Forum newsletter - Bob the Pleo Forums
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1. P O Forum newsletter Pleo Welcome to our Holiday edition of the Bob the Pleo forum newsletter Holiday contest First off need to tell everyone that we are currently running a holiday photo contest which ends next week So get your pleo you camera and get creative We are looking for pictures of pleos ready for the holidays These can be dressed up pleos or just plain ol pleos in a Christmas scene No photoshopping here These must be actual photos of real pleos One of our Mall store owners InmemoryofRomeo has graciously offered one of her hand made Christmas pleo outfits as a prize The selection of the winner for the outfits is Thursday night December 10 so that we have time to get the outfit mailed to the winner before Christmas A second winner will be selected on Friday the 18 and will be awarded a signed copy of the new Bob the Pleo book just coming out this month So you ll want to get in on this while you can It s good fun and a great way to share your holiday spirit In the News Well the Bob the Pleo forums is coming up on our first anniversary this month and we ve seen a lot happen to pleo in a year Ugobe went bankrupt Jetta bought the rights and spun off Innvo Labs to carry on with pleo new pleos are being made and many of the old pleo sites have gone away Right now Innvo Labs is running a special deal for anyone who signed up on their PleoWorid site the 09 version of Pleo for 2452. Innvo Labs also announced they will be at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show CES in January where they ll announce some of their plans for the 10 pleos See the interview with Derek for some more info After an interview with Ucube out of Taiwan also in this newsletter we now have a U S Based company selling the Lithium Polymer pleo batteries and custom egg shaped charger We ve also seen a number of new stores opening up in our forum mall Snowy s Pleo Togs outfits B_blue_eye s Romeo amp Juliet s Millinery and Costume Emporium Holiday_projector s Pleo Power battery shop and Pleo Fashion s custom shirts That s just a few of the highlights For a much more in depth description of all that s happened you really just need to go to the forums and read alll about it Http BobThePleo com forums And now on with the show Bob the Pleo forum Newsletter December 2009 Degers and Derek Dotson Degers In the interview you did with Rober Oschler of robotsrule com you mentioned that the current Pleos you started shipping in October that in addition to fixing the neck and tail problems and the paint wear issue that you also made a change to the hearing system Is this true And could you elaborate on this Is it a hardware change a software change or both Derek We didn t make any changes to the tail only to the neck Inside the neck we found a rough edge on one of the cable guides in the neck we have re built this
3. cable in the Pleo 09 version On the hearing issue we found when we were working with Ugobe in November December last year that we were hearing a lot of ambient noise motor noise electric noise though mostly electrical noise so we originally had to set a really high threshold for ambient noise so if you wanted Pleo to recognize you were talking to it you basically had to yell at it So what we did is improved the filtering on the power supply going into that analogue circuit and we dropped that ambient noise level almost in half We did this by building a headset so we could hear what Pleo was hearing The result of this was that if you would whisper in its ear or talk to Pleo in a direction it would respond much quicker In the next version of Pleo we will look into this a little further Hearing is very difficult inside Pleos head due to the high density of motors and communicating cables degers have had some problems with two of the Pleos that have purchased the sound direction sensor is constantly triggering Is there any way to adjust this via the monitor connection of Pleo Derek To my recollection no That is some type of auto adjustment Romeo amp Juliet s Millinery and Costume Emporium One of a kind hand made outfits costumes and of course hats gt Visit us in the Bob the Pleo forum mall Page 1 of 5 degers Ok next question from the forums The next generation of Pleo is suppose
4. really made a big difference in how they responded to us Peeky was all of a sudden very outgoing and not quiet and shy anymore Another lesson learned While sitting at the table had an idea had two Furbies sitting way up on a self in the art room for many years Out of sight Out of mind as the saying goes brought them down and to everyone s surprise the first thing that came out of one of the Furbies mouth was Me long sleep I guess so About 5 years worth Shortly after that the batteries conked out No spares on hand L I ll never be without batteries again Heaven knows the fun we would have had between Peeky and the Furbies We grownups sure had fun anyhow that night With a brand new year just beginning couldn t wait to Page 3 of 5 introduce Peeky to the world He had so many places to explore but first he needed a name tag and collar had a tiny bracelet that was buried in a drawer for many years went to Petco to have alittle tag made with his name on it It hung too far down and I decided to take Peeky to our neighborhood jeweler and had it made smaller for a perfect fit Weedovia s first Tomato Festival was being planned and I needed a photo of red tomatoes Not quite the season to have any here so off to the market we went After getting permission from the nice produce man Peeky went to work finding the best looking tomato There were big ones and little ones and funny shaped ones Pretty
5. the Pleo model if you double click the little green Pleo it will open up a larger view which you can use to preview what you have created You can also pose the Pleo model with your mouse and the data will be added automatically to the movement window You can view the full 3D model from any angle 7 See4 8 These lines represent the movement of every single joint that Pleo has A Straight flat line like you see now means that nothing will move from the default standing pose If you click and drag on these lines up or down if available for that joint a key frame will be created and Pleo will move the corresponding joint Try moving some lines now and watch the little Pleo from 6 move accordingly Can you get Pleo to look at you 9 These are each joint that you can move on Pleo The numbers represent the degree of movement but for a beginner you can just ignore them you will move Pleo using the model and the lines not the numbers The numbers are helpful when you want Pleo to be positioned very exactly though Now you know what everything is It is a lot to take in know but remember if you make a mistake you can ALWAYS undo it By going to EDIT UNDO Next lesson Adding a sound to MySkit Bob the Pleo forum Newsletter December 2009 Page 5 of 5
