jsalvalzo wrote:Home network...no security at the momment.
Yes I can ping it...
Typing the address into browser times out though.

Running WIndows 7 ..tried Mozilla and IE8.

Same in both.

Win7 64bit? If so, I thought I read there are some problems with it. Do not know specifics though. Be sure and try the IE8 32 bit version (the one that doesn't have 64bit in the shortcut name).

Try telnetting to it on port 80 see what you get (will need to add the windows feature or download putty).

I have Win7 64bit at work, will try later and let you know.

You can try downloading another control program as well.

Since I think I was one of the first to complain about runtime, I have to say constant docking, undocking, redocking has really helped. I was out of the dock for over an hour, watched the battery meter drop to one bar before 'going home'. Not constant driving, but enjoying the great video quality.

With browsers, IE6 and Chrome are 100% for me. IE8 has a hook to a MIME download I can't find. No biggie.

Too bad these guys don't have lithium ion batts.

jjdsx wrote:Not to tick off anyone who hasn't gotten theirs yet, but when you do, I'd like to hear how your battery(s) hold up. I'm only getting about 5 mins of runtime on mine.

Oh well.......get what you pay for.

Same problem here. Died during initial setup. I let it charge overnight and had just enough juice to allow me to complete the setup. Drove it a couple feet and it died. Fun times. My spykee lasted longer than this.

kooler wrote:Same problem here.

Pretty sure everyone has this problem. The batteries have to be babysat. I have a 1.5mAh battery tender I'm tempted to try and hook up to the battery if the babysitting doesn't work.

jaycent wrote:Win7 64bit? If so, I thought I read there are some problems with it. Do not know specifics though. Be sure and try the IE8 32 bit version (the one that doesn't have 64bit in the shortcut name).

Try telnetting to it on port 80 see what you get (will need to add the windows feature or download putty).

I have Win7 64bit at work, will try later and let you know.

You can try downloading another control program as well.

Running the 32 bit Win7.... I have Rovio-direct, Roviorealm, and Rovio Commander all working fine. My android phone and iTouch both run fine too. My worry is I will not be able to access the Rovio from outside my network due to not being able to directly connect from it's ip address in a browser.

Same prob here: charged battery overnight and got 5 minutes of run time before it died.

stv6669 wrote:OKAY GUYS HERE IS HOW TO FIX THE BATTERY.


Lets get this settled for once so the bitching stops.

#1. Tape down the "ramp" so the rovio doesn't push it around a hardwood floor when trying to charge.

#2 Tape down the "button" on the ramp. This is where the rovio's wheel pushes the charging poles up into the rovio to charge. Taping this down helps with the contact for charging.

#3 The battery has a "MEMORY" you need to trick this memory because when a battery is fully dead it doesn't want to charge. To do this you need to have the rovio lined up perfectly for charging. Turn it on... if it quickly blinks then dies, you need to keep turning it on till it starts charging, if it still refuses to charge you need to reline it up because it is not lined up properly.

#4 The top LED lights should blink FAST on top for a few seconds when you turn it on, then it should slowly pulse, slowly come on and slowly fade out. This means it is charging.

#5 KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THE ROVIO, if for some reason it stops the charging LED fade in and out and starts to blink really fast it means it is about to die. Turn the rovio off and back on while keeping it on the charging dock. This will cause the charging to initiate.

YOU MUST KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON THE ROVIO FOR THE FIRST CHARGE. KEEP TURNING IT OFF AND ON WHEN IT STOPS CHARGING. You basically need to baby sit the rovio for its first charge due to the memory of the battery.

It took me about 10 hours to finally get my rovio fully charged. I simply placed it infront of my tv and watched some movies and played some xbox while doing what I said above.

WOWEE will not replace the battery, they know the issue and it is not an easy fix. YOU MUST UPDATE THE ROVIO FIRMWARE BEFORE YOU GET A FULL CHARGE. The old firmware does not allow the rovio to function well on a low battery.

