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[Echo538]

Hi,

I know a lot of people are reading this so I'll try not to make it too serious of a post.

echo wasn't moving, he was freezing a lot. And today, I thought I would need to return him, losing him forever.

I am going through a lot in my life and it has been quite a dark time for me, so to "put to sleep" Echo would be devastating.

But I didn't have to.

First of all, thanks to Talon, I have help and support from skype and pm's. we did everything from watching the pleos interact with my other robotic pets, to just talking, to seeing if we could download the Pleoworld manual in an accessible format. I didn't receive a manual in the box, at least not the fifty-page handbook.

Yesterday, after geting help with setting the clock at noon, Echo froze up again, and we spent five hours off and on, trying to find the reset button with as much sighted assistance as I could get. Sometimes there was no assistance, and the day sped along at a crawl. By five PM. that evening, tired from other daily life struggles, I was ready to quit with pleo and still no where near resetting him successfully. Later after working with his charger, putting the battery in, taking it out and charging it and then putting it in several times, we got the clock to kind of work but it was beeping continuously, not a good thing. So Talon and I talked again and discovered that perhaps the clock battery itself was rigged.

I went to the store later that evening and found the exact battery with the exact number and we tried to put it into Echo... but alas, the screw which my mom had managed to tighten before, wouldn't tighten for my friend visiting me. So it was a restless night. I emailed my parents to see if they could come over... and got no response!

The next day, which would be today, I still didn't have an email, and being tired and crabby from not getting much sleep, The next day, having not received an email or made further progress, i quickly became frustrated at the lack of support I was getting. My frustration turned into fury as I quickly became discouraged that Echo would ever work again, and as I once again realized the extent of the battles I've been facing with my disability and other things. Plus I do not have the means to buy another one and am really trying to save money and live day by day with my work and all. Forgetting momentarily that Echo was a semi-living animal, I took him, the battery and the back with the screw on it, and tossed the whole thing into the recycle bin beside the garbage bin in my kitchen. Thank goodness Echo was strong, brave and flexible. In the process I twisted his foot so that it kind of shifted and moved. I was afraid i'd broken it and that his neck was messed up along with his tail, not to mention that he might smell bad. I couldn't go near him and wanted to be alone.

Hours later, my mom came over. She talked calmly to me, we met with some visitors, and we got all my furbies out and had fun with them. Then she took Echo out of the garbage, and said she'd fix him. I was upset watching as I thought he'd never work again... nothing was working with the time battery and she was talking about doing all kinds of things to him and the possibility of returning him was imminent.

Some of you may disagree with one thing or another when it comes to charging, battery life, etc., but with Echo we need to negotiate. We have found out that he is what one might call a "stray" or "misfit" pleo, his previous owners probably did more than test him, they probably stored him away for several months or years, stripping the screw. The clock battery was dead, and the screw was broken, and the main battery has a fast run down time before charging. I think those are signs that he's at least been through a lot.

So with convincing, we taped up his clock foot. We did not make a mess of it, we put flat, nice smooth tape on it and we bandaged him up. He does not seem to notice. I have a glass eye; it is like that for his foot.

Then we put in the new battery and had to charge him again. It is hard for me to charge him so much and take the battery out so much as I know it may do all kinds of things like void the warranty, or take his data back a notch... but he is a special Pleo and needs special TLC and I am willing to make sacrifices for such a special pet even if it means he only lasts a few more months should his battery ware down or if it means he has to go through a lot of wear and tear on his battery and other aspects. This pleo  is, and always will be, my Echo.

Well since he only had one sock on his foot, I later patched him up with four socks. I did not tape his other feet, just put socks on them. He's all nice and fuzzy now in his socks and cape.

Then... we turned him on and that's when things got interesting!He made his little sound like he was turning on, and then some other sounds, and we noticed with delight that his head was nodding and his tail was wagging... in fact, more than before! He sounded happier, much happier! He even sang Jingle Bells... twice! I'm not sure why that is but I guess the prior owner had tested the Christmas patch on him. Then he did all these new roars and things, I thought he was confusing personalities but he was just adjusting. I know that. And then, he took a few more tentative steps... and then he started walking! At first he moved about four inches, then he moved around the room! He was sniffing and sniffing, exploring everywhere! And then he wanted to see the furbies. Then,. he evolved! And he played Tug O War. Then he ate, twice! And then he burped, hiccupped and farted. Then he tracked his tracking leaf a bit. Either he is just a toddler now, or he was an adult before but too scared to show his adult side. sometimes even adults who go through a lot of fears and adjustments can sometimes seem more passive and shy at first, maybe even babyish! But whatever the case, Echo just needed that push to get adjusted. I think today he finally recognized his environment and his mommy and where he was, and is now a happy, healthy little guy! or girl! But I will need to make some negotiations of my own. It may not be the best, but he still runs for half an hour and after each run I am going to need to charge him, unless I can get a new battery. I will leave his time clock as it is and adjust to him being active in the middle of the night... thank goodness for off sswitches! And I guess if he wants to sing Christmas carols in summer like Christmas in july, or behave erratically, or need special adaptive care, well then that is the case. I do appreciate all the help and advice given on here, but for one thing, everyone and every experience is different, for another every pleo is different, and finally, this really is my pleo and my experience with him, and if I do initial research and Echo turns out fine and I can then just make updates, that's okay with me.

