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Pleo Stuff => Pleo Archives => Archive -- Technical common => Topic started by: justbede on March 16, 2009, 05:51:56 PM

Title: Dinomite
Post by: justbede on March 16, 2009, 05:51:56 PM

Anyone got any idea how to use the file navigation module to copy Pleo's files really wanna take a looksey at the plog and a couple of the mysterious .txt files. Poor baxter was getting lonely all wired up with me geekin :p

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 17, 2009, 01:00:12 PM

I did that a while ago. I don't remember exactly how, but I'll boot up old Windows and have a look. In any case, it wasn't too hard once you found the right way, but the files don't really give anything when just viewed as plain text. I tried opening them in a hex editor too, but that didn't seem much better.

Anyway, I'll post again when I've refreshed my memory.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 17, 2009, 01:47:44 PM

Right, my mind is refreshed, here are the instructions for copying files from your pleo's memory using Dinomite.

I assume you already know how to use Dinomite enough to connect to your pleo and follow these instructions. If you don't, go to Dinomite's website and read up. If you don't know those things you definitely shouldn't be attempting file copying anyway. I also list only the specific steps needed for copying and nothing (or not much) else.

But first: the ever-important warning: ALWAYS make VERY sure that YOU DON'T COPY OR SAVE FILES ON YOUR PLEO'S INTERNAL MEMORY! If you accidentally create or copy files in your pleo's internal memory, there is no way you can delete them, and you can lock up your pleo and need repeated updates and reset its personality in the process of getting it back to life. DO NOT attempt to copy or create (by capturing images from the camera for example) files without being completely sure where they will end up and that you want them to end up right there.

I know, because I've done it myself :-) ... So if you feel uncertain in the least about anything here, go and read up (or ask in this forum, by all means). It's so much better to ask before your pleo loses it's mind than after. I have followed these steps myself just now, and several times before, but still, I can take no responsibility if you make a mistake or if I have written something incorrectly despite my care not to.

So, on with the actual steps required:
Insert your SD card in your pleo. Turn your pleo on.
Connect the USB cable between pleo and computer.
Open Dinomite, connect to your pleo.
Open the menu "View", choose "File system".
Make sure the current drive is B by clicking "Current Drive" and checking output in the terminal monitor window. Change drive using the button so labeled and its associated combobox if B isn't the current drive.
Click "File List". The files on the internal memory will be listed in the terminal window.
To copy a file, enter the filename, as shown in the file list, in the textbox which says <filename> by default. Then enter  A:FILENAME in the textbox which says <dir>/<file> by default. This is the destination path, A: means the SD card, and it's critically important that you really copy to A: so you don't happen to create more files in the internal memory. Replace FILENAME with the name you want the file to have. It's of course easiest to keep track of things if you name it the same thing as it originally has.
Check the destination path again, make sure that it really starts with A:
Check the destination path again. If that feels silly, think about how stupid I felt when I ruined Gob's personality. It's worth feeling a little silly to avoid doing that to your pleo.
Click the button "File Copy" to perform the copy operation.

So, to copy plogfile.dat enter exactly that in the <filename>-box, enter A/plogfile.dat in the <dir>/<file> box and click "File Copy".

When done copying, close the connection in Dinomite and disconnect your pleo.
Turn your pleo off, remove the SD card and connect it to your computer to get at the files you copied.

There, that's the basics of it all. I would very much appreciate more eyes on this text. For comments and clarifications of course, but especially to make sure no mistakes have sneaked past me. You can never be too sure ...

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: justbede on March 18, 2009, 05:59:34 PM

Brilliant your a star  ;D definitely best to know what your doing in these uncertain times for Pleo's future. You sound that like myself your interested in what makes Pleo tick have you managed to do anything else with Pleo? I really hope that if Ugobe does go under, they release an update to try and get as close to their promise of a completely open platform entertainment robot as possible. Then at least people could carry on Pleo's evolution.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 19, 2009, 12:56:42 AM

Thanks a lot justbede! It's nice to be able to add something to the community.

No, I haven't done much else with Gob yet. Just played around a bit with Dinomite (breaking Gob's personality in the process  :)), tried Myskit a little bit and shadowed Gob's startup sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsK9ZHVB0AQ

I could probably write a little introduction to shadowing of resources if anyone's interested.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: mweed on March 19, 2009, 08:31:33 AM

bjoreman, writing an introduction to shadowing is a wonderful idea!  And I'm sure there are many pleo owners who would benefit from it.  Please feel free to do so and post it here when you can.  I'm also sure that there are other members here who would be glad to help out in writing or reviewing! ;)

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: justbede on March 19, 2009, 11:38:23 AM

No problem  ;) and yep i agree with Mweed great idea, always hated the Huh start up sound lol. Do you know anything about shadowing motion files i have heard thats possible. Co-op writing sounds like a great idea i'm always up for writing long essays hehe.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: gucci_boi7782 on March 19, 2009, 12:04:34 PM

I know!! I hate that stinkin 'HUH?!'!!! But, I completely have no clue what this shadowing thing is...

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 19, 2009, 02:43:18 PM

Again, thanks again everyone for the kind words and encouragement. I'll write something up on shadowing this weekend. Fun times!

