For the beginning of Narco's 11th battery charge I wanted to see if I could get him to dance, as I have read others being able to do in the forums at Pleoworld.com.
I loaded up an old dance staple on my iPhone YouTube and placed it in front on Narco on the floor.
Although I can't say that he actually "danced" at any time in the almost 6 minutes, I think it was absolutely hysterical and adorable starting at about 1:40 in the video where he sees the iPhone and starts reacting to it.
One unfortunate reality I ran into (again) is that sound does not wake a sleeping Pleo, nor does it keep a Pleo awake. Just over 4 minutes into the video, Narco falls asleep with the music blaring beneath his chin.
Because the sound from an iPhone speaker isn't exactly "Hi-Fidelity", I will repeat this experiment again with a portable radio and better quality sound - just to be fair to Narco and the posters who mention that their Pleos will dance to music.
Happy New Year, from Narco and his owners!
Monday, December 31, 2007
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 30 2007 - Climb an Incline, Follow a Line 2, Edge Detection
For Narco's 10th battery charge we took on a couple things I received via email and comments, as well as revisiting the "Follow a Line" experiment.
For the setup I used a 4ft folding table with a piece of cardboard taped at one end and a 5 inch tall box on the other. The table was supported by a few of my daughters' books. So for those math magicians who can figure out the incline, it was a 4.5ft incline that went from the floor to 5 inches high.
From the floor to the end of the cardboard box, I taped a dark green ribbon.
One of the requests I received was to find out if Pleo can climb things. The short answer is "No, Pleo cannot climb anything." However, you can see in the video that Pleo can indeed make his way up a slight incline, given enough traction.
I hope this inspires someone to make themselves an elevated Pleo home. I'd consider it myself, but I don't have the room to leave it out in my house since the kids don't get to play with Narco. If I were to contruct it, it would be something like the setup in these experiments, but with a short wall around the outside to stop Narco from falling off. Since he doesn't lift his feet more than a few millimeters while walking, a border wall of just 1 inch should suffice. This would allow him to stick his head over the edge, but not walk off.
The other request for this round of testing was edge detection - specifically, does Pleo detect edges when walking backwards? Short answer - "No, Pleo does not detect edges when walking backwards."
It appears that the only edge detection is via sensors in Pleo's nose, so forward-detecting only. As seen in the video, edge detection when moving forward is a bit of hit-or-miss as well.
We spend more time interacting and playing with Narco during this session and you can clearly see where the happiness of Pleo owners comes from - Pleo is an absolute joy to play with!
I want to make sure everyone understands that, although the majority of what's on this blog seems to be negative towards the Pleo, it is simply testing and observation. In most video sessions (if not all) you will hear me say how much fun it is to play with Narco, but that he leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to actual "autonomy".
So - to be absolutely clear - I am very happy to own a Pleo, and Narco is a great joy to myself and my wife!
Here is the video from Dec 30 2007:
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment and/or suggestions for future video!
For the setup I used a 4ft folding table with a piece of cardboard taped at one end and a 5 inch tall box on the other. The table was supported by a few of my daughters' books. So for those math magicians who can figure out the incline, it was a 4.5ft incline that went from the floor to 5 inches high.
From the floor to the end of the cardboard box, I taped a dark green ribbon.
One of the requests I received was to find out if Pleo can climb things. The short answer is "No, Pleo cannot climb anything." However, you can see in the video that Pleo can indeed make his way up a slight incline, given enough traction.
I hope this inspires someone to make themselves an elevated Pleo home. I'd consider it myself, but I don't have the room to leave it out in my house since the kids don't get to play with Narco. If I were to contruct it, it would be something like the setup in these experiments, but with a short wall around the outside to stop Narco from falling off. Since he doesn't lift his feet more than a few millimeters while walking, a border wall of just 1 inch should suffice. This would allow him to stick his head over the edge, but not walk off.
The other request for this round of testing was edge detection - specifically, does Pleo detect edges when walking backwards? Short answer - "No, Pleo does not detect edges when walking backwards."
It appears that the only edge detection is via sensors in Pleo's nose, so forward-detecting only. As seen in the video, edge detection when moving forward is a bit of hit-or-miss as well.
We spend more time interacting and playing with Narco during this session and you can clearly see where the happiness of Pleo owners comes from - Pleo is an absolute joy to play with!
