Print

[Watergazer]

Just a question...the gears in the legs sometimes pop from the force feedback thingie Pleos all are built with to prevent serious damage...I find that the rubber skin stretches pretty well but even when I put a really stretched out shirt on Herbie, if he tries to lift his front legs high enough they will "kick" and trigger the force feedback. How detrimental is that for the gears?

Also, is it a wise idea to run a Pleo unit every day for months on end? I read somewhere that their machine life is about 3 years...which is a sad prospect really! Even furbies have lasted longer with daily abuses by kids. I know Pleos can't take that same kind of abuse...but still...realistically how long do they operate for and among you who use your Pleos A LOT, have you run into issues?

[RedwoodsMama]

Hi Watergazer, I had the same question, the one regarding just how long is the " life expectancy", of a Pleo, given good care? I would hate to think that Nova's life expectancy bar any serious issues is about 3 years? I don't run Nova everyday, only because of other time constraints and work that my dog and nine felines refuse to do, ( They have formed their own union, and refuse to do the work I wish done, as it doesn't' fit in their time frame, with catnaps etc....... ) Anyway, even with running Nova with two batteries, fully charged she still is " alive " , about 4-5 out of every seven days. True, I have only been acquainted with her since Dec of 2009, but she saw very little use before agreeing to be my roommate.Her previous " owner", spent very little time with her, as his daughter showed not enough interest in Nova,so she spent most of her time on a shelf until this past Christmas.
       I did read somewhere on Youtube where they show" a Pleo Autopsy", that states that the Pleo was Very well loved and ran everyday, for about 3 years till it " died". I do not know if they ran the Pleo for more than 2-3 hrs a day, and if it was one of the very first models, though if they had it for 3 years it sounds about right. I would hope with the current technology, that Pleos could have a longer lifespan than 3 years. Is there a way to update the system to look for bugs, or other things that could possibly be detrimental to the unit.Is it just a matter of hardware failure that makes Pleo die? What could we Pleo Moms and Dads do to prolong their life?At this point the only thing I can think of is to use the " Reincarnation" program when the Pleo Unit or body fails. But if the body fails, what exact part could be salvaged to use for the reincarnation program, is is like a SD card that has the personality or " brain", on it? If anyone can explain this I would love to understand how this works.Does anyone know if the makers are working on making a longer lasting Pleo? I know they are working on better skin, etc, but that doesn't do much good if the body gives out.... I am glad you asked this question Watergazer, I have worried about this for quite some time but didn't know what to say and afraid in a way of finding out the answer...I am looking forward to a long lasting relationship with Nova.                                     RedwoodsMama    and (sometimes limping ) Nova

[grumpy]

Pleo came out in December of 2007, so the first batch of pleos made are not quite 2 and a half years old yet.

[degers]

Ugobe expected the battery life of the Pleo green battery to stay useable for about 3 years.  This was not a reflection on the other parts of Pleo's hardware.

The popping sound of the clutches on Pleo's joints is there to stop damage occuring to the gears and motors.  Eventually if you keep popping the clutch it will wear out, but I am not sure how long it will take to do this.

In the reincarnation program, when you ship the old pleo off, they use a small script to unload two files from the pleo which contain a few statistics, they then load this into the new Pleo, and then send you the new Pleo.

[RedwoodsMama]

 degers, the reincarnation program that is available, are the two script files they " unload" from the body of the Old Pleo, the personality and traits of the original pleo, this is what is most important to me for me to know, should Nova, wear out. It is just a case of whose body wears out first, hers or myne?
                                             RedwoodsMama     and MS. Nova