Home made GoPro Dive 'Tray' ...

[Carpster61]

Just want to show my home made dive tray for my Hero 3+ Black. My friend came up with the idea of making our own after seeing how expensive they were to buy. What a great idea she had. We went to our local DIY store and bought the stuff to make 2 of them. As you can see it is made of 4 pieces of electrical conduit inserted into the bends and centre inspection box and glued. The total amout to buy the materials to make 2 of these was £6.79, that is of course £3.40 each. I have used bike handlebar grips on mine for £16 extra, but just by using tape around the 20mm electrical pipe instead you could keep the cost down to under £4 to make one ... !!!

The self adhesive flat mount is just screwed on with 4 stainless steel screws so it is going nowhere. I have seen worse looking trays for over £50. Well happy ... !!! ...

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Nice work! Have you dove with it yet? I'd be curious to hear what you'd do differently if you were to do it again.

 

[TN-Steve]

Nice job. I like the idea of using the junction box to mount the camera on. I'm looking at doing something like that myself, and that was the part that was giving me some grief.

Next step, you can rig up some small mounts at the ends of the handles for video lights.

Keep posting, we can all use a way to save some money.

Waiting for a field report.

Steve

 

[Sonnylynnvick75]

Looks awesome. You can use hobby lead weights to adjust it for buoyancy.

 

[Carpster61]

I live in East London so I havent got the ocean on my doorstep unfortunately, ha,ha ... !!! I am however going to take it to the pool next Thursday and give it a go. This pic is the back of it and as you can see there are screws where the small inspection panels are removable. Yes they will rust so I intend to replace the existing screws with stainless steel ones, like I used to secure the GoPro mount.
The underneath of the centre box also has removable panel too so I can add weight if necessary inside. I can always just take the screws out altogether and araldite the panels back on.
Last thing I need is a lanyard to secure it to my person of course. It may leak water a bit but thats no big deal. If it does I will just take a panel off, dry it out and then glue every panel back on without screws as I said. Each joint is glued with ARALDITE.

 

[crab4life]

That is awesome! Much better than my mount, Mine is much more bigger and bulkier. How well is that LCD screen treating you? How much does it effect the battery life?

 

[Carpster61]

Hi, basically I wouldnt be without the LCD screen. Used it in Maldives on 5 dives in December 2013. No guesswork in what you are aiming at. Got some great Youtube vids to look back on too. I only passed open water in June 2013 but have used it on about 20 dives so far. The best being the Maldives. I just turn the GoPro on and leave it on the whole dive so im not messing around touching it as I am a new diver. The battery lasted out for each dive, the longest was about an hour.

 

[Carpster61]

These are the components. Just add the black matching tube and glue in place. Then add grips of your choice, so, so cheap ... !!!

 

[TN-Steve]

The underneath of the centre box also has removable panel too so I can add weight if necessary inside. I can always just take the screws out altogether and araldite the panels back on.
Last thing I need is a lanyard to secure it to my person of course. It may leak water a bit but thats no big deal. If it does I will just take a panel off, dry it out and then glue every panel back on without screws as I said. Each joint is glued with ARALDITE.

I'm thinking about making mine with a number of vent holes (top and bottom of uprights, top / bottom of junction boxes) so that it actually floods. That should kill a lot of the buoyancy, once it fills with water. Having plenty of flow holes means that it should drain out pretty quickly back on the surface too. Might cut down the amount of lead you need in it. Did you do a check, how does that plastic conduit rank on the "Floaty - Sinky" scale?

Have a good one!

Steve

 

[OB653]

I just made one out of PVC. Used a T in the middle with a screw in plug. A 1/4-20 screw through the plug goes right into the Go PRO tripod mount. Haven't gotten it wet yet though.