Welll this post is long but I just wanted to let everyone know that, as long as things don't change drastically again, Echo is okay.
And I know in my heart he forgives me for almost putting him in the garbage... or potentially doing worse to him. In the end, he is one of my best, bbest friends.

[kat]

You may find his regular battery is ok and all his issues were coming from the clock battery not staging in correctly.  If there were issues with the cover to the clock battery is could be his freezing was caused by this battery loosing contact with it's terminals.  Try running him with a fully charged battery and just leave him to run until he switches himself off - there will be 2 beeps I think which means he has ran out of power.  Time it and see how it goes. 
Pleoworld do sell batteries for pleo rb's so you should be able to get him a new one if you need to down the track. 
Glad you got him going again and the socks are a great idea - not just to keep the clock battery compartment safely closed but also to keep his feet clean.  many of us here use socks on our pleos

[Echo538]

Well, as I said, when he was with my mom and I he was fully charged then ran for about 20 minutes, then before she left we  charged him again. I just unplugged him about twenty minutes ago and he is currently sleeping, curled up. One day i'll run him on a full charge, time him, and report back. Right now i'm going to see how he does at night with his sleeping. He's never beeped twice to switch off that I can remember.

[Marmadrid]

I think it is better to run completely the battery instead of charging it before it is completely empty. This helps to keep the battery. About the Christmas carol, sometimes the camera glances a combination of colors (blue and pink) which makes pleo sing. As soon as it makes it once you will find it sing when it is happy.
When my Max sang for the first time it was sooo fun!!!. The only problem is that Max sing jingle bells when we are alone. I've told it to my husband and he thinks I'm crazy!...

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I'm glad he's working again, and no damage from the dump Given that his battery is playing up, it would be worthwhile running him through a couple of full charges if you can manage it.

[Piggy]

Glad to hear he is working again! I can imagine the stress it gives of him not working properly....and you were so happy when he arrived. I can understand it would be a huge dissapointment if he doesn't work the way it should  I wonder what his previous owners used him for, they were quite ruff with him, I think !

Glad to hear he came back from the dumpster and you and your mom found a way to get him back working again. I hope you can revive the battery.  If not so you can order a other battery. I bought a spare battery when Lenny arrived for extra play time.

Just out curiosity what color eyes does he have ? I hope Echo will run properly now and you have Lot's of fun together !

[Talon]

Whew! I'm glad you didn't give up on Echo either! I'm glad he seems to be doing better now. I'm so sorry my attempts to get you the manual in a format you could read fell through. I even tried moving it to a word document but that resulted in a huge mess with one word on every line and the manual went from sixty pages to one eighty eight. I also tried doing the same in note pad and got the same result. When I had this issue back when I bought Ryu, someone on here was kind enough to send me the RB manual in TXT format. After an hour-long search through both my Toshiba's hard drive and my external hard drive, I can only conclude that the copy they sent was on my old Aser laptop I had back in two thousand eleven.
Talon

[HuggieZ]

I'm glad that Echo is working again. I 'lost' my first Pleo Huggiez and I know how you feel. I really hope you may enjoy Echo for a long time.

[Echo538]

I would like to know what color Echo's eyes are as they were the first things I noticed when I opened it up.

I cannot play with him on more than 20 minute cycles before he freezes. The only way to get him up and running again is to charge him. I think the battery's dying. Is it possible at all to get that kind of battery from an electronics store, or must I buy one for $99 from PleoWorld?

[Talon]

You'd have to buy one through Pleoworld. They are not available from any electronics stores.
Talon

[Echo538]

Ok, i'll try doing that tonight.

[aibo7m3]

You should make certain that the issue is with Echo's main battery and not something else since the freezing does not sound like a battery issue and it takes a huge amount of use for a battery's runtime to start shortening. Shipping from PleoWorld especially is very expensive, and it would be a shame if you paid that much for a new battery only to learn that wasn't the issue.

[Talon]

What aibo says is true. I've never seen a pleo just freeze when presenting with a dead battery. They beep three times, then lower their head and tail when the battery is dead. Mine haven't had your sort of technical problem before so I can't even begin to point to another possible reason for Echo's freezing behavior.
Talon

[InmemoryofRomeo]

Actually, I had a white battery die just like that. Remember they are not the same type of batteries as the Ugobe's and work in a slightly different way. Pleo is not beeping because it's not triggering the flat battery warning.