How to mount WLAN Pi to a tripod

You might remember me saying something about designing a 3D printed WLAN Pi tripod mount. Yes, that was the plan… until I found a much better solution, which I had already owned.

Why tripod mounted? Well, occasionally I work on an outdoor Wi-Fi project. WLAN Pi can be a really useful for throughput testing, or it can share your phone’s cellular internet connectivity with your access point. This is really useful in cloud-managed surveys, labs, and projects.

Tern RidePocket Handlebar Bag

I present to you this small, well designed, and weatherproof Tern RidePocket bag. It is a fantastic bicycle bag, and as good bag for your WLAN Pi. You can purchase one in many countries around the globe and made by a big bike company, which is here to stay.

WLAN Pi in the Tern RidePocket bag on a tripod
WLAN Pi powered by PoE using PoE splitter
Cable management works really well

If you wanted to, you can battery power your Pi. Just add a battery pack of your choice.

WLAN Pi powered by a USB battery pack

Outdoor surveys involve all kinds of weather, and that’s where this rain cover becomes really useful.

Rain cover

What makes it work better than other or cheaper bags? It mounts securely, and does not slide down the tripod thanks to its strap coated with a layer of anti-slip rubber material.

Anti-slip material on the strap and a hook towards the top
Attached to a tripod
Closer look at the cable hole

If you prefer a Raspberry Pi 4, or WLAN Pi Community Edition based on Raspberry Pi 4, it fits in this bag too including a PoE splitter with little effort.

It fits Raspberry Pi 4 and PoE splitter

Lenlun Bike bag set

Do you need to interact with your WLAN Pi while it is mounted? No problem. I’ve tested a handful of other bags and Lenlun Bike bag set is the best fit. It allows you to see the display and press buttons while it protects everything stored inside.

WLAN Pi in the Lenlun bag
WLAN Pi in the Lenlun bag
Attachment to tripod is not as clean as Tern
Battery pack and WLAN Pi inside the bag

Finally, after you are done working, these bags can happily carry your keys, phone, battery pack, and wallet.

Brompton bike with Tern RidePocket

Published by

Jiri Brejcha

Jiri is passionate about mobility ranging from Wi-Fi to folding bikes;-) He is a Wi-Fi Technical Solutions Architect at Cisco UK, proud member of the Cisco Live Network Operations Center deployment team, and WLAN Pi development team. If he is not working, he is most likely riding his Brompton bike.

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