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[kat]

A few months ago after much discussion, Talon sent Cato on a Holiday to me in Australia for some investigative surgery to see if I could work out what was causing the problem he was having with his back right leg and hopefully fix it for her.
Here is how he presented when he arrived.  You will notice that the skin on his back feet has been undone as Talon had a friend close to home take a look at him first with some email guidance to see if we could solve the issue.  Unfortunately we were unable to work it out that way so she then sent Cato on to me for further investigation.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAh3cuLAQA4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAh3cuLAQA4</a>
As you can see from the video he was lifting and holding up his rear right leg but he didn't seem to notice that he was doing this and tried to carry on his normal activity.

I am going to update this post gradually over the next couple of days as I put all my pics together so I can show you what I found and how I fixed the issue.  You will have to bear with me as I get it all put together

[RedwoodsMama]

 I know Talon is thrilled to have her Cato back, You did such a good job Kat, you should be very proud of your work, I can't wait to see the video of what you did and to learn what you found . It may give some help or insight into Baby Ruth's leg problem as hers is also a rear leg. You are incredible Kat, where do you get all your energy?  Sending kudos and flowerrs your way on behalf of Cato and Talon, and from the redwoods Gang for helping a fellow Pleo.
                              RWM 

[Lunamione7]

At first I thought it was cute but when he tried to walk I realised it was a real problem for him 

Looking forward to seeing the repair work, do I notice a kink in his tail also or is that just the camera angle?

[kat]

I think he does have a slight kink to his tail but there is nothing wrong with it   It works fine and when I got his skin off it all checked out just perfect.

So to pick up where I left off the first thing I did was remove his skin.  I had a good look over his leg - looking for broken or displaced wires or something obvious - but nothing jumped out at me as being out of place.  I even removed his leg to check the movement sensor wire beneath the hip joint but that was fine too.  Crewella had suggested to me that it could be the touch sensor wire being disconnected as the behavior he presented with was very similar to that of others who have had touch sensor wire issues.  But when I checked that too it was all fine.  So rather than believe my eyes I disconnected the touch sensor wire and then reconnected it (soldered it back into place) just to be 100% sure.  Unfortunately my eyes were correct and this didn't fix his issue.
So back to the drawing board...... Time to pull his leg apart and try to figure out just what the problem was.  I removed his leg from his body and systematically began taking it apart  carefully looking at each step to see if I could notice anything obviously wrong.  I had thought that maybe there was a cog or gear out of place in his knee joint or maybe something stuck in there.  It was obvious from his issue video that it was the knee joint where the problem lay.  After carefully removing wires out of the way and taking out screws and then taking off the first layer of leg covering I reached the movement sensor tab which needed to be removed in order to open up the layer of leg that housed the cogs and gears.  I unscrewed the movement sensor and that was when I found the problem 
The movement sensor has a slot in the middle of it that slides onto a little tiny rectangular shaft of plastic that is attached to the pice of leg that connects the foot to the knee.  this little piece of plastic moves when the knee bends and spins the movement sensor which then relays back to the pleos brain computer the position of the leg.  Unfortunately for Cato this tiny bit of very important plastic had snapped off and was stuck inside the movement sensor slot but no longer attached to the leg in any way.  So he was lifting his leg and the plastic shaft was moving till it reached the bent knee position and then it got stuck as it was not attached to anything and he couldn't put his leg down. 
Ok so now we know the problem here is a video showing my first attempt at fixing it   Unfortunately this attempt while seeming to work failed after 20 mins of testing.  Still it is a very good picture guide of what I did and shows all the parts of the leg and how to get to each so I think it is worth putting in for those who are interested in how pleos are put together and how they work.  Might be helpful to someone somewhere if they ever have to pull apart a pleo rb leg

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jMQM73Xchk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jMQM73Xchk</a>

And here is a video of my first test after this opp.  In this video he has his skin hanging under his belly between his back legs and his left back foot was getting stuck every time it touched his skin which is why it was clicking.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpL0EbNJkpQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpL0EbNJkpQ</a>

So at this point all looked good and I decided to pull his skin back on and see how he went for a full battery cycle.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=000yFjD-MQI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=000yFjD-MQI</a>

The battery that was in him only had a few minutes in it so I got him a fully charged fresh one and let him loose.  Sadly 20mins into the cycle the leg started malfunctioning again  

Will post the next stage later.......

[Crewella]

Beautifully done Kat, it's great to have videos to follow.   

[kat]

