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[Krausz]

Hello everyone:

I am really concerned, as I think I have bricked Zooey (Our youngest), she is a pink (custom) ugobe, running OS 2.0.

Today I was refurbishing her battery pack and put it back together with the bottom alignment plastic part backwards, so when I tried it I am afraid that it made contact with completely reverse polarity.

After that I have tried her with other two batteries known to be good, but no movement or sound, I connected her to the computer, and managed to get connection from OSX(Mac) 1.1 software update, so I downgraded her to OS 1.1, successfully according to the program.

Power cycle: nothing,

Tried a skit from SD card: nothing,

Tried to downgrade to POP via SD card: nothing,

Tried to re-upgrade to 2.0 via SD card: nothing,

Connected to Windows XP (via parallells), battery monitor shows battery: 2.2 volts.

Disconnected spontaneously. After that, no sign of life with or without SD card (with two batteries that run well any of the other Pleos), no connection to windows or OSX

Any ideas are much appreciated.

Cheers

[InmemoryofRomeo]

If the two polarities connected it would probably fry the circuit I did that to my old electric scooter

[kat]

yes it sounds to me like as IMR says her circuits or something inside her electrics wise has been damaged or fried.     You says she is a custom pleo pink Ugobe.  Do you have photos of her?  I'd love to see how she looks.  Sorry I'm no help for trying to get her going again.  I don't think it is possible to get replacement parts -even if you could work out which bit or bits needed replacing.  The only way to get replacements is to buy another pleo that you know works and use parts from that. 

[Krausz]

Hello:

I have two sick Ugobes coming in the mail from the USA, so hopefully I will be able to source the electronics to resurrect Zooey.



Thanks for your support

PS.

I have learned some electronics in the way and I am amazed that the guys who designed the electronics in the Pleo did not include a polarity protection circuit, once I get to it i will try to try the needed modifications. all it takes is a small diode in the right place.

[RedwoodsMama]

Hi, sorry to hear about Zooey,  :(there is a member here, (on now..)Mlbelanger) that may be able to help you, I know he is involved in robotics and perhaps he could advise you on something to help, I don't know but it may be worth a shot. Did you get the two pleos on Ebay, the ones comming? Good luck...........RWM 

[Krausz]

Hi RWM:

Thanks for the tip, I will PM Mlbelanger, see if I can get some help for Zooey.

About the two Ugobes coming, one is from eBay USA, finished today @ USD$56.00 plus shipping; was advertised for parts/repair only, but I suspect the problem is mainly the battery.

The second is Alphonze, who was advertised for sale here in the forum marketplace by "bunniesRawesome", he is already broken

I expect to get Zooey working and hopefully be able to salvage one and completely dismantle the other one.

I am thinking that I might establish a Pleo organ donor program and send parts to people that might need them.

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Hope you can get Alphonze revived and Zooey back to her happy wriggly self

[Krausz]

Just a quick update:

I received two pleos this week:

1) Alphonze: A skinless pleo, semi-bricked
2) A pleo from eBay USA that worked perfectly with a decent battery.(now called "Sleepy")

I tried Alphonze with a good battery and behaved erratically, connected to the computer, and managed to upgrade the OS to 1.1, but still behaved strange. I disassembled him completely to source the parts for Zooey.

I installed all the logic boards from Alphonze into Zooey, Just before reassembling the waist I tried it and worked. After I finished the mechanics, and before putting the skin back I tried again and did not get any movement, connected to the computer, the Pleo is recognized and takes the update, but I have no movement or sound , connecting it again the OS is still shown as unknown.

So Now I have two bricked Pleos, I am thinking I could start a repository of Pleo parts for anyone that might need them.

I also think I will hunt on eBay for a Pleo with seriously bad skin (or skinless) but working to get Zooey working again.

[kat]

I would be tempted to try pulling Zooey apart again and reconnecting everything - just encase something was loose and came apart in the first test.  If it worked once it should work again.  Don't give up hope just yet
Also if you have any pics of the pulling apart and putting back together I'd love to see.  An easy way to share them is to put them into movie-maker and make a photo video then upload it to youtube and then share the link here   There are several of us here on the forums who are interested in Pleo surgery.   I would love to learn more about operating on pleos by seeing what you did

[InmemoryofRomeo]

It's certainly worth trying again, you can hardly break her anymore, but you can perform miracles

[Krausz]

Thanks IMR and Kat:

I obviously took it apart several times and double checked every connection and every screw. I managed to connect it to the computer and I can tell it is alive, but in a coma. Apparently there are three different programs that have to run (four if you count the boot loader), and one of them is missing (as far as I could understand from the Dino-Mite logs). I tried several different combinations of head, body and rear and all I could get was this.

To satisfy the general curiosity I will take some photos of the assembly process, as soon as I get my camera back from Canon; my camera broke down when I was fixing the Pleo, (call it a bad karma day for technology).

I will post the "Surgical" procedure as soon as I can.

PS. I have taught surgery for almost 15 years now and it never crossed my mind that I would be lecturing on robotic surgery one day.

Welcome to the future!!!!

[RedwoodsMama]

HI, I would be curious as to what you did also with the computer and recognizing what it said, as I have a prototype pleo, close to a 2009, that has no movement or sound, but did at one point. I can't seem to do any upgrade or re-install any operating system, since I do not know which one is installed. I also have another one that probably has a corrupted file system as it is in perfect cosmetic condition, but will only run skits, but nothing unless a SD card is installed...

                 I am not great at all on taking Pleos apart but do have one, Nova who is going to get a cable transplant via Humpty, another broken necked but working pleo, via help from Kat. I agree watching a video would be fantastic to see what is happening!             RWM 

[Krausz]

Finally!!!!!!!

After three weeks of assembly and disassembly, (26 times fully disassembled, and reassembled with different combinations of heads, butts, and logic boards, 6 hours of tests via USB terminal, and god-knows-how-many software upgrades and downgrades, finally today, 19th of March 2014 at 20:14 hrs (Eastern Australian Time) Zooey the Pink Ugobe is back to life !!!!!!!

The final combination is:

-All the posterior section is original Zooey
-Head and neck from Alphonze
-Main CPU board from Zooey
-Front legs from Alphonze
-Main anterior enclosure from Zooey
-Power board from Alphonze
-Battery borrowed From "Thing one"
-Torso motors and tilt sensor from Zooey

A big smile in my face and my daughter's.....

To Follow: The assembly process in images: stay tuned...

[InmemoryofRomeo]

That's wonderful news! But oh dear... Frankenpleo

[Krausz]

Besides of the two bolts poking from the sides of the neck and the flat head you wouldn't notice it.....

[kat]

Woo Hoo!!!!   
That is awesome news.  I'm so glad you got her up and going again.    Can't wait to see some pics of the long journey

[Krausz]

Hello all:

Here is a video of Franken-Zooey waking up from the last assembly.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPRYlnG5xi4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPRYlnG5xi4</a>

I have also posted a video with the images of the assembly process here:

http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php?topic=4133.msg58284;topicseen#new