I want to make sure everyone understands that, although the majority of what's on this blog seems to be negative towards the Pleo, it is simply testing and observation. In most video sessions (if not all) you will hear me say how much fun it is to play with Narco, but that he leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to actual "autonomy".
So - to be absolutely clear - I am very happy to own a Pleo, and Narco is a great joy to myself and my wife!
Here is the video from Dec 30 2007:
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment and/or suggestions for future video!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 29 2007 - Color Testing, Round 2
For Narco's 9th battery charge I set up another round of color testing, based on a couple suggestions I have received, as well as a couple posts I have read at the Pleoworld.com forums.
Basically, it was suggested that I try a black background and I read that apparently many Pleos will react a specific way to the supplied Pleo leaf.
Here is the video in YouTube playlist format again:
My conclusion? The same as my first round of testing, unfortunately. My Pleo, Narco, does NOT respond to different COLORS at all. He does indeed respond to having an object placed in front of his face. He will consistently sniff the object and make soft sounds at it. He does these things REGARDLESS of what COLOR the object it.
So I am left to state the following, at least in regards to MY Pleo: Pleo does not have the programming to discern different colors AND react to them differently. I am positive that the hardware is there to detect different colors, but the programming doesn't allow for different reactions based on different colors.
For anyone following the skin wear on Narco, here is a picture of the skin wear at the 9th battery charge:
Thanks for stopping by, and please leave any comments and/or suggestions for future Narco Pleo experiments!
Basically, it was suggested that I try a black background and I read that apparently many Pleos will react a specific way to the supplied Pleo leaf.
Here is the video in YouTube playlist format again:
My conclusion? The same as my first round of testing, unfortunately. My Pleo, Narco, does NOT respond to different COLORS at all. He does indeed respond to having an object placed in front of his face. He will consistently sniff the object and make soft sounds at it. He does these things REGARDLESS of what COLOR the object it.
So I am left to state the following, at least in regards to MY Pleo: Pleo does not have the programming to discern different colors AND react to them differently. I am positive that the hardware is there to detect different colors, but the programming doesn't allow for different reactions based on different colors.
For anyone following the skin wear on Narco, here is a picture of the skin wear at the 9th battery charge:
Thanks for stopping by, and please leave any comments and/or suggestions for future Narco Pleo experiments!
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 28 2007 - In a corner and putting a Pleo to sleep
This was the 9th battery charge for Narco.
I wanted to spend some time interacting with Narco Pleo so I put him down on the floor and followed him around, petting him and talking to him. After a few minutes he made his way to a spot in my living room (where I have admittedly not cleaned up since Christmas) where a laundry basket and a cardboard box are sitting next to each other.
He walked to the little corner/alley in-between them and just seemed to hang out there. As you can hear in my audio commentary, this is where I have some issue with Pleo's ability to detect objects and avoid them.
The final video in the playlist is something I found while experimenting with the touch sensors on Narco.
One note of correction: In the video I mention that you have to touch Pleo's back sensor and both leg sensors. Upon further testing I found that you only need to keep your hand on the back sensor, NOT the back AND leg sensors.
Here are the videos, once again in YouTube playlist format.
As a final note, I received a message suggesting I try the color experiment again using a black background instead of white. I plan on doing this experiment tonight. I purchased a black flat sheet from Walmart for $2.96 and I'll set up a similar experiment for colors. As is normal, I will record the experiment.
Thanks for stopping by!
I wanted to spend some time interacting with Narco Pleo so I put him down on the floor and followed him around, petting him and talking to him. After a few minutes he made his way to a spot in my living room (where I have admittedly not cleaned up since Christmas) where a laundry basket and a cardboard box are sitting next to each other.
He walked to the little corner/alley in-between them and just seemed to hang out there. As you can hear in my audio commentary, this is where I have some issue with Pleo's ability to detect objects and avoid them.
The final video in the playlist is something I found while experimenting with the touch sensors on Narco.
One note of correction: In the video I mention that you have to touch Pleo's back sensor and both leg sensors. Upon further testing I found that you only need to keep your hand on the back sensor, NOT the back AND leg sensors.
Here are the videos, once again in YouTube playlist format.
As a final note, I received a message suggesting I try the color experiment again using a black background instead of white. I plan on doing this experiment tonight. I purchased a black flat sheet from Walmart for $2.96 and I'll set up a similar experiment for colors. As is normal, I will record the experiment.
Thanks for stopping by!