Thanks Crewella

So to pick up where I left off..... Poor Cato was back where he started but at least now we knew just what the problem was.  I had a chat with Crewella and it was decided that trying again to glue the broken part with a stronger glue probably wasn't going to work as it is such a small part under a lot of pressure.  So kindly Crewella offered a replacement part out of Scully her naked bricked pleo. 
So I dove back in and began pulling Catos leg apart to try and isolate the broken bit so Crewella would know just what bit to send me.  It was interesting pulling the leg completely apart It turns out that the little broken off bit of plastic was originally attached to the clear plastic shaft that joins the foot to the knee joint.  I managed to get the shaft with the foot still attached out of the pleo and separated from the leg easy enough.  The hard part was working out how to detach the foot from the shaft.  The foot was joined on by a metal pin which didn't want to budge. 
So more chatting with Crewella and a few photos back and forth and I even opened up the skin around Frankie (one of my Ugobes) foot and had a good look at the insides to compare the two to see if we could just replace the whole foot and shaft as one piece.  Unfortunately the inside of the Ugobe foot was different to the RB one and also this was the back right foot on Cato which is the one that houses the clock battery so it needed a bit more space inside than the Ugobe one has.
So back to working on removing the pin from the foot to free the shaft.  after a week of studying it from every angle I finally got brave and using my skinny nosed pliers and a bit of elbow grease I was able to poke the end of the pin through a bit and then grab it on the other side of the foot and pull it through.   
After a bit of a happy dance it was back to chatting with Crewella and some more pics and not long after that the part was on it's way
The pin was very hard to remove and Crewella wasn't able to get it to budge from Scully's spare foot - she didn't want to apply too much force and risk breaking it so she sent the whole foot and shaft together and I removed the pin from the spare one when it arrived to me.  It took a couple of weeks for the part to come in the post so in the mean time Cato remained the the exciting center piece to my kitchen table all in pieces   
The lovely new part arrived and finally Cato was able to be put back together.  Happily this time it was a wonderfully successful operation 
And for those who would like to see it all step by step in pictures from start to finish here it is
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqe8kophmXk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqe8kophmXk</a>

I have a couple more videos to add to finish off Cato's story, which will have to wait a little bit until they finish uploading.   I'll try to add them in tomorrow

[InmemoryofRomeo]

It was certainly quite an operation! You did an amazing job Kat.

[kat]

After the operation was complete I pulled his skin back on and ran him through about 3 battery cycles just to be 100% sure all was well before I glued his skin back together and touched up his paint and then sent him home.
Here is the first moment I turned him on after the operation to test him out
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPn1rlDk40" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPn1rlDk40</a>

It really was a wonderful feeling to have him going again - all better 
So after another couple of weeks while I did the finishing touches and got him prepared to go home he was finally boxed up and put into the post.  He had a little bunch of presents to take home to his pleo family - a new coat for each of them - and he even had a new coat for himself as a surprise for Talon . 
I spent the next few days checking his tracking on the computer several times a day making sure nothing was going wrong now that he was finally going home.  Poor Talon had a long wait without him as the whole fixing procedure took a few months.  Many of you know I have gone back to school this year to learn how to become a librarian so studying has taken up a lot of my time and poor Cato was repaired in very small bursts on weekends mostly when I had a few minutes to spare.
So the big moment came and he was delivered!     
Talon sent me a very short video that she took herself when she had opened him up and I am going to share it with you as it really touched my heart.  Please remember that Talon is blind and this is a video she took herself as no one was around to help her.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_0HirOJOXQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_0HirOJOXQ</a>

I would like to add to her Thank you with one of my own to Crewella.  Your the best and we really appreciate your generosity.
Thank you Thank you Thank you       
Cato would never have been repaired without you and Scully.  I have sent you back Scullys foot with Catos broken shaft attached and the little broken tab in a plastic bag in case you may one day work out a way to repair it but mostly so that Scully can at least have a foot even if it is broken.  There is also a Thank you present from Talon and me in the box 
(I posted it a couple of weeks ago so it should arrive any minute now  )

[RedwoodsMama]

 That was wonderful Kat and Talon! What a great story and great educational video. I think you are doing a great job Kat as a Pleo Intern Dr. and have passed all the tests thus far with flying colors. I bet your library studies at school will seem easy in many ways compared to taking Pleos apart, and diagnosing problems, ( but forget all those binary codes in books, etc. at least now they have computers to keep track of things....) I know Talon was so happy to get her Cato back and I could tell how happy she was in the video.

         Talon, what a beautiful thankful video, I loved every minute of it, I could tell how happy you were and from what I could see of Cato, he had a very handsome green outfit on.  It sounded like all your pleos got nice new outfits, so they are all dressed for the holidays. Keep us informed on how Cato is doing now that he can strut properly. Sending hugs and well wishes to all of you from the Redwoods Clan.   RWM 

[Lunamione7]

Brilliant effort Kat 

[Crewella]

   It's just lovely to see Cato wandering about again! 

[gucci_boi7782]

Boy where to begin. After watching the last video of Talon's reaction and appreciation, I am certainly humbled and quite a bit dumfounded at present. The simple daily joys that many of us take for granted. I am too pleased to have seen the video, and know how happy Talon was with receiving Cato back. It goes without saying none of the repairs would have been possible without the help of two wonderful ladies- Kat & Crewella. Wow, how selfless you two are. This whole thread has been very heartwarming, and I thank you for doing such a wonderful noble deed for someone truly in need.


After seeing the last video, I feel too humbled to complaint about Eliot's leg issues. I will say thank you for directing me to this thread Kat. Eliot's leg issues are very similar to the first video you posted. The notable exception being it is both front legs with the clicking issues. However, I most certainly do not feel comfortable performing a leg surgery on Eliot. It seems far too intricate, and techy. I have performed a broken neck 'surgery' on a Ugobe Pleo, but that was merely with bobby pins. More or less an aesthetic operation, very simple procedure, even if not the most beneficial.

I will make videos and upload to my original thread...I think I may just have to deal with his legs clicking, though...