ESP32 Camera magnetic holder with ball head and cable management

This camera mount for an ESP32 camera can be used with any printer which has some metallic surface where the camera can be placed.

It will stick to the printer via magnets and it has a cable management so that you can get the cable out of the way.

I used USB to powering it through the “programming board”. There are alternative ways to power through 5V which would eliminate the need for the programming board, but this seemed to be cleaner.

The built in flash from my model seems to be adequate to drive the illumination - contrary to what was said in the GitHub article.

You need:

• This camera model (or similar).
• 1x M3x12 screw
• 1x M3 nut
• 2x 20x3mm Neodymium magnets

Instructions on how to set up the camera for PrusaLink can be found here.

=== Update 03/30

While creating a case for a second camera, I went to some updates to address a few shortcomings:

1. 20mm Magnets had to be glued in - now they are press fit.
2. The cable pass through was too tight for some USB cables. Made the whole a bit bigger.
3. Printing the middle piece was quite challenging as there was a tiny gap which was used to “sliding” the camera box together. This worked the first time, but after printing it again it was breaking apart instead of sliding together. Changed the dimensions of the clamp to make it easier to print and to avoid breaking apart.
4. Changed the camera box to allow a 140 degree lens to fit in + added a ventilation slit. Not sure if that is necessary, but I'd rather not find out.

So all pieces got an update denoted with “V2”.

=== Update 04/14

I created a longer arm as it turns out that on the XL, the Tool #5 is hitting the camera when the arm is too short.

The new Arm ("ESP32 Long ARM V3") fits perfectly into the case on the right front side without colliding with any head. It also turns out that the angle is better to see the printing better.

However… for printing you need to put that thing on the back side (ball has to look up) and I used organic support with PLA to print it. Do not try to print it standing as the others as that will not work.

Furthermore - it turns out that this also works perfectly for the EnXlosure from Voxel.

Note:

I also used the ball joint from this model created by Ferfi@.

This adds a PrusaLink compatible camera mount.