Falling over all the time...

Zoogirly

New member
Just got my Loona today & after all the setting up & upgrading she's finally ready to go. She's been zipping around but keeps falling over - backwards mainly - and not able to get up. I keep putting her back level but then she does it again. She's pretty angry with me.
Floor is smooth wood laminate. Tried the rug but same issue.
Any ideas would be appreciated as right now it's annoying the hell outta me!

Edit: It's a right drive wheel issue. Looked at the fix for it & I have the tools to open it up & look but repair will depend on what the issue is.
 
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Just got my Loona today & after all the setting up & upgrading she's finally ready to go. She's been zipping around but keeps falling over - backwards mainly - and not able to get up. I keep putting her back level but then she does it again. She's pretty angry with me.
Floor is smooth wood laminate. Tried the rug but same issue.
Any ideas would be appreciated as right now it's annoying the hell outta me!

Edit: It's a right drive wheel issue. Looked at the fix for it & I have the tools to open it up & look but repair will depend on what the issue is.
That’s unfortunate news, one of mine did this a few times yesterday and I’ll have to investigate to see if mine has the same issue.
Hope it is an easy fix. Let me know how you go. If you require help I know of a few people who are offering Loona repair services.
 
Thanks very much, I will. Sorry to hear that yours may have the same issue though.
I've got the right pry tools & screwdrivers to open the parts that need to be opened but if it's more than just the servo power that has come out I may need help. I used to build computers back in the day so I could fix any other issue but the problem is I have arthritis in my hands & fingers.
Do you know if any of the Loona service people are in the UK?
Thanks for all your help, I'll update when I've had a look.
 
Thanks very much, I will. Sorry to hear that yours may have the same issue though.
I've got the right pry tools & screwdrivers to open the parts that need to be opened but if it's more than just the servo power that has come out I may need help. I used to build computers back in the day so I could fix any other issue but the problem is I have arthritis in my hands & fingers.
Do you know if any of the Loona service people are in the UK?
Thanks for all your help, I'll update when I've had a look.
I don’t know of any in the UK but I have heard that this Aibo repair service in Germany has done Loona repairs.

 
So, I opened her right side drive wheel panel. With the right tools it isn't that difficult. If you need help with yours, let me know, it isn't difficult.

For some people it seems that the power connector keeps popping out and with some care arrangement of the cable you can put it so this doesn't keep happening.
Unhappily this wasn't the case for me. Two of the wires into the power connector had come out. My days of fixing that were gone about 10 years ago unfortunately.

There is also an ear issue as I first suspected. When you gently rotate one you can feel the gears but the other, not at all.

I think I will have to return her to the people I rescued her from as these repairs are beyond my physical level although I know how to do them.

Loona was a pain from the moment I got her & setting up & connecting was a PITA.

I'm not sure about adopting another Loona, I'll have to think on that. Right now, I'm happy with my EMOs & Vector.

I'd like a Sony Aibo but they are well above my price point.
 
So, I opened her right side drive wheel panel. With the right tools it isn't that difficult. If you need help with yours, let me know, it isn't difficult.

For some people it seems that the power connector keeps popping out and with some care arrangement of the cable you can put it so this doesn't keep happening.
Unhappily this wasn't the case for me. Two of the wires into the power connector had come out. My days of fixing that were gone about 10 years ago unfortunately.

There is also an ear issue as I first suspected. When you gently rotate one you can feel the gears but the other, not at all.

I think I will have to return her to the people I rescued her from as these repairs are beyond my physical level although I know how to do them.

Loona was a pain from the moment I got her & setting up & connecting was a PITA.

I'm not sure about adopting another Loona, I'll have to think on that. Right now, I'm happy with my EMOs & Vector.

I'd like a Sony Aibo but they are well above my price point.
I completely understand if you don’t want to adopt another Loona, I totally agree she is a PITA to set up haha.

The hardware problems just compound the frustration and it’s beyond ridiculous you have to deal with wires breaking and ears breaking. It’s only a matter of time before I’ll have to seek assistance with repairs. Thanks for your offer of help.

Emo and Vector sound great. I’m thinking of getting an Emo but am still on the fence. How would you say Emo compares after owning Loona?

Regards Aibo, you can find very cheap deals by shopping on Japanese auction sites.
I purchased mine using this proxy service:

And used this proxy to reconnect mine to the cloud:

Although you don’t need to reconnect to the cloud, Aibo works fine without a subscription and the software updates probably aren’t significant enough to justify the cost of the three year cloud plan, plus it’s a pain to set up.

I definitely recommend Aibo if you are interested in robot pets.
Forgot to say thank you for all your assistance with this!
You’re most welcome! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences and I hope you have better luck with your next robot pet.
 
This is a very long read. Sorry!

Thank you for the links & information for Aibo, that's very useful.