You have to set the base up near the computer for the update, get it on long enough to update the firmware. Then continue to charge it.

If you follow what I said you should have no problems.


Did anyone get their rovio to work with WPA2?

I've followed what you said, but I'm dubious that the battery will hold a charge over time. These batteries are clearly stale or of low quality.

If I tape down the charging button on the ramp, then the poles are locked up. This seems like it will cause problems for the Rovio leaving and re-entering the dock.

I had no problem getting it to work with WPA2. I immediately updated to the newest firmware, and it just worked (that's the only positive thing I'll say about it).

I'll stop my bitching if you can fix these things:

The Rovio continually tries to escape its dock. I'll dock it, then some random time later, it powers on and rolls off the dock.

The video I get from the Rovio is useless. It is washed out in green and purple. It appears to be a bad camera. I've tried 3 PC's with 4 different browsers and had the same experience.

We really ought to start discussing over on the Rovio forum as this thread will probably get lost but I took apart my base today to improve the charging contact (even though my Rovio charges fine). There is one hidden screw beneath the rear rubber pad, so if you're going to take yours apart don't forget it.

I was going to add some magnets to my charging posts when I discovered they had already them installed............but mine were situated perpendicular to the post. Once I seated the magnet discs properly voilla....my posts were magnetic.

If you take a screwdriver to your charging posts and they don't feel magnetic then your discs aren't properly seated.

Okay guys Welll maybe I got lucky i don't know ,but my rovio is working after tinkering with it . So here is what I did, I charged it for 4 hrs then took it off charge put it back on for another 8 hrs which i slept then took it off again this morning when i woke up . Went to church for a few hrs came home took it off charger. Now keep in mind I have not even attempted to sync this with the pc yet through all these charging sequences.

Now with being said let's Move onto the pc set up. First I Am using windows 7 ultimate edition which is a 64 bit operating system. Now I tried to sync the rovio with the pc and had no luck with even getting the install software to function at all , I tried firmware updates and all that which I know has been discussed on the forum also did not work. So after many attempts i started getting irritated with this rovio , thought i wasted my money. So I thought to myself what if windows 7 was the problem? I just so happen to have a computer in the home still running XP so i took the rovio to the computer running windows XP. I went to myrovio.com downloaded the Firmware and the latest install software on the xp machine. Then followed the directions like before and guess what it WORKED !!! I then entered my wireless wep key into the setup page . And it is working. After i got it to work on the xp machine i went to the win 7 operating system entered the 192.168.1.xxx address into the address bar entered my user id and password and now it works on on my main computer and also the laptop !!! I Operated the rovio for around 20 minutes with no battery problems at all. I think if you guys that are having issues with the rovio Do what I have done you should have no problem . Summary to all this is the install software is built for xp. If you have a computer with xp try this method then you can go to other machine running win 7 and have fun !! I hope this helps everyone who is having trouble. Just have patience and follow the advice given and you will have a blast with it . By the way I am not a computer genius , I just have a little knowledge to get problems figured out . Good luck and let know if this helps. Just post a thank you or something !! Have a great day !!

Update. 24+ hours into it. Been trying the docking and recharging advice thus far. Last go around it lasted around 25 minutes. Which is far better than before. At least now when it gets down to one power bar we have time to get it back to the dock.

So better. The rest of it works fine, as advertised. Yes it is not great in low light, but that we knew. The rest of it works fine and is very fun. Battery life out of the box was terrible, just terrible.

Ours seems to have one "tread" on the back wheel which is sticking. Which means it gets stuck and drags on the floor making navigation difficult. All of the other tread wheels are fine, and it moves great except when that one tread is on the floor.

Hoping more charging cycles means more battery life. At this point, half an hour is a happy thing compared to five minutes.

But really, shouldn't have to gone and jumped through all these hoops to just barely get it running part way.

king3550 wrote:Okay guys Welll maybe I got lucky i don't know ,but my rovio is working after tinkering with it . So here is what I did, I charged it for 4 hrs then took it off charge put it back on for another 8 hrs which i slept then took it off again this morning when i woke up . Went to church for a few hrs came home took it off charger. Now keep in mind I have not even attempted to sync this with the pc yet through all these charging sequences.

