well, coming up soon is my moms birthday. So we decided to get her an MP3 player (more liek she nagged us ) so we decided on the Zen Micro 5GB perfect for her we figured. We also got the FM transmiter and the car power adapter. Now i knew that we'd have to figure out some way of "docking" the mp3 player in the car so that its in reach and view of the driver (aka my mom). After looking around online i didn't find anything that was ment for it. So i went to work with some of my newly acquired acrylic rod (square mostly). First thing was first, i wasn't sure how i was going to do it so i played it by ear. First thing was a backer plate, where the mp3 player would rest on.

than a piece of 1/8" tube to go along the top of the player to keep it in place (little hard to see) it wasn't perfect bend the first time but a little more heat and itd be good as gold.

Ok, now was a lot of just playing by ear for some reason i forgot pictures DOH. But, i used more of the 1/8" tube to connect the upper ring to the backer plate, than i had to figure out a way to attach this portion to something that could be attached into the car, i used a piece of lexan i had laying around and decided it was a good size. Cut some more 1/8" and glued it in place. Now because of the weight of the mp3 player and the stablitly i knew i had to add something.
I grabbed hte 3/16" round tube (2 peices) and 1 piece of the 1/8" square glued them together to create a stopper so that the weight of the MP3 player couldn't pull down the hole cradle part.

Originally, it was going to be stationary only facing the driver, but after grabbing a nut and a bolt i realized i could make it pivotal. I cut the bolt so that ther was no head, glued a bolt to the bottom plate, than to another peice that was smaller, than glued the bolt to the bottom plate so that it wouldn't move, spun the top place and WALA it worked (video at the end).
Oh, and i thought it would be awesome that since it was the white ZEN to paint the cradle the same way.. but sadly after taping up and painting with spray the tape didn't stop from bleeding (grr 3M doesn't always work) So actually right now it is drying with it all painted)




perfect viewing angle : )

Now, i also had to on the left side add another peice of 1/8" to the side because i realized that when turning on the MP3 player (which to do so u push a switch on the top) it exerted a good amount of force
which would break the cradle.
Once its in the mini van i'll try to get a pic or two of it. So whata think?

Video of the pivoting mechanism
http://www.theunforgiving.net/video/...e/PICT0067.MOV