Note that a soldering iron is intended for an entirely different purpose - the advantage in using it here is that it essentially acts as a micro hot plate to melt the plastic (point or line contact). Soldering irons start at $5. Note that you will burn away some of the material (keep your hands safe), so you should have a filler ready (epoxy or otherwise). You can block it from going everywhere by letting it harden a little before you apply it. Wipe the plastic off the iron after using it and do it in a well-ventilated area (plastic fumes are toxic). Practice on a spare peice of plastic first.
The cables are longer to fix - you’ll notice in the second image of “Pleo inner workings” that the cable goes into the back of the robot, through a tube and is attached to a pulley. You’ll need to find the other end of the cable by unscrewing much of the motor setup (keep good notes as to where everything goes - many images will help). Once you find other end attached to the pulley, you can see if it can be spliced to the opposite end that is part of the neck. Instead of replacing it, just add reinfocement (add an extra thin cable and tie knots - even use layers of dental floss and cover the joint with epoxy. If you want to replace it, you’d need to find the opposite end in the head, which would take longer. Try to ensure that it’s not too thick to still travel freely through the holes in the plastic, and try your best to measure the original length and keep it as such.
It comes down to some trial and error and best guesses - the cables are small, so you’ll obvisously need a very thin cable - this depends largely on what you can find locally. If you have a local distributor that sells threads, see what they can offer. As weird as it may sound, using flat dental floss is not entirely out of the question if you wrap it tightly as you would a fishing lure and cover it with epoxy. Maybe the user community can offer some alternative ideas as to how to fix small-gauge wires (that still need to slide through holes).
Dental floss (to my knowledge) is not used to make fishing lures - it’s the concept of laying multiple cables betwee the two broken ends and winding the cable around them (like a hangman’s noose). Consider asking PleoWorld support if they have any suggestions or can send additional photos about the inner workings (maybe they can even send a replacement cable?): pleoworld.com/support/contact.aspx [email protected]