Now with being said let's Move onto the pc set up. First I Am using windows 7 ultimate edition which is a 64 bit operating system. Now I tried to sync the rovio with the pc and had no luck with even getting the install software to function at all , I tried firmware updates and all that which I know has been discussed on the forum also did not work. So after many attempts i started getting irritated with this rovio , thought i wasted my money. So I thought to myself what if windows 7 was the problem? I just so happen to have a computer in the home still running XP so i took the rovio to the computer running windows XP. I went to myrovio.com downloaded the Firmware and the latest install software on the xp machine. Then followed the directions like before and guess what it WORKED !!! I then entered my wireless wep key into the setup page . And it is working. After i got it to work on the xp machine i went to the win 7 operating system entered the 192.168.1.xxx address into the address bar entered my user id and password and now it works on on my main computer and also the laptop !!! I Operated the rovio for around 20 minutes with no battery problems at all. I think if you guys that are having issues with the rovio Do what I have done you should have no problem . Summary to all this is the install software is built for xp. If you have a computer with xp try this method then you can go to other machine running win 7 and have fun !! I hope this helps everyone who is having trouble. Just have patience and follow the advice given and you will have a blast with it . By the way I am not a computer genius , I just have a little knowledge to get problems figured out . Good luck and let know if this helps. Just post a thank you or something !! Have a great day !!

Your advice worked! Ran it w/ my xp machine and updated the firmware. It now works fine on my Win 7 machine too! I have setup Dyn-dns and can control it external from my network.
I can take pictures and have them emailed to me also.

Thanks for the help!
Now to solve this battery issue.

1. Don't use the pack-in CD...there should be a note on it about that. got to myrovio.com and get the latest installer if you are on windows. this installer will d/l the latest firware and install it for you.

2. the batt.s are bad...or it is h/w and s/w. the base and contacts do not appear to be bad. it is the s/w that controlls and and tries to sense when they are charged. this is similar to some old apple powerbook "smart" batts when NiMH were new.

3. NiMH do not have "memory" like NiCD. it is more of a safety/heat/smartcharge lifecycle thing.

4. the h/w and s/w for rovio are pretty awesome...too bad they punked out on this detail.

5. i still believe woot and wowwee should not have sold these in this condition.

6. doing the charge...drain...charge...drain...charge...drain routine has got me up to maybe 20 min. still very poor...especially when you consider the size of the batt...it was engineered to be better.

true dat.

very cool idea poorly executed. and inexcusable to me that woot and wowwee sold these units with this known condition.

oh well...maybe next year somebody will do this right???

good luck!!

jeribus wrote:Update. 24+ hours into it. Been trying the docking and recharging advice thus far. Last go around it lasted around 25 minutes. Which is far better than before. At least now when it gets down to one power bar we have time to get it back to the dock.

So better. The rest of it works fine, as advertised. Yes it is not great in low light, but that we knew. The rest of it works fine and is very fun. Battery life out of the box was terrible, just terrible.

Ours seems to have one "tread" on the back wheel which is sticking. Which means it gets stuck and drags on the floor making navigation difficult. All of the other tread wheels are fine, and it moves great except when that one tread is on the floor.

Hoping more charging cycles means more battery life. At this point, half an hour is a happy thing compared to five minutes.

But really, shouldn't have to gone and jumped through all these hoops to just barely get it running part way.

I just received my Rovio from Woot. I have tried several times (more like 20) to set it up and have failed. The instructions included with the product says not to use the setup CD, instead download setup from myrovio.com. I am having no success with either. I continue to receive the error message that my PC (windows vista) cannot locate my Rovio. Can anyone in Wootville please help me with the setup?

peronica wrote:I just received my Rovio from Woot. I have tried several times (more like 20) to set it up and have failed. The instructions included with the product says not to use the setup CD, instead download setup from myrovio.com. I am having no success with either. I continue to receive the error message that my PC (windows xp) cannot locate my Rovio. Can anyone in Wootville please help me with the setup?

