Monoprice MPSM phone webcam gantry mount

thingiverse

After trying to create a complicated flexible standalone mount for my Monoprice Select Mini Pro, I realized there was a prime mount location for my smartphone webcam right on the end of the gantry. This mount is designed to hold a smartphone in landscape orientation with the camera aimed directly at the extruder. Mounting on the gantry allows the camera to follow the extruder up and down the z-axis for a perfect view of what's being printed throughout the print. If you have an old Android phone lying around, it is really easy to convert it to a webcam by installing IP Webcam from Google Play. The STL that comes with it is sized for a Moto X 2014, which is a smaller phone, but the included SCAD is completely parameterized. The most important parameters are the phone's height and width, and then if you want to change the position and angle of the phone, you can adjust the other parameters. What I did was hold the phone in the position I thought best and measured where in the phone the top gantry screw touched the phone. `screw_z_in_phone` means the distance in millimeters between the top of the phone in landscape orientation and the top screw. `screw_y_in_phone` means the distance in millimeters from the right side of the phone in landscape orientation (really the bottom of the phone) to the top screw. Then measure or guess at the rotation of the phone in degrees, roll (from the front of the printer) and yaw (from the top of the printer). Things might get funny with some more extreme parameters. The parameter `x_off` (x_offset) will help to keep the phone away from the gantry. Finally, the Moto X 2014 has a rounded back, so I beveled the shape of the phone to match. To undo this bevel, just give the same number for `phone_d1` and `phone_d2`. If the Customizer doesn't work (it didn't when I tried it), don't be afraid to download OpenSCAD from openscad.org/downloads.html, open the SCAD file, hit F6 to render, and then export to STL. Edit the parameters in the text editor before rendering if you want to change something. Hit F5 to preview before rendering if you'd like. I've included a screenshot of the phone's view while printing. Update Jul 31 -- lessen the bevel to be compatible with more phones without customization.