Good day, community! Hello from Russia.
A friend asked me to fix an old pleo. The preliminary examination revealed those things.
1) Battery charges only to 6.5V. If I try to turn pleo on, it emits a snore and nothing else happens.
2) The skin is dried up beyond imagination. Neck and tail have splits at every vertebrae disk.
3) Tail is strangely crooked, but since I can not turn it on, I can not tell if it is a problem yet.
4) I have one leaf thingy. Is something else required to run pleo?
What I have already done:
I build a new battery, using 3D printing and off-shelf AA rechargeable units. It will be charged using a third-party universal battery charger. The original battery had a thermistor. Does Pleo control its use or is it just for charging with original charger?
The skin worries me more. It is ruined. I have just rubbed it with a lot of "silicone restorer for rubber grommets". After it dries up, i'll see if it helps. An advice on restoring would be appreciated, but remember that we do not have the same chemicals here, so I will need a full description of chemical to find a substitute. In the state skin is now, it is futile to stitch those splits - they would just open nearby.
If all else fails i'll suggest the owner that we cut down all skin, except the head and lower legs, and ask our girls to make some sort of costume for it. Does skin contain any wires or probes? How to cut it down safely.
Any advice would be appreciated, since I never even saw this thing working.