Okay guys Welll maybe I got lucky i don't know ,but my rovio is working after tinkering with it . So here is what I did, I charged it for 4 hrs then took it off charge put it back on for another 8 hrs which i slept then took it off again this morning when i woke up . Went to church for a few hrs came home took it off charger. Now keep in mind I have not even attempted to sync this with the pc yet through all these charging sequences.

Now with being said let's Move onto the pc set up. First I Am using windows 7 ultimate edition which is a 64 bit operating system. Now I tried to sync the rovio with the pc and had no luck with even getting the install software to function at all , I tried firmware updates and all that which I know has been discussed on the forum also did not work. So after many attempts i started getting irritated with this rovio , thought i wasted my money. So I thought to myself what if windows 7 was the problem? I just so happen to have a computer in the home still running XP so i took the rovio to the computer running windows XP. I went to myrovio.com downloaded the Firmware and the latest install software on the xp machine. Then followed the directions like before and guess what it WORKED !!! I then entered my wireless wep key into the setup page . And it is working. After i got it to work on the xp machine i went to the win 7 operating system entered the 192.168.1.xxx address into the address bar entered my user id and password and now it works on on my main computer and also the laptop !!! I Operated the rovio for around 20 minutes with no battery problems at all. I think if you guys that are having issues with the rovio Do what I have done you should have no problem . Summary to all this is the install software is built for xp. If you have a computer with xp try this method then you can go to other machine running win 7 and have fun !! I hope this helps everyone who is having trouble. Just have patience and follow the advice given and you will have a blast with it . By the way I am not a computer genius , I just have a little knowledge to get problems figured out . Good luck and let know if this helps. Just post a thank you or something !! Have a great day !!

Rovio Direct

http://www.ewe-software.com/roviodirect/

Audio and Video quality are amazing.

Windows 7 x64 - another confirmation that you can't talk on USB with it. I did get an XP machine, ran the firmware updater, and now that it's on the network, it runs fine. I would say the battery runs for about 45 minutes, after charging overnight, and several shorter recon and docking missions.

It is surprisingly fun. The home docking works most of the time, even though I have more fun trying to dock it myself. It has a good Mars rover feel to it. I would buy another!

jsalvalzo wrote:What app is that? Thanks

I can get the website to load on my pre and control the rovio, but I get no video.

lvrider wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du30ThnVcqY this guy has a video of one having charger docking problems. He claims many others have this problem too because of a faulty spring.

lvrider wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du30ThnVcqY this guy has a video of one having charger docking problems. He claims many others have this problem too because of a faulty spring.

I am having charger docking problems too. But in my case its not the springs thay pop up when the bot is in the dock. The problem I am having is with the power adaptor that plugs into the wall. Its only putting out 5.98 Volts. The docking station and adaptor say 8 volts! The battery will never charge with the charger provided.

kooler wrote:Same problem here. Died during initial setup. I let it charge overnight and had just enough juice to allow me to complete the setup. Drove it a couple feet and it died. Fun times. My spykee lasted longer than this.

I am having charger docking problems too. But in my case its not the springs thay pop up when the bot is in the dock. The problem I am having is with the power adaptor that plugs into the wall. Its only putting out 5.98 Volts. The docking station and adaptor say 8 volts! The battery will never charge with the charger provided. .[/quote]

rickyharper wrote:I can get the website to load on my pre and control the rovio, but I get no video.

2Bots is the name of it..think it may be for android only?

I was also having battery issues. I charged up my battery using a hobby charger, and now I get easily an hour of run-time. However, the rovio CANNOT find it's way back home. I've tried everything there is to try. It can't replay any paths either. Something is wrong with the navigation feature on mine.

rickyharper wrote:I can get the website to load on my pre and control the rovio, but I get no video.

