How To Take Apart the Flip Video Ultra

Filed Under Gadgets & Hardware, Geek on 2009-04-13, 12:50

Flip Video Ultra Camera with Macbook Pro

I love the idea of the Flip Video cameras.I bought a Flip Video Ultra last year and it has served me quite well. It’s small enough that it’s easy to carry around for those random moments when you wish you had a video camera. It’s cheap enough to not worry about taking it places where it could get absolutely destroyed. And it has enough space (60minutes) to record quite a bit of video.

However when I was doing some video for the 2009 Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight I noticed that the power switch was not sliding as easily as I remembered and would occasionally stick and cause problems when I needed to quickly turn the camera on and start recording. I figured it was just dirty so I’d open it up and clean it. I didn’t want to just start pulling stuff apart as I’ve broken many a plastic tab with this method. I did a quick search to see if there were any tear-down guides for disassembling the Flip Video camera, but came up short. I did find this video which was helpful, but also difficult to flip back and forth through. So here’s my quick photo guide to dismantling should you want to clean things, modify the LED, microphone, or whatever.

Unfortunately after all that disassembling and reassembling my power switch was still sticking. A couple loosening turns of the screw closest to the power switch was actually all the solution I needed. It was still interesting to take a look at the guts of my trusty Flip though.

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Comments

  • Disassembling the Flip Ultra HD is essentially the same. Once you get the back off and expose the circuit board there are 3 screws near the bottom of the CB to get, and 3 above the LCD to get. The last is under the LCD itself. The LCD screen should just flip forward with a good shake, exposing the last screw to get.

    My first Ultra HD is ruined because the 1/4" 20 mount on the bottom, believe it or not. I'd been attaching the camera to a NOGA arm and by using the locking shoe against the bottom of the camera the mount started rotating inside the camera. Well, the mount's holding system is poorly designed so it doesn't hold well, plus it sits RIGHT NEXT TO THE CIRCUIT BOARD! So I damaged the board when the mount began to rotate rendering the buttons useless.

    My new Ultra HD I've cracked open, and filled the area surrounding the mount on the inside with Gorilla Glue, which expands and becomes extremely ridged. Hopefully, this will solve the mount problem... that and not wrenching down the locking shoe so tightly.
  • Disassembling the Flip Ultra HD is essentially the same. Once you get the back off and expose the circuit board there are 3 screws near the bottom of the CB to get, and 3 above the LCD to get. The last is under the LCD itself. The LCD screen should just flip forward with a good shake, exposing the last screw to get.

    My first Ultra HD is ruined because the 1/4" 20 mount on the bottom, believe it or not. I'd been attaching the camera to a NOGA arm and by using the locking shoe against the bottom of the camera the mount started rotating inside the camera. Well, the mount's holding system is poorly designed so it doesn't hold well, plus it sits RIGHT NEXT TO THE CIRCUIT BOARD! So I damaged the board when the mount began to rotate rendering the buttons useless.

    My new Ultra HD I've cracked open, and filled the area surrounding the mount on the inside with Gorilla Glue, which expands and becomes extremely ridged. Hopefully, this will solve the mount problem... that and not wrenching down the locking shoe so tightly.
  • jakeiscool
    do you know how take apart the flip minoHD
  • steven30
    Great instructions. I noticed you use Energizer 2000 mA recharables. I use the same, great (camera-hacking) minds think alike. 8-) I also wanted to add that one of your steps mentioned that you damaged a screw mount by tightening the screw too much. You may not have caused as much of the problem as you thought. On my camera, that same screw mount was cracked, the first time I took the camera apart. Maybe yours was too. Anyway, thanks again.
  • Thanks steven! Always good to know that something might not be my fault. :)
  • do you have a modification to be able
    to add an external microphone, or know
    someone who does
  • Unfortunately I don't. If you do find someone who does, share a link! :)
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