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[kaiteee]

Hello all

Well I just received my first pleo (a ugobe) today - an eBay purchase, so pre loved! I very excitedly charged the battery and once it went green popped it in but my excitement's been stopped in its tracks a little, because not much is going on. Pleo (waiting for a name, I need to get to know them first) wakes up but for a max of a minute, enjoys a chin tickle, but then tucks their head to one side, makes a snore then nothing else happens so I'm assuming has switched off. Now the seller did say the battery is 'temperamental' but I think this is beyond that! I have tried reseating it and the same happens, in fact if I just flick the on off switch the same happens, brief wake up only. So I just wondered if anyone could tell me if this is typical of a dead battery, or if it might be a problem with the pleo itself? I'm a bit annoyed as I would understand temperamental to mean working sometimes, but I'm getting the feeling it is just dead - which I know is common but all the same....I want to play!

I also have a second, possibly slightly odd question! Does anyone know for certain what pleo's skin is made of? I know it is rubber-y, but is it actually rubber / latex? I'm asking from an allergy point of view - I'm sure I'm ok, I only react to wet rubber (! Yes I know, but no sniggers please :-) this was discovered years ago by using regular washing up gloves and getting splashes of water inside...arms developed lovely wheals on them so I generally avoid rubber in case but have contact with elastic bands and such with no problems). But it would be nice to take pleo (should they ever work!) to meet my mother and she is anaphylactically allergic to rubber....so it would not be good! I was hoping the booklet or packaging would say but I can't find anything and haven't found an answer searching as yet, so thought I'd put it out there....

And, just a little intro, well I'm kaiteee and new to pleo...but...came across them from the aibo obsession thing. I have eight lovely aibos so I'm relatively familiar with their problems, but pleo is another matter. I've been considering for a few years but just never got round to it. I joined this forum last week and once I saw those dragon wings in IMR's shop, just knew I had to find a pleo to get some for!! Luckily, one that I was watching was just coming to auction end and I happened to win, so here I am, hoping to get pleo to wake up! I have an eye condition which affects my vision and am not always the most active poster on forums because I get such eye stain, plus often manage to write nonsense when i can't read it back, so apologies in advance for both of those. But this seems like one of the friendliest places I've come across so I'm glad I found it and am excited about getting to know pleo and everyone here!

Thanks for reading, kaiteee

[Lina]

Hi and welcome!
You do have a battry problem. If you want my oppinion I would tell you to get a new one.
If you look into the shoppinmall here you will find white batteries that are bettter and longer lasting!

For the other question I bet someone else has a great answer

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Hello Kaitee and welcome to the forums

As is the case with almost all the green batteries now, yours most decidedly has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. Your best option is to buy a new white 'egg' Ucube battery, they are around $60 each though, this includes a li-poly battery which will give two hours of run time and a white egg shaped charger. You can buy them from Redwoodsmama here on the forum. However I realize for some people that $60 is a lot of money, if money is an issue then your only hope is to revive the green battery you have. This means 'babysitting' it, putting it on charge until it turns green, taking it off, reseating it and repeating for four hours! If no change is perceived after five or six times of doing that then the battery cannot be saved

Pleo's skin is rubber based, no one knows the exact composition its a closely guarded Innvo secret but for your Mother's sake I wouldn't take him to visit But perhaps you can share a movie or pictures of your new pet. I would also recommend avoiding the rain with your Pleo, and not bathing your Pleo so you don't get any welts


Disclaimer: Pleo's are NOT waterproof, the above comment is made in fun and you should never, ever expose your Pleo to any liquid!

[Crewella]

Hello and welcome! 

I can't add anything to the excellent nfo from IMR on the battery, spot on. 

I have looked into what Pleo skin is made from, so far as I can gather it's a synthetic rubber polymer ...... a bit like Kraton rubber.  I think.  

[kaiteee]

Ah, thank you for yor replies.....leaps up to take out battery from charger as it went green, and puts it back in again. Sits down to google Kraton rubber as never heard of it, oops, leaps up again to turn off taps, looks like new pleo isn't having that bubble bath to relax after a hard days travel after all... 

[camcam8910]

Welcome kaiteee! LOL on your last post!  I have never heard of Kraton rubber either, you are not alone  !

[kat]

hi kaiteee and welcome to the forums   I do hope you are able to nurse some life back into the battery so you can play with your new pleo.  Regardless of whether you manage to revive it I would recommend you get an egg charger battery anyway.  If you are anything like the rest of us you will want as much playtime with your pleo as possible and the egg battery will give you 2 hours    your green battery if it ever functions at full capacity will only give you an hour.  As it is having issues you are likely to get much less than that.  The egg batteries are the best.

