hi I'm MJ and I met up a fix for the
headquarters where we recently got our
hands on Kinect for Xbox and we're
trying it out before we take it apart
that's the one with my foot we knew was
attached here we are with the Kinect
this is the first time you can control
your console without actually having a
controller in your hand which is pretty
exciting it's made up of two cameras and
an infrared projector this first camera
is just a basic VGA camera the second
camera is an infrared camera that picks
up the light from the infrared projector
so that projects an invisible light onto
you and then the infrared camera picks
it up to tell the device how far away
from it you are the Kinect is the result
of hundreds of millions of dollars of
research packed into one tiny device so
I'm going to open it up and see what's
inside
so I'm ready to get started and I've got
all of my tools
I've got a tray for my screws to
spongers one metal and one plastic a
five millimeter nut driver a t10
security Torx the 54 piece bit driver
set and my heat gun you can also use a
blow dryer so to get things started I'm
going to remove the rubber pad off the
base of the connect so once you remove
the rubber pad you'll find four Phillips
screws hidden underneath I'm going to go
ahead and remove those now once those
screws are removed this base just pops
right off underneath the plastic base
you'll see 46 Torx screws so I'm going
to go ahead and remove those down when I
remove the metal base you'll see the
motor and the gears inside and this
enables the connect to actually follow
you around as you're moving you can see
the motor here it rotates these years
which rotates this gear which enables
the Kinect to tilt up and down so that's
it with the base let's move on to the
body of the Kinect I've already done
this once so it's going to seem a lot
easier this time around there's actually
a great deal of adhesive underneath
these grills so when you do it it's
going to be a bit harder but we're gonna
do is take this metal spudger and just
pry these grilles off
underneath events the very first screws
you'll see are 4010 security screws it's
kind of funny that those the first ones
we see because it's pretty clear that
Microsoft doesn't want us tearing this
apart but it's not going to keep you
from doing so I've just removed two
stickers because there are additional
screws hidden underneath those once
you've removed all those security screws
the top of the Kinect should just come
right off now we've got our first look
inside of the Kinect the first thing
you'll see are three circuit boards here
here and here
connectors read to the cameras and for
the infrared projector a fan which is
directing air this way and then just a
little fan cable there now that we're
inside the next step is to remove this
fan and these two vents on the sides you
won't need any tools just a little bit
of finagle and we'll get a mouse now
we're going to disconnect the fan
nothing really fancy about this fan it's
just an average fan
now that we've removed the fan we're
going to take the bottom off the device
it's not going to feel good but you're
basically just going to pry it off now
that we've removed the fan and the vents
we have a pretty good view of the
heatsink it's obvious that Microsoft
took a lot of care and planning the
airflow airflow through the device it's
only 12 watts and one would think that
fall lock device would generate that
much heat but maybe they're concerned
because the problems they have is the
Xbox is the past the next thing we're
going to do is remove this circuit board
by taking out these t10 screws I've
removed all the screws and now I'm going
to use the spudger to disconnect this
board
now you don't want to yank this
completely off because there are lots of
cables connected in here so you'll want
to be careful careful to disconnect
those first
now that we've got the boards removed
we're going to remove the heatsink now
for that you're going to use your heat
gun and a plastic spudger I've already
done this one so it's going to be really
easy
yours will take a little bit longer but
once it's warmed up it's fairly easy to
pry off the next thing we're going to do
is remove these four standoffs and for
that you're going to need your 5
millimeter nut driver if you get to one
that causes you problems you can always
take another screwdriver and put it
inside this one and use that that tends
to make it a little bit easier well in
here I'm also going to get these ribbon
cables
and now we can take the board off with
the boards removed we have access to the
screws holding on the front plate so I'm
going to go ahead and remove those now
that I've got those screws out I'm going
to wrap these cables through this hole
down here in the middle now that we've
got the cover off we get our first look
at the connects cameras it's my favorite
part think it's kind of cute now we're
going to remove the cameras
now that we've got the cameras out it's
completely disassembled so let's take a
look at what we've got that's it that's
everything that's inside is a Kinect
every time we take something apart we
like to give it a repair ability score
that is how easy would be for you to
repair the device on your own
we gave the Kinect to six because it's
relatively easy with some challenges one
of the good things about the Kinect is
that it's very modular so if you needed
to replace one bit you can do that and I
don't have to break up my soldering iron
which is always nice the bad news is
that it's pretty clear Microsoft doesn't
want you getting into your Kinect
because they used a ton of these t10
security screws to try to keep you out
until you have the right screwdriver
it's really hard to get in also without
a repair manual it can be pretty
difficult to repair the device however
once one's available on ifixit.com we
think you'd be able to get in there and
repair it yourself so that's our
teardown you can see more details at
ifixit.com and if you've got any
questions you can leave them in the
comments below and I'll come back to
answer them for you