xmatt

Somebody requested that I post photos of how I got my Arkon iPhone mount to work, since it wasn't entirely straightforward. In the end, it does work very nicely and is very solid. It looks like this with my iPhone clicked in (and running the "Rev" app):



First off the mount itself can be found here:

http://www.arkon.com/iPhone_Car_Mount.php

It's the IPM-129, most of the way down the page on the right.

The first thing you'll have to do is pop out the little hinged "foot" -- it's this piece:



Then remove the frame that the iPhone itself clicks into. It just slides up and off, and I believe can be left on the iPhone and attached to a belt clip, if you roll that way. The piece the frame attaches to can swivel relative to the base with the alligator clips that are meant to hang onto your vent slats. Turn the base "sideways" so that the alligator clips can slide over our horizontal slats, locating the clips to the left. You'll have to remove and reattach one or both clips -- you want both clips angled downward. Slide it onto the slats carefully, with the top clip over the topmost slat in the vent. When you slide it on, keep the right side of the mount close to the rightmost extent of the vent (if you mount it further to the left, it'll tend to run into your wiper stalk).

The clips do a pretty good job of limiting vertical motion like this, but the mount will still want to slide around unacceptably. What I did was use the holes on the back of the right side of the base (where the foot previously clicked in) to ziptie it to the slats. I did zipties top and bottom. This is a bit of a pain in the butt, but if you use some needlenose pliers to reach into the vent to pull the end around and out, it can be done, and once you get both zipties loosely closed, you can pull them both tight and clip the ends with wire cutters.

In the end, mine looked like this:



Here's another view:



Once you have it attached solidly, you can loosen the swivel lock and rotate it around so you can see the iPhone comfortably.

lols2000

Do you see any way of attaching that mount to the bracket modifry sells here: http://www.modifry.com/products/mounts/mdb.htm

xmatt

The mount I'm using wouldn't work with Modifry's bracket, but now that I look at it, there's another mount that should. On that same webpage is one called "APIP-VSM" (at the bottom of the page), which is made to mount to an "AMPS" mount hole pattern. That's exactly what Modifry's bracket offers, so it should work beautifully.

I think the only downside there is that the AMPS-compatible Arkon has no swivel adjustment. If you want that, you might be able to hack up the mount I got and attach it, but you'd be talking cutting a lot of plastic and drilling your own holes.

Personally I sort of like having my iPhone where I have it, such that it's in a "tap with the finger while leaving hand on the wheel" position, but it does block the vent and some of the climate controls.

Somebody buy that other Arkon, mount it to the Modifry bracket and post pictures!

jettfiery

I know the rev app uses a wifi dongle on the OBDII port. Mind telling me where you got it? The one they recommend is like 200 dollars.

xmatt

That's the only one I'm aware of. I bought mine from the Rev store, which is cheaper than buying them from the original manufacturer (in Germany). The software is very specifically tuned for that hardware (it even runs firmware updates for it), so I think that's the only game in town.

jettfiery

Do you like the software? Was it worth it?

xmatt

I like it a lot. See my recent review, also here in the electronics forum:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=665548

Makross

Thanks for posting this up!!