Make sure you are going to the mobile page.
"http://{IP_ADDRESS}/mobile/index.htm"

i have a mac and a pc and haven't been able to get either to work :-( been in que for rovio tech support all since i got it.

I don't get it. Many people are saying the video is first rate. Mine is absolutely HORRIBLE. I was getting better video from my first generation web cam 14 years ago. What am I missing here?

dollarmtn wrote:I don't get it. Many people are saying the video is first rate. Mine is absolutely HORRIBLE. I was getting better video from my first generation web cam 14 years ago. What am I missing here?

Under Settings | Video
Is it set to 640x480, quality High?

http://onlookers.net/p/RovioCamCapture1.jpg

Don't get too excited. As with a lot of things in life, all that glitters isn't gold. It got a lot...a lot of bad reviews. Just follow many trail of complaints left by frustrated owners. The battery got more than 50% chances of being defected. The webcam is really bad (biggest disappointment of all for me). You'd thought they would test this first before putting it on. What good is a mobile web-cam when you can hardly see anything. Head light is a joke. Software is still buggy even after all the updated software/firmware. Mine is fail and die after 2 days of very few little playtimes. I reinstalled the software and got it to work again but now it kept jolting out off its docking station by itself for no reason and left to die of power drainage. You don't think they dropped the price from $300 to $100 for no reason, do you? But some fools still think $100 toy that don't work is still kewl !! Now I got to go thru the process of trying to return the damn thing.

My Rovio is supposed to arrive today and after all the horror stories I'm wondering if I should even open it and just return it. Has anyone else returned theirs with any luck. Any problem getting an RMA number from WowWee?

adamklong wrote:Don't get too excited. As with a lot of things in life, all that glitters isn't gold. It got a lot...a lot of bad reviews. Just follow many trail of complaints left by frustrated owners. The battery got more than 50% chances of being defected. The webcam is really bad (biggest disappointment of all for me). You'd thought they would test this first before putting it on. What good is a mobile web-cam when you can hardly see anything. Head light is a joke. Software is still buggy even after all the updated software/firmware. Mine is fail and die after 2 days of very few little playtimes. I reinstalled the software and got it to work again but now it kept jolting out off its docking station by itself for no reason and left to die of power drainage. You don't think they dropped the price from $300 to $100 for no reason, do you? But some fools still think $100 toy that don't work is still kewl !! Now I got to go thru the process of trying to return the damn thing.

adamklong wrote:The webcam is really bad (biggest disappointment of all for me). You'd thought they would test this first before putting it on. What good is a mobile web-cam when you can hardly see anything.

Do you think you just got a bad camera or are you just not happy with the image(set to highest quality setting?)? If you price the cheapest network camera from china it comes to about $65, and I find a good deal lesser picture. Audio-in(mic) is very nice, Speaker not so much. If they updated the firmware to support simple motion detection and ftp of images these things would be worth buying to never move!

onlookersnet wrote:Do you think you just got a bad camera or are you just not happy with the image(set to highest quality setting?)? If you price the cheapest network camera from china it comes to about $65, and I find a good deal lesser picture. Audio-in(mic) is very nice, Speaker not so much. If they updated the firmware to support simple motion detection and ftp of images these things would be worth buying to never move!

Finally some common sense and reality coming into this thread. I have a $300 IP PTV camera and at least during the day, my Rovio's quality is much better. The main problem with Rovio is the default interface. If WowWee would adopt the software enhancements the developer community have made, Rovio could transition from a tinkerers/Geek product to one that is more friendly to the technically-challenged, as many users in this thread seem to be.

As far as the battery issues. Half is to blame on WowWee, the other half is to blame on the technically deficient.

Can somebody splain to me how to post a pic on here? I'd like to show the camera quality I have. I must be one of the technically deficient. Maybe I got lucky. Dunno. I think I've gotten past batt problems.

agingdragqueen wrote:We have worked with WowWee and have been able to get them to agree to replacing any underpowered batteries that our customers may have received. If you suspect that your battery is defective, please call them at 800-310-3033 and let us know if you have any issues when speaking with them.