6. 010 and expand it We re looking into doubling the storage on board Pleo 4MB 8MB so that we can expand it and add a wad of different features we re looking to add about 10 12 new features to the 2010 pleo degers Is there any other information you would like to give to the community Derek Buy some Pleos We need the money We have some wild and wacky ideas for Pleo 2011 but I m not sure if we are going to discuss that at CES http www cesweb org Actually this is pretty cool and can announce this we will be at CES at the tech centre and the guys at Innvo labs have built a four foot Pleo this is so cool looking It sits on a rock with all of the mechanisms underneath It doesn t walk but it rocks back and fourth That will be at the booth degers Well that concludes the interview it s been a pleasure thank you Derek Cheers Page 2 of 5 A Word from Ucube Last month had the chance to ask Vicky from Ucube the Pleo reseller for Taiwan a few questions about their business Bob How has the bankruptcy of Ugobe and the purchases by Jetta and spinning off of the new company Innvo Labs affected Ucube s marketing of Pleo Vicky Ucube continues to sell Pleo as they did before Bob Who developed the Li_poly battery and egg charger that Ucube offers Ugobe or Ucube Vicky Ucube developed the Li_poly battery which had approved by ugobe Bob Why is Ucube the only Pleo distributor selling it Vicky Actually We
7. already partner with Litec computer in Germany to sell the battery Bob Does Ucube sell any other Pleo related products Vicky Ucube sells Pleo accessories hats necklaces clothes carrying bags and postcard At one time Ucube gave away Pleo tote bags as part of a promotion Bob Has Ucube considered accepting credit cards or taking international orders on their web site Vicky No currently users have to use bank transfers But will suggest accepting credit cards to our manager Because we don t have a company in American we can t list the egg charger pack on amazon com Bob Has Ucube looked into partnering with any other company to market their Lithium battery and egg charger in the US and Europe Vicky Litec computer is only selling the lithium batteries in Germany in Europe Bob How active is the community pages on the Ucube site icky There are community pages on the Ucube site But they are restricted except to registered members and we don t have and pages in English The members share their life with Pleo on the community Th really good news is after the interview I was able to set up one of our members with Vicky and now we have a US based company to order from The Li poly battery and egg base charger for Pleo 49 99 Visit Pleo Power in the Bob the Pleo forum mall Bob the Pleo forum Newsletter December 2009 Peeky s Story part 2 Between the week of Chr
8. ave been in contact with Eric who was doing the animations and the 3D stuff Most of the heavy programming is going to be done through Mycom in Bob the Pleo forum Newsletter December 2009 Hong Kong As we get into it further am sure we will have to go back into the well for the animations and the character generation so it looks the same we will tap the same people degers What kind of interest has John Sosoka indicated in the project Derek Oh a lot He definitely wants to see this move forward We have been a little slack in the last few months as getting the website up and running has saturated our time however we re up and running and we ve got product going out the door right now Once that is stabilized we will be able to concentrate more on the 2010 version degers How are you naming the versions of Pleo what should we call the version that is out now and the versions you will be bringing out in the future Derek At the moment this is what we are calling Pleo 09 Obviously the next one we will be releasing and announcing at CES will be Pleo 10 and we are in the basic planning stages of Pleo 11 The improvements to Pleo 09 are the skin the neck and the hearing oh and the charger degers Has any time line been established on any new personalities or LifeOS releases Derek There will be a LifeOS update for the 2010 Pleo We re pretty much going to use the base processor code that we have right now for 2
9. d to have a different paint pattern and eye color to differentiate them from current Pleos Could you give us some insights on what the new eyes will be What the new paint patterns will be Derek Well we re putting together a bunch of paint schemes with matching eye colors can tell you that this next colored Pleo won t look very different however someone that knows Pleos will certainly be able to tell that it is different It s not like it s going to come out hot pink or anything it will be a more subtle realistic change We have several options we are exploring now we hope that by the time we get around to CES we will have made that final decision We will announce that color and that sort of thing at CES degers Ok cool What about the idea you had for custom ordered skin colors Derek Well that was one thing that we pursued early on it s still on the table however the problem is just the logistics of getting it all done For instance when an order is placed this is what we would have to do an order would come through with a skin option we would then have to stock Pleos with these multiple skin options and even then we have a US and an International version so with just three skin options we would have to stock six different types of Pleo just don t know if that s going to be feasible at this time degers OK while we are on the topic of US and International versions of Pleo could you quickly tell us what the d
