cameras were actually developed a tool for surfing. Attached to the front of a surfboard, they are widely used by surfers to check their movements and improve their board time. Since then, they have entered numerous other sports, but actually attaching the GoPro can be a bit difficult – remember these surfers who carried it in their mouth? But Formlabs employee and avid skater Josh Foisey, together with his colleague Will Walker, have now shared some designs for relatively easily attaching a camera to the bottom of a skateboard, using a high quality 3D printed mount.
By day, Foisey is a videographer at Formlabs in Massachusetts, but at night he paroles the streets on his skateboard and he has been filming his exploits for years. However, this was always uncomfortable to do – he either had to hold the camera in his hand or duct tape it to the board, but neither are obviously good options. But since Formlabs’ Tough Resin is increasingly being used to 3D print objects that can take a beating, he put one and one together and 3D printed a high quality GoPro mount using Tough Resin.
Calling it the Deck Cam, this clever mount is attached to the bottom of a skateboard and ensures some fantastic footage with a camera that is perfectly in place, as you can see below. As the Formlabs team explains on their website, Tough Resin is a perfect option for objects that are so exposed to the elements and the occasional rock. ‘We knew this mount would take a beating - so we printed the part with our Tough resin, which deforms before it breaks. Under heavy vibration and hard landings, Tough handles stress better - and gives us the added flexibility that we need to open up the mount,’ they write.
The design they have made –and which can now be downloaded for free on the Formlabs website – is perfect for holding a GoPro Hero 3 or Hero 4, the models now commonly used by many athletes. But before they got to that point, the Formlabs team went through a couple of iterations, which were not all universally suitable. ‘After printing a prototype that fit the Hero, we took it out to the streets where it promptly snapped,’ they say. But no real harm was done, and studying the breaking point enabled them to improve the designs. Six iterations later, they ended up with the current design that is perfect for serious use.
It is also fairly easily 3D printed for owners of a Form1 3D printer, and attached with the help of some nuts, screws and bolts. ‘The mounting plate should fit directly against the board, sandwiched between the board and the truck,’ they say. Be sure to screw it tightly in place, as this thing will be under quite a lot of pressure and you don’t want to lose the camera halfway through the action.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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This is amazing! Formlabs is on the brink of all that is new and exciting! My son is honored to work for such a creative and forward thinking company. Keep up the EXCELLENT work. You continue to inspire me on a daily basis! Formlabs is #1 in my book😊👍🏻👍🏻
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