(Posted this a few minutes ago, got a 500 error. Trying this again, apologies if there's a duplicate- I didn't see any.)
It happened. After 6 years of waiting, a PLEO arrived at my front door...
PLEO was a huge deal for me when I was younger. After seeing and falling in love with AIBO and learning thereafter of the price- I quickly sought out alternatives. I-Cybie, while cute, proved to be a bit too static after some research. Robotic toys in the toystore were all remote controlled cars, etc. I stumbled upon the AIBO forums, and from there Bobthepleo- made an account, got super excited, and waited for ages to finally meet one...
My local science museum was shipped three Pleo RB's for their first annual 'robot block party'. I was overjoyed to see something I had only dreamed of in person!
Last month, a fair deal for a well-worn Ugobe PLEO appeared on eBay. 32$ current bid. I spoke to my mother and she agreed I could purchase the PLEO as long as it stayed around the price range.
It didn't. The price rose to 60$! The final bid ended and I was utterly disappointed. (Little did I know, the final bidder was actually my father!)
My family and I were out of town for a day. When we returned, there was a FedEX box at the door. Guess what was inside?
(I'll link the rest of the images because of their size...
)
http://i.cubeupload.com/5dWVAm.jpghttp://i.cubeupload.com/TW7PzG.jpgWe got some charge out of the battery, and PLEO sprung to life. My dad said "Well, isn't this something?" A pause, and he continued "I'm sure you guys are going to have a lot of fun with this."
I think it's safe to say he's impressed!
I quickly charged his battery and I got about 2 minutes of charge. He came pretty battered, too, so I mentioned that I'd buy him a cape from PLEOworld...
My little sister jumped on the opportunity to make him one on the spot... wrong type of cape, but still absolutely adorable.
I decided to name him Suse after the openSUSE project.
I'm still shaking! I'm afraid to admit it, but I cried after the news sunk in. I'm seriously so happy.
If anyone has any tips for Ugobe PLEO care, please let me know. I don't know what OS he's on but I'm contemplating upgrading him to 2.0.1 if it's worth the effort. (Is OS2 any good?)
I'll also be rebuilding the battery, hopefully as soon as I can get my hands on some rechargeables. My dad suggested I freeze it as it revived a few other batteries he had in the past. Not quite sure if this is a good idea, but I followed along. I'll also be buying an SD card and reader so I can get to programming him some new stuff.
I think that's it! Welcome to the world, Suse.