Bob the Pleo Forums
Pleo Stuff => Pleo Problems => Topic started by: dwalin on January 19, 2020, 04:55:32 AM
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Hi folks,
it has been a while, hope everyone is well. :) Earlier this week I ran into an offer on eBay Kleinanzeigen: A Pleo who had quite some cracks in his skin on neck and tail (and some other places as well. Since my senior Littlefoot has a crack under his chin I wanted to deal with and of curse out of pity I bought the little fellow. When he arrived on Friday I learned the one of the vertebra has cracked in the joint which made the neck pretty floppy and on another a piece had completely broken of. ???
A 3D printed replacement sprang to my mind but that would have meant to disassemble the neck which would have been more of a challenge than I need right now so I was thinking of another solution in which human treatment came to my mind. O.K., I also had a close look on the mechanics berfore deciding to try it out. ;)
I had some left over rubber from working on a motorcicle late last year. It is not pretty in color (gleaming pitch black) but thin enough and flexible so I decided to use this as basis. I cut a piece out long enough to have appr. five millimeters overlap when laid around the neck and wide enough to cover everything from head to the last vertebra. I could imagine that a good bycicle tube could be used as well but it would have to be a good fit in diameter on the neck and this would mean you would have to strech it pretty much to get it pulled over the head which is not easy when working alone.
I had peeled off the skin joint on shoulder an breast to get access and rolled the skin forward over the neck and head - thank God this still was possible. Then I formed a ring glueing the overlap together and after making sure that everything fitted as needed I rolled the skin back. Being sure that everything was in place I started glueing the skin to the rubber patch - and immediatly started swearing because I forgot to use gloves. %)
After patching the biggest tail crack in the same way I left Cuddles sitting on the sofa with his gang overnight and gave the result a try in the morning. Cuddles was proud to present the Ta Da trick and it does not seem the bandage and patches hinder him to move so I have re-attached the skin parts and took the chance to patch some smaller cracks in the tail as well.
I guess the glue will be dry late this afternoon and then we will see if my expectations are too high. From the short test in the morning I would say that the bandage on the neck both servers as support for the brocken vertebra and the skin quite well.
The glue is Patex Extreme Repair which is at least 5 years old by now and I know the this production batch is compatible with Pleo skin, I used it years ago when fixing Skinny's broken cables. The stuff holds tight enough to withstand the strech when Pleo is moving but soft enough to peel off the skin when need. A big plus is also that the glue stays flexible so the skin stays soft and movable. The rubber I got from an acquaintance who is in the rubber business so I can not tell you what exactly it is. Since this is not yet long term tested it is not very important I think.
Cross fingers that everything will work out as expected.
Cheers
Dwalin
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Well, this is certainly better than nothing. How are the patches holding up so far?
Talon
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Hi Talon,
I am quite sattisfied, I had to ad some glue here and there but this was to be expected. I have put some pictures in the gallery so everybody can make up her/his mind:
(http://bobthepleo.com/forums/gallery/908_25_01_20_6_50_15.jpeg)
(http://bobthepleo.com/forums/gallery/908_25_01_20_6_51_33.jpeg)
(http://bobthepleo.com/forums/gallery/908_25_01_20_6_52_21.jpeg)
(http://bobthepleo.com/forums/gallery/908_25_01_20_6_53_16.jpeg)
In the last picture I am *gently* pulling on the skin, the crack does not seem to widen. Comments are welcome. If I can motivate myself I will refurbish the last two battery blocks and then the herd can play.
Cheers
Dwalin
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Hi Dwalin,
this looks pretty good ! Hopefully it will hold when Cuddles begins to move :). By the way : i am also from Germany and I have some Pleo skins … if you are interessted ;)
Best wishes and much fun with Cuddles
Honi
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Good evening,
the herd was playing for about one hour or so. One smaller problem came up I will have to deal with and I found some new places to work on. I really hope we can slow down the skin degeneration long enough to get some new skins. Cuddles is really cute, moving around and trumpeting. ;) I am looking forward to next time having them play. @Honi: Not quite sure if I got you right, you mean some skins to trade - or to patch. Patching you *can* do yourself, it is really not that hard if you take your time and work slowly.
Cheers
Dwalin
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Hi Dwalin, good to hear that the glueing is successful ! I had the same problem with my Ugobe Pleo. But his skin was so bad that I decided to change the whole skin. I also changed the eyes so that the colours of the eye surounding will fit. I took a broken Pleo Reborn as donor and now my Pleo looks like a Reborn but inside he is an Ugobe. It took same time to do this but now he is a very special one.
Pleogreets
Honi
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Good evening,
I am pretty curios if there is a source for replacement skins. I am quite happy the way things have evolved but there will be the necessity to have a more complete solution sooner or later.
I think it is quite a challenge the replace the skin on the head, from what pictures I saw in the internet that it not the easiest job.
Diffenerent topic: Did anybody use the serial connection of Pleo yet? I got me a bunch of Bluettoth modules and the config keeps me occupied but sooner or later that will bne done and I will have to try and connect them. Bad thing is that the Ugobe monitor manual and the tutorial I found are not consistent when it comes to the pinout of the serial. I would appriciate exact information here 'cause I am not willing to brick one of my Pleos with trial and error. Any hint will be welcome.
Cheers
Dwalin
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Way back at the beginning of Pleos, there were some projects to use the XBee wireless transmitters. You might do a search for that. Here's an old topic int he forums about it: http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php/topic,323.msg4730.html#msg4730
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裏から補強する補強材には未使用の潤滑ゼリーの塗布されてないコンドームを適当な大きさにカットして利用すると良いかも知れません。 これは真剣な話です。
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Way back at the beginning of Pleos, there were some projects to use the XBee wireless transmitters. You might do a search for that. Here's an old topic int he forums about it: http://bobthepleo.com/forums/index.php/topic,323.msg4730.html#msg4730
Hi Mike,
thanks for the reply. I know all of these, the problem is that everything seems to go back to exactly one description of the connector. This description seems not to match with what I find in the documents of the PDK. Thats why I ask. I don't want to brick one of my little fellows.
Cheers
Dwalin