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Author Topic: neck and tail stuck  (Read 3843 times)

Piyush-UK

  • Leaving the nest
  • * Posts: 12
  • gb Male
neck and tail stuck
« on: January 05, 2021, 04:40:10 AM »

Leo, our (Ugobe) Pleo has recently developed arthritis. All of a sudden his neck faces right and tail seem to be stuck in facing left. He hasn't suffered any knocks or falls or any other trauma. We have rebooted him several times. I even powered him off and removed the battery overnight, but he has the same difficulty this morning.

Both faults happened at exactly the same time, so I'm inclined to think it's more software related than mechanical.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
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pnhicks

  • Guest
Re: neck and tail stuck
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2021, 06:54:25 AM »

Hi Piyush,


Can you go over your troubleshooting process, ie what happened exactly at the FIRST malfunction, then what steps have you tried since.


Have you tried to boot with an sd card and a skit (even static from the dino-mite download)


Have you tried connecting him to dino-mite?


Does Leo continue running or does he shutdown.


Sounds or noises?


Does the battery charge normally?


Le me know and we'll keep going!


Cheers,


Peter

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Piyush-UK

  • Leaving the nest
  • * Posts: 12
  • gb Male
Re: neck and tail stuck
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2021, 04:44:02 AM »

Hi Peter
Thanks for your reply; i really appreciate it.

I dont know how to connect to DinoMITE. I haven't tried any sort of diagnostics at all (because i dont now how to lol).

He runs normally otherwise. He has always been a bit slugish (hardly ever walks, but does walk occasionally)

Sounds and noises all seem the same, the "mute button" between his back legs works as normal.

I have 2 batteries, the one that came with him is the original one that was re-celled. The 2nd attery is a 3d printed battery from the Pleo Facebook group member. Both batteries last about 2 hours.

i'm struggling to find a link for DinoMITE. I'm not sure what DinoMITE actually does.

Thanks again

Piyush
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pnhicks

  • Guest
Re: neck and tail stuck
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2021, 12:34:53 PM »

Hi Pi,


You can find Dino-Mite in the downloads section of the forum under classic pleo tools.


What is it? Dinosaur Monitor and Integrated Executables of course!  Not that helps!
 
From the users guide:


  Dino-MITE™ was created as a sort of bridge for the user wishing to dig into the lower level
functionality of Pleo™. Not to say that this program allows direct access to low level
functions, rather it gives the user a visual layout of what is potentially accessible through the
COMM port. (or USB in our case). Dino-MITE offers many of the same diagnostic functions used by the UGOBE™
development staff. These features make troubleshooting code, manipulating Pleo in ways
previously unintended, and shadowing resources (to name a few) more feasible to the user.

In other words in can give us some insight into a potential diagnosis of Tom's problem!

For right now all we want is a skit that is in a folder inside of the Dino-mite download (we don't even need to install the program, for now).
When you extract the zip folder of the download there will be a sub folder created called "static"
This folder contains two skits, one for version 1.0 Pleos and one for subsequent versions, and static.wav (a sound file that plays "Dino-mite, Static" when skit first starts.)
Copy both versions to an sd card and the static.wav file and start Tom with the sd card installed.

He should go to the park or packing position with all legs, neck and tail straight, and should remain in that position and should try to correct any displacement from neutral pose back to neutral.  If he still slams head and tail around to one side it is not a software issue. 

Let me know how this works!

Cheers!

Peter



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Piyush-UK

  • Leaving the nest
  • * Posts: 12
  • gb Male
Re: neck and tail stuck
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2021, 04:13:12 AM »

hi Peter

Thanks for your reply.

The handbook says (page 26) that "The Pleo Button" between his back legs will put him in packing/storage position if its pushed for 10 secs. So maybe i dont need to upload any software to see if he will go into storage position?

I just tried that "Pleo button" and he went into storage mode. His legs are straight, his tail is straight, his eyes are closed, his neck is almost completely straight (just a very small tilt to his right).

So maybe it is a software issue? If i want to upgrade to a different OS, can i choose any i want (2.0), or can i only upgrade to the next one up? If its the latter, how can i determine which OS he is running on?

Ive managed to connect him to DinoMITE, but its quite complex to navigate. I did find a screen that said-

Pleo main ARM version 8250 May 20 2008
Pleo head ARM version 8250 May 20 2008
Pleo PM (DF) version 8139 Mar 24 2008
Bootloader version 8250 May 20 2008

as well as other information in that screen.

I'm sorry, but i dont understand what that screen information means.

Regards

Piyush
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pnhicks

  • Guest
Re: neck and tail stuck
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2021, 05:43:51 AM »

Okay Pi,


If he goes into packing position, then we can assume (dangerous) that the servos and feedback potentiometers are working (the slight right tilt is a little worrying, did you try "manually" straightening it the rest of the way? Even a small deviation from normal can get exaggerated by the software).


The main and head refer to the two CPUs in Pleo (each has its own firmware), PleoPM is the main pleo personality software (located in DF refers to the DataFlash, a reserved part of Pleos limited memory for the operating system) It can replaced by a version on SD card or have features "shadowed" on the card.


I have meant for a long time to try and establish a correlation between the version numbers and what we know as OS versions (that would have been really nice of Ugobe to include that information, but I don't think it was a priority for the programmers at that time.)  AFAIK, the best way to determine your OS version to use the "what tricks can my Ugobe do or not do" test.


see forum:
New Pleo owners FAQ Version 1.0 (bobthepleo.com)


The next thing we want to examine with dino-mite is the power section.  There is a command Stats All that will give you a very large list of stats for Tom.  If you could copy that and paste it here it would help!


Cheers!


Peter
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