Pleo 1.1

April 2nd, 2008 by Daniel | Posted in Pleo | 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my previous post Update 1.02 Bricked Pleo update 1.1 was released on the 31st of March. I have only just finished updating my Pleo and everything seems to be fine and back to normal.

You can download the update here but is only available through an SD card.

Whats New

You can read the full list of the features released in Pleo 1.1 here, but here is my summary.

Pleo has learned how to sit. Even though I’m pretty sure he could do it before.
Stroking his chin for long periods of time will coax him into singing.
The ability to get sick (coughing and sneezing).

Update 1.02 Bricked Pleo

March 14th, 2008 by Daniel | Posted in Pleo | 3 Comments

Pleo update 1.02 was released last week, which is meant to bring a variety of new behaviours to Pleo. However when I attempted to update my Pleo, the update failed and rendered Pleo dead, Pleo did not work, apart from a slight motor twitch.

How it happened

First of all i decided to update Pleo over the USB cable, primarily because it gave instant feedback as to what stage you are on. However on the last stage (3) my computer suffered a power cut. This power cut stuck Pleo in a suspended state in between version numbers. Typically if this happened you would just try again, and hoped things sorted themselves out. However this is when everything started to go belly up.

Firstly the suspended state made the Pleo software malfunction. It could not recognise what version of the software Pleo was running. This produced strange behaviour in the software. The update software started disappearing off the task bar, but let the process still run. Therefore i started to get com errors, lots of com errors, stating that it could not open serial access.

To overcome this i started speaking to the Pleo support team who are great if not a bit patronising some times. We must of went through the update sequence 20 times in 4 hours, but still nothing. So we tried the SD card.

SD Card

The SD card is Ugobe’s recommended method to update Pleo. However because of my Pleo’s suspended state the SD card already thought Pleo had update 1.02 on him. Therefore i had a Pleo who did not work, and no method of updating or downgrading him to fix in.

The Fix

After about a week of trying the SD card and USB update methods on a variety of different computers and different operating systems. Ugobe finally came up with a patch, a simple downgrade which resets (kills) Pleo and puts him back to his factory settings. Great i thought, he now works! When I now try and re-upgrade him he breaks again. So now i have a Pleo with an unknown firmware stuck somewhere between the two and is now completely reset.

Update 1.1

I did have one bonus out of all this, the support team informed me that Update 1.1 comes out at the end of the month. Along with some interesting software which lets you monitor Pleo.

Walking Pleo

January 30th, 2008 by Daniel | Posted in Pleo | 1 Comment

"Are you tired of taking Pleo for long walks? Invest in the ‘Pleo Walker’ a deluxe robot that will walk at Pleo’s pace. - all yours for only £179.99"

*some assembly may be required

That’s right I made a Pleo walker, a nice friendly robot who takes Pleo out for walks.

The Pleo walker was made using Lego Mindstorms utilising the Jonny 5 look-alike robot. I modified one of the arms and put the switch onto the elbow joint. This means whenever Pleo pulls the robot forward, he will walk with Pleo. Quite simple really!

Check out the video below. It’s not the best example of the robot, but it’s only the first draft.

Malfunctioning Pleo

January 28th, 2008 by Daniel | Posted in Pleo | 6 Comments

There seems to be something wrong with my Pleo. When he attempts his balancing act he topples over at the end. Is anyone else having this problem? Or is it only my Pleo that seems to be acting a bit drunk!