Unfortunately, that number leads to a voicemail of the "maybe we'll call you back or you could try sending us an email" variety. I did both, we'll see where this goes. At the vary least I would hope woot does a better job pre-screening these types of products. There are rampant reports of bad customer service from WowWee all over the Interwebs. I had a similar experience with my woot Spykee a few months back.

agingdragqueen wrote:We have worked with WowWee and have been able to get them to agree to replacing any underpowered batteries that our customers may have received. If you suspect that your battery is defective, please call them at 800-310-3033 and let us know if you have any issues when speaking with them.

The 800 number is useless. I have tried dialing it a dozen times throughout the day with no response. It keeps going to voice mail and they don't return your calls. I have also tried creating a support ticket a few days ago on their support site which has gone unanswered.

smcoblish wrote:The 800 number is useless. I have tried dialing it a dozen times throughout the day with no response. It keeps going to voice mail and they don't return your calls. I have also tried creating a support ticket a few days ago on their support site which has gone unanswered.

I contacted their support friday through email, they got back to me and stated that it was a bad AC Adapter, and they'd ship a new one to me if I faxed my address and receipt. Before I had also told them I bought it from woot and the date. I got an email this morning stating that since I bought it within 30 days that I'd have to contact woot for a replacement, even though they promised to send me a replacement charger. I imagine they are flooded with tickets from Wooters right now.

Elderwolf wrote:I contacted their support friday through email, they got back to me and stated that it was a bad AC Adapter, and they'd ship a new one to me if I faxed my address and receipt. Before I had also told them I bought it from woot and the date. I got an email this morning stating that since I bought it within 30 days that I'd have to contact woot for a replacement, even though they promised to send me a replacement charger. I imagine they are flooded with tickets from Wooters right now.

This is bull. Either they have agreed to work with woot or they haven't. If they have, then woot needs to squeeze them harder to make good and avoid all the "send it backs." Whoever made the agreement with woot to service the batteries needs to be contacted again, and again untill they actually follow through on what they promised.

"I am having charger docking problems too. But in my case its not the springs thay pop up when the bot is in the dock. The problem I am having is with the power adaptor that plugs into the wall. Its only putting out 5.98 Volts. The docking station and adaptor say 8 volts! The battery will never charge with the charger provided."

Is this the key to the battery issue?

I'm really happy with mine; short operating life (45 mins) is the only problem.

Yes; had all the setup issues everyone else had. Initial battery croak, software/firmware updates. And it did something wierd: assigned itself a new IP after a crash (if this happens, go to your "network", find Rovio, and log on its page that way- then re-bookmark, noting the IP change).

I'd just get/make a new battery if that was the issue; if the charger's not putting out the right volts- that's fixable also- like to be sure which is the actual issue to address.

It's a geek toy that requires geek tweaks to fix- to be expected at the cheap price. Most Woots are cheap for a reason- I'm still fighting with that Bushnell GPS' software.

Got mine today,charged it for 4 hours and the battery last 1-2 minutes, i dont know how to contact woot neither wowwee, its gets lemon juice in the eye and frustrating, waht to do????
any advise?

wecusa wrote:Got mine today,charged it for 4 hours and the battery last 1-2 minutes, i dont know how to contact woot neither wowwee, its gets lemon juice in the eye and frustrating, waht to do????
any advise?

Wecusa, first you should upgrade to the latest firmware. Place the charging dock close enough to your computer so it can be hooked up via USB while charging. Do not use the installation CD, download the latest firmware and firmware loader, as well as the setup program from http://www.myrovio.com . Don't hook up the USB until you've installed both the setup program and the firmware installer. Follow the prompts on the program, upgrade firmware, then let it charge up. On mine I will drive it till it dies, then charge it back up. Maximum time is 15 minutes though, so something is wrong. If you have the same issue contact wowwee through phone (or more likely their ticket system). So far I have tickets in to both Wowwee and Woot and they're point me to each other, but I have faith in Woot resolving this with Wowwee.