Lens Cap for Garmin Dash Cam

I've recently bought a Garmin Dash Cam, but it bothers me that the lens seems to be in danger of being damaged when it's being handled. Unfortunately (like probably all dash cams) it doesn't come with a lens cap, so I decided to make one myself from easily and cheaply obtained materials.

1. An ordinary container for pills, 20 pills size. We're going to use the lid as the lens cap. The container I used is freely available in South Africa, where I live, and I hope in the rest of the world. The Garmin's lens bezel measures 20 mm across, and the inside of the /lidcap is 22 mm, making it a nice fit. The cap's depth is 5.5 mm, where as the depth of the lens bezel is 3 mm.

2. An elastic band, about 72 mm (2.8 inches) long. This will become our lens cap fastener.

3. Double sided mounting tape. I used a product from Henkel Adhesives called No Nails.

Remove the pill container's lid with scissors, and trim off the remaining protruding bits to get it nice and round. The bottom part of the container won't be used (in this project, in any case).

Cut off a piece of the double sided tape so that it will fit on the lid/lens cap. Of course it can be trimmed round for a better look.

Now stick the elastic band to the lens cap with the sticky side of the double side tape. Don't peel of the blue stuff or else the cap will stick to anything it touches. You can of course replace it with a more aesthetically pleasing material. The lens cap is now ready for use.

The lens cap can now be fixed over the cam's lens by wrapping the elastic band around the body of the camera. When removing the cap, it can be lifted off the lens and just placed beneath the lens, where the elastic band will keep it in place. In this position it won't obstruct the camera's view.

Of course you can go to more trouble if you want the cap to look less agricultural. Here I just cut the piece of double side tape nice and round, and painted everything black with a can of spray paint.