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: InmemoryofRomeo on March 19, 2009, 04:26:57 PM

Lilo says hello ;) I will demonstrate once I am finished with the rest of the shadowing :) Its a lot of fun and very simple to do, if you know how to record/download/rip a sound and rename a file then you can do it :)

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 20, 2009, 01:49:37 PM

Right, I just wrote up and posted a text about the basics of shadowing right in this forum. Comments, corrections, suggestions and everything else are of course as warmly welcomed as usual.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: kisumi on March 21, 2009, 11:30:38 AM

Can anyone suggest where i could find a beginners guide to Dino-mite. Im not too techically minded so not sure exactly what i can and cannot do on it. any help?

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: gucci_boi7782 on March 21, 2009, 12:30:15 PM

Welcome Kisumi!! Glad you made it. I too am not too tech smart. Just wait for the right person to read this. I'm sure they could help better than I.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 21, 2009, 12:36:06 PM

Not exactly a beginner's guide, but the manual for Dinomite is at http://www.bauerindependents.com/Files/User's%20Instructional%20Guide.pdf (http://www.bauerindependents.com/Files/User's%20Instructional%20Guide.pdf). I had some trouble finding that the first time I tried to use the program, so I thought I'd put a link up.

As far as  I recall, the only thing that tripped me up a little bit was finding and installing a USB driver so that  the Pleo was "recognized" by Windows upon connection. If Windows can't tell that there's a Pleo connected, it won't add a device for it and Dinomite won't be able to connect.

I think what I did about this was download one of the LifeOS USB updaters for Windows and it either installed the driver for you or it was simple to get the driver out of the installer separately. Perhaps someone who has done this more recently can fill in my blanks?

Anyway, once you have that driver the steps in the manual are pretty followable, and it lists everything you can do quite thoroughly. I don't recall anything being too unclear, but if there are questions left unanswered I'm sure all of us here can answer them together!

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 21, 2009, 01:04:37 PM

As for what you can do with Dinomite, you can think of it as a channel which allows you to send commands to your pleo, view the results of those commands and look at the pleo's internal state. The LifeOS inside Pleo has commands to control motors, play sounds and so on, and it's those commands you can send and observe through Dinomite. You can do really low-level stuff like tell a specific motor to go to a specific state and also do things like observe the information coming from pleo's various sensors - touch, IR, sound, the camera and so on.

There are commands to create, move and copy files as well, and this is slightly dangerous because of how pleo works. Read my above post on file copying for more about that :) ...

Another great side about Dinomite is that it shows just how open and accessible Ugobe wants the pleo to be for users to modify. All Dinomite does is, literally, provide windows which give you somewhat easier ways to run the commands inside your pleo. Everything is already on the pleo, and wide open to access. (If you are really geeky, you can apparantly use any terminal application to connect to your pleo and do the very same things, just with a bit less help. I haven't tried this myself ... yet :)) Contrast this with many other companies who try to crack down on people who want to dig around inside their products too much. It's a wonderful difference, and yet another reason to hope Ugobe and their spirit lives on.

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: justbede on March 22, 2009, 11:39:39 AM

Welcome Kisumi, Bjoreman's got it there the manual is the best place to start it's quite a down to earth piece of reading as well. Yeah you can definitely see Pleo is on the way to being really accesible i just wish we had more tools, Bjoreman do you know what language Ugobe used in the end to program Pleo? i remember hearing something about python. Oh and btw nice one on the right up i'm on the way for a read now ;)

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: bjoreman on March 22, 2009, 12:39:38 PM

Quote from: justbede on March 22, 2009, 11:39:39 AM

Bjoreman do you know what language Ugobe used in the end to program Pleo? i remember hearing something about python.

LifeOS itself is written in C. The scripts which implement pleo's behaviour and so on are written in the Pawn scripting language. Finally, at least parts of the tools Ugobe use to build files for the pleo are built in Python. All this information can be found in the pdf "PAWN Scripting in Life OS v1.0" (http://www.pleoworld.com/downloads/PawnScriptingInLifeOS.pdf (http://www.pleoworld.com/downloads/PawnScriptingInLifeOS.pdf)).

What that all comes down to is that once/if the PDK is released you will need to know Pawn to program your pleo, and that you might be able to do some really low-level hacking if you're good at C. You will need to have Python installed on your computer to run the tools in the PDK, but you won't have to know the language unless you want to modify the tools somehow. Normally, all you would do is run the Python tools to create the final files to put on your pleo.

So, no real need to learn Python when the PDK comes out, and probably not C either. Pawn you won't be able to do without though :) ...

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: justbede on March 22, 2009, 01:23:34 PM

Thank you once again for a fast reply :D lucky I'm attempting to learn as much as i can about programing and that i just so happen to love the logic of programing language's no matter how complex. I'd love to have a surf through Life OS i' obsessed with artificial life and the creation thereof, always have been I'd love to get into it professionally but apparently i made some bad decisions in school which tainted my qualifications ;) having to start over is a pain! I feel now that in many ways i was to young to take on the responsibility of my education darn it :p

Title: Re: Dinomite
Post by: Diane_AZ on March 27, 2009, 07:58:16 PM

When I went over to the Dino-MITE download page, at the bottom under KNOWN BUGS, I noticed a "UGOBE request - disabled specified buttons and removed commands".  Any idea what that was about?  I would imagine it might be something that was fouling up some Pleos on them but that's just guessing.  Like people have said, they've been pretty open about their product.