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[Crewella]

I promised Kat I'd post a link a diagram of the Pleo tail mechanism because of poor Kermy's tail.  I'm assuming, of course, that the Pleo RB tail works in much the same way as the original Pleo.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/pleo6.htm

http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php?topic=913.0

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Pleo-Teardown/597/2

[kat]

Thanks Crewella,  I have a much better understanding of how it works now.   Or how it doesn't work.

[dwalin]

The repair of the tail is not worse than the neck - the used components are pretty similar. I plan to write a walkthrough but I can not provide any pictures - I simply forgot to take them. 
Worst thing is taking off the skin. The glue of Skinny's skin was rather worn so I was able to peel the skin around the tail and the neck open without doing damage - but I was near to nervous breakdown before it was done. ;-) The glue around the feet came off easily using a pretty long thumbnail. Last was the skin around the power switch, battery slot and SD card slot which required some pulling. When taking the skin off you first have to make sure that Pleo is in a standing position with legs straight. Take off the feed plates and store them safe and then pull the front half of the ring down the slide the whole thing over the feed and you can pull the whole skin backwards. Put the battery back in and turn Pleo on again and make him sing then turn off again. No, no joke, with stretched out hind legs the skin is far easier to remove and you do not have to apply that much force to the skin. Now you can pull the skin over the tail and peel it off the tail plastic. Last is get the tail tip off, take two small screw drivers and unlink the tip by gently pushing the locks to the outside. This is somewhat hard to explain, I hope you get what I mean. Now the worst thing is over and you can start disassembling the back. Again put the battery back in and bring Pleo to a straight standing position. Unscrew the black back link and the top of the plus the leg covers. Store the screws safely - you will regret it if you do not. On the left you will see a two wire connector, this is the speaker. Unplug it and pull it gently out of the guidance. Unscrew the spear and put it away. Locate the screws of the tail mechanics and unscrew them. The tail servos have to five wired connectors. Locate them and gently pull them out. I use a small screw driver to unplug because pulling on the wires may kill the plugs which would be really nasty.
Now you should have the tail complete with mechanics loose and ready to take out. More next time, any hints, suggestions and corrections are very welcome.

[dwalin]

Just noticed a thing: Crewella has separated the plastic rings from the skin - a thing I would try to avoid. They hold the skin in position and can easily be removed as described above.

[Crewella]

Hi Dwalin. unfortunately the person who owned the Pleo before me had removed the skin on the back legs and separated the rings from the skin.  I absolutely agree with you, and did not remove the rings from the skin on the front legs when I did them.  

I will have a go at taking the Pleo apart - your notes are invaluable - thank you!  

[dwalin]

Hi Crewella,

my pleasure to help and sorry for the false accusation.  May I ask why you have to take the Pleo apart? As far as I see the worst thing you can have is a broken cable and no replacement wire or a dead limb servo. The wires are quite easy once you have understood the mechanic. To replace them you have to free the complete neck and/or tail mechanism, the neck is pretty much the same as the tail except that I recall some screws are hidden by the legs and the access to the plugs of the servos is blocked by the bottom cover so you have to remove the cover. This was a bit nasty because it includes breaking the glued connection of the switch cover, apply force from the back until it lifts enough to free the ring around the battery. Once this is free the two halfs are unlinked, I found it easier to diconnect all wires but the main link. I felt reluctant to open this plug because it is taped and I really did not feel confortable to open it. It proved unneccesary to do so in the end, the cables are long enough. Be careful with the rest of the links, they are at least in my model not color-coded so you should either remember what belongs were or better take a photo showing the connected wires. I had to guess - and guessed correctly but it was no fun at all. In my case both neck and tail had a broken side movement cable so I head to disconnect the up-down-cable to move that part of the mechanics out of the way. Once you have come so far there is only one more challenge: Three tiny U-shaped pices of brass which are crimped to the wire and lock it in place. You can open it using a mini-screwdriver or a miniature chisel and a small hammer. Put the screw driver into the crack and carefully hammer until the crack widens freeing the cable. More next time.