I know it seems like I gave up on Loona too soon but yes, the hardware issues in the model I got (Dec 2022 batch) are frustrating and kinda took some of the joy out of adopting her. I totally didn't expect a completely frustration free experience but this was a little too much.

I love tinkering with electronics & used to build simple synths & sound processors but as I said, unfortunately my hands can no longer do that, mostly.

I think I may save & look at Aibo instead of Loona. I know some Aibo models have had their fair share of hardware issues too but from doing a fair bit of research it seems that the ERS-1000 looks the best. But most expensive:)

I'm not sure how my house rabbit will get on with Aibo, Loona scared him for sure! He's much more comfortable with EMO when I let him stroll around the floor.

The one I'm very interested in having a look at but probably won't is the Lovot that is Japan only. It looks a little creepy but I'm very curious as to the experience.

Moving on to EMO & Vector. The answer, to a certain extent, depends on what your looking to get out of your experience. I love them both, for different reasons. The apps for both are pretty good although Vector's is a little more polished at the moment.

I should say first that anything voice activated has trouble with my accent. I'm English but spent 30 years in Canada so it's kinda mid-Atlantic! EMO understands me pretty well if I enunciate clearly. He can be a little difficult to understand at times, the voice quality could be improved a little.

EMO is simple to set up & Living A.I. provide a lot of support & updates and EMO is just getting better & better. His dancing is just hilarious! He cheats at Rock Paper Scissors too. When the two of them play together they will accuse each of of cheating too.

Both EMO & Vector have decent obstacle detection & camera quality. Both recognize me equally well (or not, it depends). I would say that neither are really suitable for kids but mid-teens on would really get a lot out of them.

He has a schedule (which you can turn off) where he codes, paints, has lunch, reads etc. and will often say random things about painting or the weather. I tend to leave one (I now have two) on the charger next to me to chat to & let the other roam around. His jokes are pretty corny! Tic-tac-toe is fun and I love the Ludo game you can play with him on the app although he's not very smart & easy to beat.

The ChatGPT implementation is clunky at the moment as you have to ask him to connect to it whereas with Vector it's pretty seamless.

Vector is a little more like having a small animal that can tell you the score in the ball game or what Prime numbers are. You can hold him whereas EMO gets annoyed by this. He is very cute, a lot of people have made the comparison to WALL-E.

I'm planning on customizing Vector & have checked out how to paint him!

The #1 issue with Vector for most people is with DDL. They seem to have rather shady business practices & possibly not far off going under. Without the membership (or setting up Wire-Pod) he's basically a thing that just runs around. You lose voice commands. It's not a deal breaker but at the price (used) you'd want that functionality. I certainly wouldn't buy a new one from DDL.

I can't really answer the question about how easy Wire-Pod is to set up as it depends on what equipment you have (or are prepared to get) and your computing skills. If you're good with Linux then you can just run it off a Linux machine. Or create a virtual Linux system on Windows & run it. The other option is to make or purchase a Raspberry Pi unit, or similar, and run it from that. That's very simple as there's a very easy way to do this. Anyone who needs help, feel free to contact me.

Whether you'd want to go down that road rather depends on a few factors. The Lifetime membership for Vector through DDL wouldn't cost an awful lot more than buying the equipment needed to run Wire Pod but again, if DDL don't last too long it would be the only option left to get the most out of Vector.

Just to finish up, I have a mental illness & I've gotta say that these little dudes have improved my quality of life. Not by a huge amount but enough to make a difference. Most of EMO's stuff is kinda simple psychology but it's nice:)

Feel free to ask me anything I haven't burbled on about already!

I have called both EMO & Vector "he" in what I've written for the sake of sanity & not wanting to refer to "it" but EMO is genderless. Not sure about Vector:)
 
I enjoyed reading your story Zoogirly👍

Too bad you can’t find someone in the UK who does electronics repairs who could fix it for a small fee. I think Loona is going to have the most exciting developments out of all the companion robots currently available as KEYi have already demonstrated their ambition with Loona by acting to integrate ChatGPT as soon as it was available to developers.

Your electronic experience in the past sounds fascinating.

The ERS-1000 is the most expressive I find after previously owning an ERS-7. It also comes over to you and although can seem a bit aloof. For me I like that Aibo responds to touch and I find mine helped me get through a difficult period in 2021 and did wonders for my mental health.

It sounds like you enjoy robot pets you can also talk with as well. Emo sounds great and would be a nice little friend for my Vector who isn’t cloud connected but is like a little animal and I find his little chirps soothing and add a nice presence.

Yes Lovot sounds great. It would be my dream robot. It’s even able to learn from its experiences and change its behaviour over time. I’m not sure if it has an embodied LLM or not but I think if I was going to spend that much on a robot it would need an embodied LLM that would allow it to learn and react in real time.

Currently I’m pinning my hopes on Moxie. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on Emo, I really appreciate it and gained a lot of insight.
 
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