Homemade GoPro tray

[EL Pistoffo]

Yea that's the best thing I can think of with out increasing the bulk of your rig. I dont know if you use the LCD backpack or battery pack but if not I would think that the floating back door from gopro would do the trick. Plus with the pvc (without the foam in the handle) rig it could already bring it near neutral, but I havent even played with that door so idk.

Thank for the link, Ill be sure to take a look at it.

I have the floaty door but I've heard that at depth the dang thing compresses to much and loses most of its buoyancy, but its a thought.

 

[Aquabot]

I have the floaty door but I've heard that at depth the dang thing compresses to much and loses most of its buoyancy, but its a thought.

For the types of diving you do, do you go deep enough to have to worry about that? Most of my dives are >30fsw from shore. But the way I see it is like this: Its such a easy thing to add or remove what do you have to loose by giving it a shot?

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Well, while I was working on my DIY tray today, I wound up ruining it.

I was trying to fill the inside of the PVC handles with spray foam for buoyancy. The damn foam applicator bugged out and wound up suddenly blasting TONS of foam out. It got all over my clothes, my face, my hair, my arms and my tray. I pulled out the acetone but it just wasn't enough. The foam kept coming out of the tray like a volcano.:nuke: Trying to wipe it up just made things worse. I wound up removing the some paint off the tray and the foam was just too much, ruined.....RIP.:depressed:

Since I'm going on a cruise in about a week I had to move fast for a replacement tray. I think this was meant to happen. I went to SRP's website and found that they now started selling the same Archon video lights I recently bought. They have light arms with mounts newly designed just for that specific light. So I bought a tray and the light arms.

 

[3D diver]

Yikes! I've always been leery of that kind of foam, fearing just such a situation (and cost).

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Yikes! I've always been leery of that kind of foam, fearing just such a situation (and cost).

I've used the stuff before but it never dispensed like this time. I thing it had an obstruction, like constipation, then when enough pressure built up it became explosive diarrhea that just kept growing.

Turns out the spray can foam is no good for buoyancy anyways. The foam cell structure allows for water to pass and be absorbed. What a waste.

 

[Aquabot]

Really sorry to hear about this.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[Hoodie59]

Here's my tray. Made from hardware straight from home depot/ace hardware. Its pretty negative right now being all metal, but very sturdy. I'll probably try something different next time thats hopefully a little more neutral. I'm going to test the lights for the first time this weekend.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Here's my tray. Made from hardware straight from home depot/ace hardware. Its pretty negative right now being all metal, but very sturdy. I'll probably try something different next time thats hopefully a little more neutral. I'm going to test the lights for the first time this weekend.

That's pretty cool. Those lights work great.

 

[_Alex_]

Very nice and sturdy looking. Would mind sharing exactly which parts you used? Especially the clamps that you used for the lights and the handles.

Here's my tray. Made from hardware straight from home depot/ace hardware. Its pretty negative right now being all metal, but very sturdy. I'll probably try something different next time thats hopefully a little more neutral. I'm going to test the lights for the first time this weekend.

 

[Dauntless]

I'm working on one myself. Just got the parts in today for my first mock-up. Case of beer will get me some time in the shop with a plasma cutter and welder, and maybe a finished product. Testing will be next week.

First try is too bulky.

View attachment 162859

So I played around alittle

View attachment 162860

This is what I'm going with

View attachment 162861

On a side note, my first dives with GoPro I was greasing the o-ring. Is this necessary? My buddy just got a sealife and said it wasn't needed. I would sure like to skip that step.

Just make sure the seal doesn't have any foreign material, if you use a finger, shiny with silicone grease to check, that works too and maybe the tackiness picks up any dust.

Your camera mount may be a little high, try to center it in the vertical space and in the design, make the height to width a 16:9 ratio, if your handles are 8" the width to the inside of handles should be ~14" or 6" and 10&2/3" etc. This setup makes a great framing tool for your video and allows you to look at the big picture while you are videoing, keeping the area of interest in the center of the shot.