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 27 2007 - Color and Sound Testing/Experiments
Quite a lot of video in this update. It started with a post at Pleoworld.com's forum where someone asked what stimuli Pleo responds/reacts to. I replied with a post stating that, based on my documented experience with my own Pleo, they respond best to touch, then orientation (upside-down, etc...), then sound, then sight. There were a few replies after mine where others stated that their Pleos responded very well to colors (specifically red, blue and green) and sounds (following someone around when they call the Pleo's name).
I think Pleo SHOULD respond to these things and I was/am very eager to see my own Pleo, Narco, respond to colors and sounds like I've heard others report about. To that end, I set up an experiment in my living room last night and recorded my attempts to get Narco to react/respond to colors and sounds. What came of that is 35 videos of about 1 minute each.
All of the information you may want to know about the experiments is in my commentary audio within each video.
Here is a short summary:
1 - I printed some basic colors using a color laser printer on white paper, cut them out, and taped them to the white bottoms of some gift boxes.
2 - I lit the area with a halogen light (a photo studio light) and a 75Watt incandescent light, which were complemented by the two flourescent lights in the room.
3 - I set my camera on the floor so it would be stationary for the video.
My conclusion? Unfortunately, not favorable to the technical abilities of my Pleo to react/respond to color and/or sound.
If anyone has suggestions for other things to try, I'd be more than happy to try them and video them for documentation.
Here is the video in two playlists - one for the color testing and one for the sound testing.
For anyone following the skin wear of my Pleo, here is a picture for the 8th battery charge.
Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to comment!
I think Pleo SHOULD respond to these things and I was/am very eager to see my own Pleo, Narco, respond to colors and sounds like I've heard others report about. To that end, I set up an experiment in my living room last night and recorded my attempts to get Narco to react/respond to colors and sounds. What came of that is 35 videos of about 1 minute each.
All of the information you may want to know about the experiments is in my commentary audio within each video.
Here is a short summary:
1 - I printed some basic colors using a color laser printer on white paper, cut them out, and taped them to the white bottoms of some gift boxes.
2 - I lit the area with a halogen light (a photo studio light) and a 75Watt incandescent light, which were complemented by the two flourescent lights in the room.
3 - I set my camera on the floor so it would be stationary for the video.
My conclusion? Unfortunately, not favorable to the technical abilities of my Pleo to react/respond to color and/or sound.
If anyone has suggestions for other things to try, I'd be more than happy to try them and video them for documentation.
Here is the video in two playlists - one for the color testing and one for the sound testing.
For anyone following the skin wear of my Pleo, here is a picture for the 8th battery charge.
Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to comment!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 26 2007 - A 5yr old experiences Narco and my first "Autonomous Pleo" experiment
Today I finally let my 5yr old daughter see and play with Narco for his 6th battery charge. My 2yr old daughter was napping and still hasn't seen the Pleo yet (she's way too crazy for this little guy).
The 5yr old loves animals and is, in general, very timid. You can see in the videos that she's both excited and hesitant with Narco. Overall, she's a big fan of Pleo. You can see in the videos, however, that's she's an even bigger fan of the kid's digital camera she got for Christmas yesterday!
Here are the five videos from today, in YouTube playlist form again.
While I typed this entry, Narco finished up his 7th battery charge. Tonight's experiment was to power Narco on in the middle of the living room floor and let him explore with no physical interaction (sound alone), touching him only to wake him up.
The results? Disappointing, unfortunately.
Narco ran for 75 minutes and fell asleep 13 times - 14 if you count when the battery died. It really did seem like every 5 1/2 to 6 minutes I had to go nudge him to wake him up. We talked to him regularly and even yelled at him when he was looking sleepy. The only thing that worked was nudging his back after he dozed off.
Exploration? He spent about 60 minutes in one 3ft by 3ft area walking into a recliner and into a corner, sniffing,growling and barking at them each time. Only twice did he face out into the open room and then he would turn himself around and walk back into the corner again or growl at the wall.
He did a fair bit of grazing. He picked imaginary food off of the floor 8 times.
He had his normal short coughing fits 4 times.
It really started to get predictably repetitive when I'd see him turn to walk into the corner again... I knew he was going to say "huh?", raise his head and say "hrmmmm", then squat back and growl. He did that 4 times - each time the same actions.
He spent quite some time looking and talking to the side of a blank brown cardboard box.
First exploration experiment: not too much exploration, not at all exciting, barely interesting and, most of all, too predictable.
