Leap Motion Teardown

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Contributors: SFUptownMaker
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Peeling the Onion

As is so often the case these days, there's no obvious point of entry into the Leap. So, I assumed glue and started a-peelin'.

Attacking the rubber on the bottom of the Leap

The rubber sheet on the bottom seemed like a great place to start; after all, it's not functional or terribly fragile. Armed with my trusty Kershaw Scallion, I slowly and carefully stripped the rubber sheet off the bottom.

Under the rubber sheet

Beneath, I found five tiny screws. Bonus points to the Leap Motion folks for not using tamper-resistant screws- I really appreciate that! A Philips 0 screwdriver took the screws right out, and that didn't do squat as far as improving access to more innards was concerned. We'll see why that is in a bit.

I briefly entertained the fantasy that the guts would pop out if I poked something into the screw hole and pushed; a bit of gentle prodding quickly disabused me of that notion. Without knowing exactly what I was poking I was disinclined to apply any real force...which brought me back to prying.

Prying the plastic cover off

At first, I couldn't get enough of my knife-cum-spudger into the crack between the plastic and the case to make any real headway. I took a fine-tooth saw and cut a tiny notch in the case, and that was just enough to sneak the knife in and release some tension. After that, it was smooth sailing, except when I cracked the plastic a teeny, tiny bit.