maemo.org - Talk - N900 Gaming & Car Mount System

A week or two ago, I picked up a DualShock 3 controller to pair with the N900 for gaming purposes (see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41693 for info on pairing). I then rather quickly discovered that making this easily portable was a little bit awkward and uncomfortable, because I'd have to hold the N900 and controller together, or find someplace to set the N900 down.

Well. Some weeks before that (read: as soon as the holder was available), I had picked up a ProClip/Brodit holder and suction cup mount for my N900 so I could use it as a media player/navigation aid in my car. It had come set up with a Move Clip system (so that the holder was easily removable), which I'd put in without much expectation of use at the time.

I have a use for it now...

http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0987.thumb.JPG http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0988.thumb.JPG
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0990.thumb.JPG
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0993.thumb.JPG http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0995.thumb.JPG

Components I used:
* ProClip/Brodit Nokia N900 "Passive" Holder with Tilt Swivel
* ProClip/Brodit "Travel Mount"
* ProClip/Brodit "Move Clip Female Plate"
* ProClip/Brodit "Vertical Extension Plate"
* Sony "DualShock 3" or "Sixaxis" Game Controller
* Your N900

Total cost: ~$130 plus shipping, or ~$80-82 plus shipping if you already own a Sixaxis/DS3.

You can order the various ProClip/Brodit parts in the US via these links:
Holder: http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-dev...099-18086.aspx
Travel Mount: http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-dev...008-13978.aspx
Move Clip Plate: http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-dev...091-13975.aspx
Extension Plate: http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-dev...065-13973.aspx

In Europe, I presume you'd order direct from brodit.se, or go to a store or something. I wouldn't know.

Getting the Travel Mount is not strictly necessary - but if you skip it, then you'll also need to order a Move Clip Male Plate for the tilt swivel. The Travel Mount came with one, so I didn't need to order it separately.

Two very minor modifications had to be made to the Extension Plate:

1) I used one of the pointed screws that came with the assembly to "drill" a hole through one of the screw guides, so that the Reset button on the DS3 would be reachable. It's the bottom center one in the pic below:
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0980.thumb.JPG

2) The two-sided adhesive tape that comes with the plate is normally on the side with the two large holes. I removed and reapplied the two-sided adhesive tape on the plate so it was on the other half. This is a pic after the tape has been moved:
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0981.thumb.JPG

With that done, I used the tape strips on the Move Clip plate to tape it to the "top" half of the Extension Plate, and then used the tape strips on the Extension Plate to attach it to the DS3, making sure my "drilled" hole lined up with the Reset button. The end result looks like this:
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0991.thumb.JPG
http://nwcs.com/~jvc/n900-ds3-mount/IMG_0992.thumb.JPG
(Yes, I was perverse enough to take a snapshot of the back of the DS3 and print out a copy of the info on the back to tape to the extension plate. I'm weird like that.)

The whole thing works very well (been playing around with it for the last week and a half or so).

(By the way, in case you're curious - the thing tied to the end of the lanyard on my n900 is a flexible stylus called the Comfort Stylus (http://www.comfortstylus.com/). They're normally sold for use with the Nintendo DS; I grabbed one for my n810 way back when and it now sees use with my n900. ;) )