I definitely would have enjoyed myself more if I were on the floor playing with Narco, like the previous 5 battery charges. In this first "autonomous Pleo" experiment, I'd say the autonomous part failed to live up to expectations.
I still like the little green guy :)
The 5yr old loves animals and is, in general, very timid. You can see in the videos that she's both excited and hesitant with Narco. Overall, she's a big fan of Pleo. You can see in the videos, however, that's she's an even bigger fan of the kid's digital camera she got for Christmas yesterday!
Here are the five videos from today, in YouTube playlist form again.
While I typed this entry, Narco finished up his 7th battery charge. Tonight's experiment was to power Narco on in the middle of the living room floor and let him explore with no physical interaction (sound alone), touching him only to wake him up.
The results? Disappointing, unfortunately.
Narco ran for 75 minutes and fell asleep 13 times - 14 if you count when the battery died. It really did seem like every 5 1/2 to 6 minutes I had to go nudge him to wake him up. We talked to him regularly and even yelled at him when he was looking sleepy. The only thing that worked was nudging his back after he dozed off.
Exploration? He spent about 60 minutes in one 3ft by 3ft area walking into a recliner and into a corner, sniffing,growling and barking at them each time. Only twice did he face out into the open room and then he would turn himself around and walk back into the corner again or growl at the wall.
He did a fair bit of grazing. He picked imaginary food off of the floor 8 times.
He had his normal short coughing fits 4 times.
It really started to get predictably repetitive when I'd see him turn to walk into the corner again... I knew he was going to say "huh?", raise his head and say "hrmmmm", then squat back and growl. He did that 4 times - each time the same actions.
He spent quite some time looking and talking to the side of a blank brown cardboard box.
First exploration experiment: not too much exploration, not at all exciting, barely interesting and, most of all, too predictable.
I definitely would have enjoyed myself more if I were on the floor playing with Narco, like the previous 5 battery charges. In this first "autonomous Pleo" experiment, I'd say the autonomous part failed to live up to expectations.
I still like the little green guy :)
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 24 2007 - Presents, Trees, Stockings, and a Light-Up Pleo!
Several videos from last night (after Santa stopped by and dropped of some presents) where we let Narco check out several things.
We even made our own version of the "Holiday Pleo".
For experiments, we tried getting Narco to interact with a bright green ball and tried waking him up with sound alone. Although he seemed to "see" the green ball, he didn't make too much of an attempt to actually play with it. In one video he falls asleep and I try to wake him by noise alone, as I have read others posting about. He will NOT wake up by sound alone, unfortunaltey - only by nudging him.
Here are the videos in YouTube playlist form again.
Lastly, here is another photo of the paint wear on his back after 4 battery charges. I will keep this photo series going so other owners and potential owners can get a good idea of what to expect. Personally, I like the whole "wear pattern" idea and I think Narco looks great!
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!
We even made our own version of the "Holiday Pleo".
For experiments, we tried getting Narco to interact with a bright green ball and tried waking him up with sound alone. Although he seemed to "see" the green ball, he didn't make too much of an attempt to actually play with it. In one video he falls asleep and I try to wake him by noise alone, as I have read others posting about. He will NOT wake up by sound alone, unfortunaltey - only by nudging him.
Here are the videos in YouTube playlist form again.
Lastly, here is another photo of the paint wear on his back after 4 battery charges. I will keep this photo series going so other owners and potential owners can get a good idea of what to expect. Personally, I like the whole "wear pattern" idea and I think Narco looks great!
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 23 2007 - Mirror, SpyCam
A bunch of video from the 4th battery charge for Narco.
This time I mounted an old mini-camera (spycam) to his head to get an idea of what Pleo can see with his camera. The quality isn't the best, mainly because the video is fed to my TV and I recorded that using my camera. That means it's a video of a TV playing a video, which is never great quality.
We also try the mirror again to see how Narco will react. The reaction(s) is generally the same as reacting to anything else, but Narco did make more gentle noises at one point while looking at himself in the mirror.
We also show how to tickle a Pleo :)
Lastly, I'm trying out a playlist in YouTube, which has all 14 videos from Dec 23 as one link. Try it out and let me know what you think. I figured it would be better than 14 video links in one Plog entry. Each video has a descriptive title and the commentary from my wife and I should help explain anything you want to know. Ask any questions you like, of course.
Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
This time I mounted an old mini-camera (spycam) to his head to get an idea of what Pleo can see with his camera. The quality isn't the best, mainly because the video is fed to my TV and I recorded that using my camera. That means it's a video of a TV playing a video, which is never great quality.
We also try the mirror again to see how Narco will react. The reaction(s) is generally the same as reacting to anything else, but Narco did make more gentle noises at one point while looking at himself in the mirror.
We also show how to tickle a Pleo :)
Lastly, I'm trying out a playlist in YouTube, which has all 14 videos from Dec 23 as one link. Try it out and let me know what you think. I figured it would be better than 14 video links in one Plog entry. Each video has a descriptive title and the commentary from my wife and I should help explain anything you want to know. Ask any questions you like, of course.
Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
The Chronicles of Narco - Dec 22 2007 - Follow a Line?
So my Pleo came out for his third battery charge last night. My wife and I played and interacted with him for a while and I remembered a post I had read on the forum about someone's Pleo following a line on the floor.
I decided to grab an orange ribbon and stretch it on the floor to see what Pleo would do. On the first attempt (not recorded) he seemed to walk up to the ribbon, examine it, then turn to walk along it. It looked like it was true that Pleo would perform this behavior, so I grabbed my camera and took a few videos of further attempts.
If your volume is up you will hear myself and my wife commenting on the behavior and talking to my Pleo.
Attempt 1, Pleo (or, as we call him, Narco) made for the ribbon and apparently followed it. Narco seems to follow the ribbon but gets distracted by a plastic silver ornament.
Attempt 2, Narco seems to follow the ribbon again, but this time he apparently examines the ribbon several times. It also looks like he stops when he sees our cat's (Alex) tail on the ribbon. Maybe because it looks like the line stops?
Attempt 3, Narco starts at more of an angle to the ribbon and pretty much completely ignores it.
Attempt 4, Narco again ignores the ribbon.
Attempt 5, Narco ignores the ribbon at first, then appears to follow the ribbon, but it may just be a very wide right turn.
We'll try more interaction and experiments tonight. I plan on taking the mirror out again and see if Narco can mute himself again.
P.S.-> Special thanks to ugobeSarah's "narcolepsy" post, which led to naming our Pleo "Narco"!
I decided to grab an orange ribbon and stretch it on the floor to see what Pleo would do. On the first attempt (not recorded) he seemed to walk up to the ribbon, examine it, then turn to walk along it. It looked like it was true that Pleo would perform this behavior, so I grabbed my camera and took a few videos of further attempts.
If your volume is up you will hear myself and my wife commenting on the behavior and talking to my Pleo.
Attempt 1, Pleo (or, as we call him, Narco) made for the ribbon and apparently followed it. Narco seems to follow the ribbon but gets distracted by a plastic silver ornament.
Attempt 2, Narco seems to follow the ribbon again, but this time he apparently examines the ribbon several times. It also looks like he stops when he sees our cat's (Alex) tail on the ribbon. Maybe because it looks like the line stops?
Attempt 3, Narco starts at more of an angle to the ribbon and pretty much completely ignores it.
Attempt 4, Narco again ignores the ribbon.
Attempt 5, Narco ignores the ribbon at first, then appears to follow the ribbon, but it may just be a very wide right turn.
We'll try more interaction and experiments tonight. I plan on taking the mirror out again and see if Narco can mute himself again.
P.S.-> Special thanks to ugobeSarah's "narcolepsy" post, which led to naming our Pleo "Narco"!
Second Post - Dec 22 2007
Please note that the following post was originally on the forum at PleoWorld.com. I simply copied and pasted it here.
I had a follow-up post to my original:
One other thing occurred to me a little while ago - while in the "suprise mode" Pleo's tail spends quite a bit of time up and in motion. I decided to boot Pleo up to that mode and see if there was any difference.
For the most part my Pleo's tail still stays curled down and even gets stuck on the surface (it's my basement freezer). However, during one specific part of the mode his tail does indeed go up as it's supposed to. Check out the video and see what I'm talking about. This makes it pretty obvious that my Pleo isn't 'physically broken', but there's definitely something wrong since Pleo should have different tail behavior in that mode.
For those who do NOT want to see the suprise mode Pleo, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LINK!
Thanks again, and I hope to hear something soon. I do realize that it may be Wed. next week or even the week after (due to Christmas and vacations.
