Self charging Pleo

[Xasher]

I think for my first project I would like to get Pleo to beable to self charge. I imagine a pad with a power and ground plate on it and pleo with a ground and power pad on his feet hooked to the batter would work. A quick charger could be attached to the pad (+, and -) and when Pleo stepped on the pad one foot would make contact to ground the other to power and it would charge the battery.

Does Pleo have a sensor that senses the power level of the battery? If so will you be releasing the program code to allow us to access it ? I figure he could monitor his battery power and switch into a search mode when his battery was low, and he could leave the pad when his battery was completely charged.
I know you have power converters that kick the power down to 5volts more then likely. What are the voltage limits on your voltage regulators and your capacitors ? I was thinking I could put a larger battery into Pleo, with a higher MAH but I wouldn't want to fry Pleo in the process.
Pleos IR sensors would probably be the easiest method to get Pleo to find where the pad is. What are the frequencies your IR sensors are utilizing ? Also again will you be releasing the program code that will allow us to reprogram Pleo to respond to incoming IR signals ? I figure I could write a search code which makes pleo look for the IR signal and once he finds it to walk towards it until he is on the pad.

I also would like to know if your going to release all of the flashed program currently running inside the default Pleo ? If you release that code it would allow us to put the entire program onto our SD memory cards and add and alter it on the card rather then having to reprogram the internal IC chip. Will Pleo run off the SD memory card if the main program existed on it ?

Thanks for the responses.

[denodan]

Don't use a quick charger as these cut the life of the battery.

[PleoPet]

Selective comments (based on my own research, please keep asking UGOBE for more technical info):
Also once the PDK is released, you can do some experimenting on your own.

> Does Pleo have a sensor that senses the power level of the battery?
Yes, that's the easy part. Also a temperature sensor to know if it is getting too hot.

> ...I was thinking I could put a larger battery into Pleo, with a higher MAH but I wouldn't want to fry Pleo in the process.
That's a concern, but for the charger voltage (the battery capacity shouldn't matter). That would require more information on the power logic of the Pleo. The older design of charging the battery inside Pleo was rejected for the first version for good reasons.
You could always build a completely separate power system (electrically/electronically disconnect the battery from Pleo electronics to charge, then reboot when the battery is full and cool)

> Pleos IR sensors would probably be the easiest method to get Pleo to find where the pad is....
Also see discussions about iCybie, and ball detection http://forums.pleoworld.com/showthread.php?t=1481
BTW: The iCybie charging station uses a clever trick of 3 different IR emitters sending slightly different encoded signals. That make is easier for iCybie to center on the station before walking towards it (and constantly adjust the walking to keep on track). This greatly increases the chance of hitting the station.
IMHO: the walkup charger logic in iCybie is by far the most impressive part of that robot (faster and more reliable than the AIBO visual approach too)
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> Will Pleo run off the SD memory card if the main program existed on it ?
Yes. If you grab the PLEO.URF from the built-in personality (optionally tweek it) and store it on an SD card, that will run instead of the builtin personality http://www.aibohack.com/pleo/tech2.htm#GRAB

> I also would like to know if your going to release all of the flashed program currently running inside the default Pleo ?
For now you can grab the binary PLEO.URF for the default personality (approx 4MB of scripts, sounds and motions).
I'd like to see most of this released in some source form (hacking binary files is possible but not ideal). That's up to UGOBE.

[Xasher]

Because of the heat sensor, it seems Pleo would have a problem with charging his battery while inside him. What if Pleos battery was replaced by a Lipoly battery instead. Lipo batteries do not heat up when they are charged, are cheap, light weight and hold there charges longer then NIMHs. We would have to slow charge Pleos battery since quick charging LIpo batteries isn't possible (all that exploding and burning nastiness) but it seems it would be a pretty good alternative, as long as you took all the necessary precautions. There are Lipo chargers small enough to fit into the belly of Pleo, of course external charger on an auto charger would be smarter because somethimes the charger warms up when charging the battery.

[hardyfoster]

they are currently working on "wireless battery chargers". this would be great for Pleo, because he could be left on all the time and all he needs to do is get within the range of the charge. this would develop it's personality more realistically such as when I am goine to work.

I left Aibo on in this manner and it learned to entertain himself instead of being a sad robot. one time i went to play with it and it (in a funny way) said "not now, i'm playing".