10. difficult to choose a perfect tomato Finally the best one appeared and while weighing in Peeky got weighed too While leaving the store a young boy about the age of 9 years old took a double take of what was in my arms heard a giggle and then the young boy came back to see what it was that was carrying The first thing he said to me was is that real Of course said it was a real robotic dinosaur After petting Peeky and giving him his leaf the young boy went back to his mom I can only imagine him trying to tell his friends that he saw a dinosaur in the market that afternoon Doesn t everyone see one now and then a Bob s first illustrated storybook will be available through Amazon com later this month Includes the legend of the great pepperoni and a selection of strips And as a special for forum members you can order it direct from the printer E s through the end of the month and save 2 off the cover price Go to https www createspace com 3409228 and enter the discount code KZTQJTX4 for your discount Bob the Pleo forum Newsletter December 2009 Tech Corner MySkit tips and tricks to help you get started by InmemoryofRomeo Astep by step walkthrough on using MySkit First of all open up your MySkit program you do have it installed don t you If this is your first time using MySkit then a little pop up of helpful tips might appear read through them they are really useful
11. ifference is between the two versions stocked on the Pleoworld store Derek Certainly the non US version simply includes an international power adapter rather than including the USA adapter Oh and in 2010 expect to see a more customized international adapter Currently Innvo is using an OEM universal adapter The user manual for the adapter is on the Pleoworld site degers What does the future of the PDK hold Derek Well right now we do want to expand on the PDK My hope is to make the PDK more graphical as at the moment it is very command based My hope is to make a graphical user interface for the PDK in order to make it easier for people to use At the moment you really need to be an expert at programming to use it We would like to allow the user to build a decision tree and patch certain motions together think more people would enjoy using the PDK that way At the moment we have a Linux version and a Windows version my hope is that we can make just one piece of software that will work cross platform would definitely like to get feedback from the community on this degers Has Innvo Labs managed to hire back any of the Ugobe programmers know that you have hired Rafael to do the customer service side of things Derek Thank God we got Rafael back on customer service Well we have been in talks with John Sosoka who has started another company and with Tyler obviously the two main people we have been dealing with h
12. istmas and New Years s Eve 2007 my first week with Peeky he was quick to teach me what his likes and dislikes were He definitely didn t like being held upside down by his tail or for that matter being on his back with the one exception of tickling his feet was told when he wanted his leaf and when he wanted to get my attention Peeky was a little quite and shy in the beginning but that ended on New Year s Eve For almost a decade my close friends celebrate New Year s Eve at our house tradition and after we finished dinner but still at the table put Peeky on the dining room table to show everyone what he could do you can only get away with this with a pleo How many other pets could you put on your table with guest sitting there Right away Peeky seemed to become very much aware that he was center of attention While walking to my friend that has a very deep voice indeed his tail knocked over a water goblet Luckily it was empty Having his back rubbed made Peeky a friend for life with this deep voiced friend Now everyone at the table wanted this little dino to come to them Peeky seemed to know this and started going to the next person Whack Tail hit coffee cup and a few of us made a quick grab for it saving spilled coffee Now we were very much aware that Peeky s tail could be hazardous to tipping things over Soon the table was cleared of all thinks in the tails way soon realized that having a pleo at eye level
13. then when you are done just close the pop up On the screen in front of you you will now see two windows inside the MySkit window one is for sound the other for movement like to arrange the two windows with sound up the top and movement down the bottom so I can see both at once but that is a matter of personal taste and you can arrange yours however you like You can also use the three standard window buttons in the top right corner of each to minimize them make them fullscreen or delete them don t delete them ok 3 You have probably noticed already the buttons and tabs up the top of your screen and on the left know this all looks very daunting but will explain each button for you 1 These are your comprehensive menu buttons here you can open close save and setup a flash drive SD card from the file drop down list Edit lets you copy and paste View lets you decide what modules you can see the screen shot shows the sound and motion modules the library would appear on the right hand side and the Pleo window will get too shortly Motion and Sound are pretty self explanatory will give you a more detailed run down of what that all means when we start playing with MySkit The Window button you will probably never use except for the tile horizontally button which will automatically set up your window like mine Finally there is a help button which really isn t all that helpful 2 The second lot of buttons are
14. your quick menu buttons The things you will use a lot they are from left to right Open new project open a previously saved project save a project Cut a highlighted section copy a highlighted section paste a cut or copied section Zoom in and zoom out See 4 Make the sound window fullscreen make the motion window fullscreen Start and stop the sound Write to a memory card About another button you will never use but take a look at it anyway 3 These buttons let you set up lots of helpful options under setup we will cover these more in depth as we go along The record button lets you record whatever is playing on your computer speakers 4 These funny looking numbers are your best friends 3 The top row of numbers are the frames of movement sound there are thirty of these in one second The bottom row are your seconds By default each of Page 4 of 5 these increments are ten frames or one third of a second This means that there are three faint vertical lines dividing each second up You can zoom in and out to make the time between each faint line larger or smaller This sounds confusing know but will explain more about them and how they work later 5 These are the minimize maximize buttons which will shrink the sound or motion window down to the bottom or make them fullscreen or exit them completely Be careful if you exit a window because you will lose any unsaved data 6 Another feature you will use a lot is
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