I had a follow-up post to my original:
One other thing occurred to me a little while ago - while in the "suprise mode" Pleo's tail spends quite a bit of time up and in motion. I decided to boot Pleo up to that mode and see if there was any difference.
For the most part my Pleo's tail still stays curled down and even gets stuck on the surface (it's my basement freezer). However, during one specific part of the mode his tail does indeed go up as it's supposed to. Check out the video and see what I'm talking about. This makes it pretty obvious that my Pleo isn't 'physically broken', but there's definitely something wrong since Pleo should have different tail behavior in that mode.
For those who do NOT want to see the suprise mode Pleo, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LINK!
Thanks again, and I hope to hear something soon. I do realize that it may be Wed. next week or even the week after (due to Christmas and vacations.
First Post - Dec 22 2007
Please note that this post is copied and pasted from my original post/Plog at PleoWorld.com.
I posted in the forum earlier today - here is a copy of the post:
Hello folks,
I've had my Pleo for about a week and have run through 2 battery charges with it. I have shared Pleo with my wife, so he has had only adult supervision. Although I have children (2 and 5), we don't let them play with anything that we haven't tested first. I have the following observations and issues at this point.
1 - My Pleo acts very much like a puppy/dog. It pants, wags it's tail, sniffs the ground, etc... Is this something that everyone's Pleo does, or did I just get a special "doggy-Pleo"?
2 - The first battery charge (hatching) went well and both me and my wife really enjoyed watching and interacting with Pleo for that first hour. We pet him, cuddled him, watched him walk around, etc...
3 - The second charge with the battery (last night), I turned Pleo on and his nose went to the floor and just stayed there while he moved his head left and right dragging his nose/mouth on the carpet. I let it go for about a minute or two then turned Pleo off and back on. This seemed to fix it and he raised his head, then acted normal.
4 - I had read a post or two asking and wondering how Pleo would react to a mirror so I decided to grab one of my kids' toy mirrors and put it in front of Pleo. He seemed to just watch himself for a little while, not doing much of anything but moving his head a little this way and that. That lasted about 3 minutes or so, then he backed away from the mirror and started to walk around a little. It was then that my wife noticed that Pleo hadn't made a noise since he started looking at himself in the mirror. We pet him and picked him up, but still no noises. I turned Pleo off and back on, then his noises started again and he seemed fine. Did he mute himself by looking in the mirror?
5 - After we got Pleo making his noises again, my wife gave him his leaf and he happily took it and raised his head to look just about straight up. He turned his head left and right, playing with and chewing on the leaf. He started making a gagging sound so I took the leaf out of his mouth. Although he stopped gagging, he wouldn't put his head back down. He just kept staring at the ceiling and moving his head left and right. After a couple minutes of this, I decided to turn Pleo off and back on again. This seemed to fix the head issue once more ( [3] above was similar with his head down instead of up.).
6 - Shortly after rebooting Pleo for the third time in about 20 minutes, his tail curled down and wouldn't go back up again. He wagged it back and forth, but would not raise his tail at all. I tried turning Pleo off and on a couple times, but no luck. We played with him for another 20 minutes or so until his battery was just about done.
7 - The last thing I did before putting the battery back on the charger was to turn Pleo off and back on again. This time, after his normal initial "huh?" sound, he curled up with his eyes closed and made a new sound like "woowoowoowoowoo" over and over again until I nudged him (is this one of his "sleeping" sounds?). His tail stayed in the curled down position.
8 - After letting the battery charge all night, I decided to grab my camera and take a movie of the tail problem. During the second half of the video, Pleo decides that he just wants to sleep, regardless of the fact that I keep nudging him and petting him. ...and his tail moved to being just about straight out, for a second or two, twice during the video, but it still stays in the curled down position.
9 - I also took a look this morning and the white paint from his teeth is indeed flaking off, as others have posted. I actually made a conscious effort to measure the amount of time anything was in my Pleo's mouth so I could get an idea of how long the paint would last. My wife had her finger in Pleo's mouth for a total of 12 seconds, and Pleo's leaf has spent a total of 4 minutes and 52 seconds in his mouth. That means that the paint will begin flaking within 5 minutes of contact. That's a lot faster than I expected.
UGOBE, please take a look at the video / pictures and let me know if you have any suggestions for the tail issue, plus any other suggestions for the other things in this post.
