BMW E90 Dash Cam Hardwire

BMW E90 Dashcam Hardwire

My goal here was to have a dash cam setup for driving and parking with wires completely concealed for a fully integrated appearance. My original thought was to use a single Vantrue N2 Pro dash cam with one camera facing rear and one facing front. I planned to mount it on the rear interior lighting module but the front mirror blocks a good view of the road from that angle so I ended up purchasing an additional VIofo A119V2 for the front camera and just used the Vantrue as a rear/interior cam.

ViseeO Tune2air WMA1000

I finally discovered a better solution than my DIY version for bluetooth music streaming to my 2008 BMW 328xi.  The ViseeO Tune2air WMA1000 just plugs into the little 30pin iPod integration cable in my glovebox and pairs up to any smartphone.  At $85 it's pricey but provides an elegant solution to an annoying problem of mine.

Sound quality is excellent and it fits perfectly into that little section of the glovebox that holds an LED flashlight.  No more having to deal with turning the volume up/down when switching between Radio and Aux inputs!

Just plug it in and pair it up!

As I am streaming from an Android device I don't get any track data or
steering wheel track control functionality unfortunately.

Behind Sofa Wall Shelf /w Outlets

Here's a random idea for something handy to put behind your couch rather than a sofa table.

Behind Sofa Wall Shelf

This shelf was created for me by Intrigue Custom Creations of Scottsdale, AZ:  http://www.custommade.com/by/intrigue/

4/4 solid red oak was stained /w Minwax 215 and then topcoated /w semi-gloss Arm-R-Seal.  Overall dimensions of the shelf are 120" L x 14" W

Project Drawing:  https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkDiurnLC4Frh6wEO0LJH7Jvu8V5TA

Custom Battlestation Computer Desk Design

This is a design that I previously submitted on Imgur / Reddit.

Yangorang's Custom Battlestation Desk & Mancave

As with most of my custom stuff this was the result of my annoyance with existing products on the market.  I wanted a much larger desk than most as I like to put a lot of stuff on it, and I wanted a keyboard tray wide enough to accommodate my CAD mouse and a super large mouse pad.  While I was at it I stuck in some integrated cord management and a little shelf for my active studio monitor speakers.

Darker than Black Hei's Dagger Replica Project

Darker than Black Hei's Dagger Replica Metal Ver Rev2.5

Thingiverse:  You can download the STL from here to get the prop version printed - note that you will need to sand and paint the part yourself which takes some skill.

Project Overview
Not to be satisfied with other creations I've seen online, I set out to model Hei's dagger from Darker than Black with CAD so that I could have it accurately fabricated for me and easily reproducible.

Here's a rendering of the model I made - I used various screenshots and scans from the series as reference to make it look as authentic as possible.  The layouts that Volphin provides on his website were also a big help, though I did not follow them exactly and you can see the profile in my rendering is a bit different.

I am making a prop version that would be safe for bringing to events as well as a battle-ready metal version that Hei himself could use.  I've made the prop version an open design and anyone who wants it can download the model in .stl format at my Thingiverse.  If you want it in another CAD format shoot me an email and I can export it for you.

The metal version I made more or less exclusively for myself and a few friends.  I'm sure a lot of people would love to have one but few want to pay $500+ to have them custom made.

Please post any thoughts you have in the comments below!

HTC One Car Dock from ProClip

I was looking for a good car dock for my new HTC One to use in my 2008 BMW 328xi (E90) and came across the ProClip website:  https://www.proclipusa.com

You choose a mounting base that is custom designed for your car, in my case part number 853598.  This guy clips right on top of the AC vent and is incredibly easy to install.  Whether or not it'll be easy to remove in the future is another question but I won't need to worry about that for a while.

Another customized holder for your phone screws onto the mounting base, in my case 511524 for the HTC One.  (note that you can also choose options with integrated charging)

Once you have everything installed it looks like this:

The grand total for both of these parts was $78.63 shipped which is quite pricey but at least in the future if you get a new phone you only need to buy the phone holder part.  The plastic used is extremely solid (feels like polyamide) and the phone is held very well while driving.  The mounting location is also almost perfect for me as it's easily within arms reach but doesn't block any of my view through the windshield or any of the buttons on the dashboard.

The only issue that I've found is that it can cause a little bit of dashboard creak since it kind of pries the bottom portion of the trim slightly outward, so if you're one of those people who can't stand any creak in their BMW you'd best steer clear.

Overall this is a great product and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice phone car dock.  They have all sorts of solutions for nearly everybody so take a look at their website.