DIY Magnetic Digiscope

[yak]

Last summer I decided to make a digiscope setup for my Athlon Ares spotting scope rather than buy an Ollin or Magview setup. I just had a hard time putting that kind of $ towards those products and liked my current phone+case as-is. Not to mention, my spotter doesn’t really have a purpose-built solution from those companies (i.e. to make Ollin/Magview work, I would have had to purchase a setup for a different spotter and makes some minor modifications regardless to ensure the fit’n’function). Considering I have access to a 3D printer at work and many of the components on hand, I decided to make a digiscope setup for next to nothing.

Components:

• Spotter: Gen2 UHD Spotting Scope - 15-45x65mm - Angled Eyepiece
• Phone: iPhone 14
• Phone Case: Otterbox with Magsafe
• Automotive magnetic phone holder that was from Costco. Has Magsafe so the magnets clock the phone to the holder.
• 3D printer with PLA
• Super Glue

I took my magnetic phone holder apart and removed the support arm and 4 screws holding the plastic back cover. I measured out the hole pattern and used CAD to model a new backplate with the same hole pattern. I also used my calipers to measure out the spotting scope dimensions and modeled a sheath that will snuggly slide over the eyepiece when its threaded down fully. I 3D printed the 2 pieces and used super glue to connect the sheath to the holder. The janky part was aligning the camera lens of the phone with the sheath. I used a dab or 2 of super glue and manually aligned the two pieces while aligning the camera lens up to the spotter. Used more superglue to reinforce the interface after the tacks had hardened. PLA and super glue work well together, so no issues with it coming apart on me unless it really gets crushed (no issues in last hunting season). Definitely the weakest part of the setup though. My iphone 14 uses the same lens for photos and videos unless you zoom out to 0.5x zoom, which I don’t use for digiscoping.

This setup works alright for me with full understanding that its not as clean/robust as an Ollin or Magview setup. It definitely beats handholding my phone to the eyepiece. I also could have spent more time to finesse the fitup and interfaces between the parts, but didn’t want to spend more than a few hours on it. I also 3D printed a new eyepiece cap because the stock Ares cap is garbage and doesn’t stay on the spotter. Hope this gives you tinker’ers some ideas this offseason.

P.S. it does take a couple of tries to get the diameter of the sheath right with the 3D printer. You’ll want a snug fit so the friction of the sheath holds the cantilevered phone and prevents any rotation when it’s in landscape. Mine can be rotated to portrait orientation by hand if I desire.

 

[csrichardson97]

Love this. I made one after a quick trip to home depot and 15$. Not very robust, but it worked.

I will probably be following in your steps and 3D printing my own.

Here is the problem, I can buy a 3D printer and make my own, for less than the purchase price of MagView or Ollin. The price-gouging is too much for me to support.