Here is the video
Here are pictures of the skin wear and the teeth paint wear. The picture of the skin wear is for reference only, as I believe UGOBE has adequately informed the user community of this paint wear.The pictures of the teeth paint wear are to make sure UGOBE sees the issue first hand and will hopefully address it, if not resolve it.
Pleo will come out for his third session tonight, after the kids are in bed. I will post here if there are any significant changes.I haven't seen any other posts about neck/tail issues like this, so maybe I just got a buggy Pleo? It would fit my luck pattern.
I posted in the forum earlier today - here is a copy of the post:
Hello folks,
I've had my Pleo for about a week and have run through 2 battery charges with it. I have shared Pleo with my wife, so he has had only adult supervision. Although I have children (2 and 5), we don't let them play with anything that we haven't tested first. I have the following observations and issues at this point.
1 - My Pleo acts very much like a puppy/dog. It pants, wags it's tail, sniffs the ground, etc... Is this something that everyone's Pleo does, or did I just get a special "doggy-Pleo"?
2 - The first battery charge (hatching) went well and both me and my wife really enjoyed watching and interacting with Pleo for that first hour. We pet him, cuddled him, watched him walk around, etc...
3 - The second charge with the battery (last night), I turned Pleo on and his nose went to the floor and just stayed there while he moved his head left and right dragging his nose/mouth on the carpet. I let it go for about a minute or two then turned Pleo off and back on. This seemed to fix it and he raised his head, then acted normal.
4 - I had read a post or two asking and wondering how Pleo would react to a mirror so I decided to grab one of my kids' toy mirrors and put it in front of Pleo. He seemed to just watch himself for a little while, not doing much of anything but moving his head a little this way and that. That lasted about 3 minutes or so, then he backed away from the mirror and started to walk around a little. It was then that my wife noticed that Pleo hadn't made a noise since he started looking at himself in the mirror. We pet him and picked him up, but still no noises. I turned Pleo off and back on, then his noises started again and he seemed fine. Did he mute himself by looking in the mirror?
5 - After we got Pleo making his noises again, my wife gave him his leaf and he happily took it and raised his head to look just about straight up. He turned his head left and right, playing with and chewing on the leaf. He started making a gagging sound so I took the leaf out of his mouth. Although he stopped gagging, he wouldn't put his head back down. He just kept staring at the ceiling and moving his head left and right. After a couple minutes of this, I decided to turn Pleo off and back on again. This seemed to fix the head issue once more ( [3] above was similar with his head down instead of up.).
6 - Shortly after rebooting Pleo for the third time in about 20 minutes, his tail curled down and wouldn't go back up again. He wagged it back and forth, but would not raise his tail at all. I tried turning Pleo off and on a couple times, but no luck. We played with him for another 20 minutes or so until his battery was just about done.
7 - The last thing I did before putting the battery back on the charger was to turn Pleo off and back on again. This time, after his normal initial "huh?" sound, he curled up with his eyes closed and made a new sound like "woowoowoowoowoo" over and over again until I nudged him (is this one of his "sleeping" sounds?). His tail stayed in the curled down position.
8 - After letting the battery charge all night, I decided to grab my camera and take a movie of the tail problem. During the second half of the video, Pleo decides that he just wants to sleep, regardless of the fact that I keep nudging him and petting him. ...and his tail moved to being just about straight out, for a second or two, twice during the video, but it still stays in the curled down position.
9 - I also took a look this morning and the white paint from his teeth is indeed flaking off, as others have posted. I actually made a conscious effort to measure the amount of time anything was in my Pleo's mouth so I could get an idea of how long the paint would last. My wife had her finger in Pleo's mouth for a total of 12 seconds, and Pleo's leaf has spent a total of 4 minutes and 52 seconds in his mouth. That means that the paint will begin flaking within 5 minutes of contact. That's a lot faster than I expected.
UGOBE, please take a look at the video / pictures and let me know if you have any suggestions for the tail issue, plus any other suggestions for the other things in this post.
Here is the video
Here are pictures of the skin wear and the teeth paint wear. The picture of the skin wear is for reference only, as I believe UGOBE has adequately informed the user community of this paint wear.The pictures of the teeth paint wear are to make sure UGOBE sees the issue first hand and will hopefully address it, if not resolve it.
Pleo will come out for his third session tonight, after the kids are in bed. I will post here if there are any significant changes.I haven't seen any other posts about neck/tail issues like this, so maybe I just got a buggy Pleo? It would fit my luck pattern.
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