myPleo is a drastically simplified and updated version of the original Ugobe Pleo Developer’s Kit (the PDK) designed to let almost anyone write programs for their Pleo dinosaur.
Please note I have NO affiliation with Ugobe and I offer no warranty as to the quality or usefulness of myPleo for any particular application. The software offered here simply represents my personal attempt to simplify the PDK originally provided by Ugobe before they went out of business. myPleo is for use with original Ugobe Pleo’s, not the new Pleo rb. The current manufacturer Innovo Labs provides a PDK specifically for Pleo rb.
System Requirements
- A Ugobe Pleo running OS 1.1 or OS 2.0
- A Computer running Windows XP or Windows 7
- An SD card and a card reader (for transferring programs to the Pleo
- A text editing program such as the built-in Notepad in Windows
- Access to the Command Prompt window in Windows for building Applications into finished .urf files
No previous programming experience is necessary to develop your own software for Pleo. In the weeks and months ahead I will be posting new tutorials and additional materials so you can learn by doing. Now if you are ready to begin…
Step 1 – Installation
- Download the myPleo.zip* file to your Documents folder
- Unzip the contents
- Confirm that a myPleo folder has been created in Documents
- That’s it. You’re done with installation!
You may now delete the myPleo.zip file if you like or hold on to it for safe keeping
*Current version created 2/18/2014
Step 2 – a Brief Tour of myPleo
Let’s begin by taking a quick look at the contents of the myPleo folder so you can start getting your bearings.
From your Start menu, choose Documents
A new file explorer window will open and show you the contents of your Documents directory. The myPleo folder should be one of the items shown. (You did unzip the myPleo.zip file in the Documents directory in the installation steps above didn’t you? If not, move the myPleo folder there now.)
Double-click the myPleo folder to open it up. Inside you will find 3 more folders.
The bin folder contains the software components that take the scripts your write for your Pleo and convert them into runable code which you load onto an SD card. These components are know collectively as the Build Tools. You will be accessing these tools from a Command Prompt window later in this tutorial so for now you can completely ignore the bin folder. In fact there’s no need to open the bin folder at all during normal use.
Next is the Documentation folder. Double-click it to see its contents. Here you will find:
- myPleo Read Me First.pdf which is a copy of this tutorial file.
- Pawn in LifeOS 1.x.pdf which is Ugobe’s original introduction to programming for the Pleo.
- Pleo Programmers Guide.pdf which is Ugobe’s comprehensive guide to programming for the Pleo.
- PleoAPI.chm which is Ugobe’s reference guide to Pleo functions.
- Resources for Pleo Development which contains links to Pleo resources on the internet
Click the back button to return to the myPleo folder.
The final folder in myPleo is the myApps folder. This is where you will create new programs to be build and run on your Pleo. Double-click the myApps folder to see it’s contents.
[ describe _shared folder as having motions and sounds but not needing to really access the files directly, the first sample app 01_touch, and the blank 00_template app for making new apps. enter the 01_touch folder. explain the upf file and the sensors.p that where we will write our actual program. ]
Step 3 – Introduction to the Command Prompt
The actual process of building a Pleo application is done through the Windows Command Prompt window. Since using the Command Prompt can be a bit daunting for new programmers, let’s take a quick tour by using the Command Prompt to navigate to and view the same files we just looked at through the file explorer window.
From your Start menu, choose Command Prompt. If you don’t see it as a choice start typing “Command Prompt” into the Start menu’s search window and it will show up for you to click on. The Command Prompt will open showing you an empty window in which you can type system commands.
[explain prompt info, pwd, dir for list of files and folders, cd to move, ..\ to move back, have them navigate to the myApps/01_touch directory.]
Command Prompt Commands
- dir – print current directory
- cd – change directory (follow with directory name)
We start in our home directory. Your home name will be different (it’s typically your user name on the computer)
C:\Users\JohnDoe>
change to the Documents folder.
type cd Documents
do dir again and you’ll see all the folders in your home directory. Notice the myPleo folder we just unzipped.
type cd myPleo
typing dir now shows us the contents of the myPleo directory through the Command Prompt. You should see the same directories we saw using Windows:
bin – which contains the build tools that compile our Pleo programs
Documentation – which contains all the stuff you get to read to understand how to program your Pleo
myApps – which contains your actual programs. This is where you will do all of your actual work.
type cd myApps
type dir
Now you see a listing of the contents of the myApps directory. Lesson one is in the 01_touch directory. Enter that directory now with
cd 01_touch
Now that we’re there we can compile the 01_touch project by typing:
..\build.bat 01_touch
Let’s look at this command piece by piece. The first part is a path to a .bat file that resides one directory level ABOVE the one we’re currently in (which right now is the 01_touch directory).
If you switch over to Windows and hit the back arrow to move back to the myApps folder you will see a file called build.bat sitting right next to our 01_touch folder. This is the file that’s being called.
What is it? it’s a .bat file which is a Window’s batch automation file that helps build our Pleo applications. All it needs to know is what Pleo project we want to build. In this case its 01_touch which is the name of the Directory where our project resides. build.bat takes care of everything else, converting our media files, compiling a pawn scripts, and assembling everything into a single Ugobe Resource File to be placed on an SD card for our Pleo to run.
When you type ..\build.bat 01_touch the build tools will run and prints lots of impressive looking information on the screen. Most of it is a bit computer-gibberishy but take a peek at it. It’s basically all the steps needed to create the final compiled resource file that runs on the Pleo.
So now that it’s done, where is that resource file?
Head back to windows. In the 01_touch directory we now have a new directory called “for_SD_card” which was created by the build tools. Take a peek inside:
ta-da! 01_touch.urf, our resource file, ready to download on to an SD card and run in our Pleo. Give it a try…
[transfer 01_touch.urf file to a blank (FAT32 formatted) SD card. Insert card into powered-off Pleo robot. Turn Pleo on. Tap various touch sensors to hear sounds played back ]