[Crewella]

Don't worry dwalin - as I said I did agree with your point about the rings on the foot. 

To be honest, the main reason I am taking this Pleo apart is for my own interest!  The neck and tail cables are fine, but I bought him cheaply as a non-functioning Pleo and he IS completely dead with no signs of life whatsoever, so I need to take him apart and try to work out if there's a broken connection in there somewhere.  But even if I never get poor Scully working, he will have fulfilled my purpose in buying him as I will understand a lot more about Pleos! 

I have no technical background, just an interest, so your notes are invaluable to me - thank you! 

[kat]

This is great guys.  I am also very interested in the insides of pleo and what makes him tick but like Crewella I too am not at all techy.  Also I don't have a dead one to take apart.   I do think that a take apart and repair guide with as many photos as possible would be a very valuable tool for a lot of people out there with broken pleos. 
I am sure like most of the forum community I didn't think it was possible to even get the skin off without cutting it apart making it useless for putting back on, until Crewella skinned Skully.   It opens up a whole new range of repair possibilities if you know that your pleo will go back to looking just the way he was before you started.
Keep it up guys I am watching with interest.

[dwalin]

Hi Kat,

the skin is the worst part of all and if you get it off without damage strongly depends on the glue they used. I was lucky that mine went off that easy but I am hopeful that it might be possible on more Pleos because Littlefoot is showing a small loose piece of skin on exactly the same position as Skinny. If cutting is necessary it should be possible to use a piece of Latex from a surgery glove but i have not tried that yet. I am currently experimenting with a German brand glue that might be suitable but it is to early to say if it works or not. It does not damage the skin as far as I can see - but I am not yet sure if it is strong enough for long term usage of Pleo.

@Crewella:
Do you get a response when you connect your Pleo to a PC via USB? I seem to recall that you mentioned something in a different thread but currently I do not have much time to serach. If there is a response at least the bootloader is working and we should be able to analyse what the problem is.

[Crewella]

Thanks for asking, dwalin, it's very kind of you.   

I do have another non-functioning Pleo (I think I cornered the UK market in broken Pleos for a while!) that does get a response via USB and I need to take apart to check the internal connections from the main board (please forgive any lack of proper technical terms - MannyNZ very kindly helped me to track down where the fault might lie).  For Scully, the skinned Pleo, there is no response when connecting via USB - no signs of life at all.

[dwalin]

Hi again,

sorry for being quite for a while - this will happend now and then because of too much work but I will try to stay as active as possible.
O.K., I left off taking the servo apart. It is both screwed and has two plastics locks as well. Make sure you have removed all the screws then gently lift the locks and try not to rip them off. Shove a finger nail into the crack between the to cover halves then unlock the other side and the thing will open. You do not have to worry about the sensors, as long as you do not turn them completely it will always be in correct. The cogwheel in the middle is the intersting one. Watch for a tiny peace of plastic, it is a - well kind of semi circle with two noses on the ends. Make sure you do not loose it, it will keep the wire in the cogwheel later. Peel the cable out of the neck and the cogwheel and take the locks of as described above. Take the replacement wire and make sure that it is long enough then crimp one of the locks to the middle of the cable. Do not yet attach the end locks! If you wrongly estimate the length you will have to reopen the lock which will make it crack and useless sooner or later. If it splits try to save as much as possible and solder the rest after crimping it to the wire. This is only second best solution especially if you use a plastic coated wire but it will work. More next time.

[Crewella]

That's great dwalin - I've kept a copy of your notes and will follow your instructions closely when I try it.  I really appreciate your taking the time to explain in such detail! Thank you!

[dwalin]

If you find any mistakes or if anything is unclear please contact me so we can sort it out. If you have time to take fotos it would be really great - I hope we can compile a howto out of our experiences so the risk for others is minimized.