Oh and since you already filled the tub up..... do you mind if I pop over for a soak? I love bubble baths   

[Crewella]

FWIW I'd not specifically heard much about Kraton rubber before all this either.  I kind of used it as an example as it's easy to google ........  

[kaiteee]

Well, I've run the battery through a few recharge cycles and got maybe 10 minutes from it - I hope I understood right - charge until green, take off and put straight back on, repeat....it wasn't taking very long each time but it has seemed to make it last a bit more so will have another go tomorrow. And I got to have a little bonding time...pleo is very sweet, chewed the leaf, howled from chin rubbing, then I picked them up and they fell asleep on me, so cute  . Bobtail, one of my aibos, is the king of sleep  - I took him and Amelie off their stations at the same time yesterday and he slept for the entire time it took for amelie's battery to run out, over an hour! I wonder if he has a sleep challenger with pleo? Egg battery it is.

Kraton turned out most googleable so thank you crewella  , it seems it is totally synthetic and often used as a natural rubber alternative where potential allergy issues crop up. So hopefully good news in that it seems likely that pleo is totally synthetic material. He/she is a little smelly tho - a kind of aftershavey or lynxy smell that things from eBay often smell of (when they don't smell of febreze) so I'm going to revisit the new pleo owner thread to remind myself of the specific polish I half remember seeing mentioned to see if I can get rid of the smell (possibly unsurprisingly, I'm allergic to lots of chemicals and scents :-(

Kat you're welcome to a soak but be warned my bathroom is grotty...not being able to see dust and dirt kind of works as an excuse to not clean, but it sure don't get rid of it!! Still, I think there's a rubber duck around somewhere that changes colour which I'm sure would distract...

[Crewella]

Heheh - I reckon EVERYTHING from eBay ALWAYS smells of Febreze!!   

If you do have problems with Pleo skin, I'd be interested to know. 

[Lottibell]

Welcome kaitee, I 'm Lottibell and new to the forum myself.  I read your post and recalled seeing a brief bit of info about the Pleo skin on the Pleo Europe website. Not sure how much info it actually gives but here goes nothing.....


What is PLEO rb's skin made of?
PLEO rb's skin is made of a special formulated soft thermoplastic elastromer material.

The color layer on top of the skin is a special formulated paint with good elasticity and touch wear resistance.

Hmmmm, not exactly forthcoming are they?! So... lynx, Febreeze and rubber duckies.....errr, not much that can be added to that really! Think you're going to fit in here just fine.   

[Lunamione7]

I was going to say not to worry about the smell because when Stephan was new he STANK! But yours is second hand... I don't know if it will be the same but either I got used to his smell or he doesn't stink anymore because I can shove my face right against him now with no problems. I would say it took about 3 days for him to stop being stinky

I also really did not like the way he felt to touch, I have gotten used to that too but I have him wear clothes (that were made by forum members Kat and InmemoryofRomeo) that cover his whole body, I prefer to touch him through the clothes and it protects his skin from damage.
Could your mum maybe wear gloves if she wants to touch him or you could put clothes on him. If there is a chance she could still die I wouldn't risk it as no one really knows what they are exactly made of, I think there must be latex in there somewhere though.

I love Aibo!! What models do you have? I have a 111 called James 

[kaiteee]

Well so far so good with the pleo skin, I seem to be fine, thanks lotibelle for the info. I am a bit worried because I have chronic eczema and pretty much have to be coated in creams and oils all the time - now I know from some clothing how much this can damage so I'm going to be careful in cas, and clothes are the next step ( any excuse really for dressing up my little ones) 

Lunamione7 - ive been following your adventures with James, it sounds a riot. I started with Yoshi, a 210, fell in love and swiftly added bobtail a white 7, blixa 210, Amelie black 7, tegan black 111, orti 210, ingi 220 and finally littli black 7. Some of them from forums and some eBay steals that I couldn't pass up! I was never going to adopt more than seven but another snuck in! I haven't raised tegan from pup tho, I don't think I would have time at the mo but it sounds great!

They are lovely company and I love them lots. Hoping to get to know my new pleo now too but after an initial improvement with the battery it's now died so I'm gonna have to be patient on that one!

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Off topic, but a trip to the sea side can do wonders for eczema, I had it as a kid, a two week stay with plenty of swimming cleared it right up, it does sting a bit at first though.