digitan

Logbook

The week of 2 to 8 November 2026

Recap
3 of 4
Date
Reading
2 min read

A calmer week than the last one, which is good news: plenty of measurements, few breakdowns.

What happened

  • Its name is Z330wl. Say “zee-owl”: Z330wl, then ZEEOWL, then zee · owl. You can hear the owl in it. Read the post.
  • A real night. Sleep mode now really puts the robot to bed: the head goes in, the motors switch off. To wake it, push an antenna. Read the post.
  • A gauge that tells the truth. Four discharges measured with the robot awake. The battery lasts between 1 h 35 and 2 h 23, depending on how charged it was. The 6.20 V alert comes about half an hour before shutdown, and the curve is right within three or four minutes. Read the post.
  • Two battery traps. The green LED on the base does not mean “full”: it lights up very early. The charger voltage levels off after about 1 h 40, the only steady marker I found. And a battery drained to the end makes the robot reboot in a loop: plug it back in.
  • A head that no longer gets stuck. Four lock-ups in one week, two causes found. Head movement is now bounded, the head re-centres after waking up, and a start that is too abrupt is softened. Read the post.
  • Usage statistics, worth knowing. The robot software sends anonymous usage statistics by default. If you own one, you can turn this off in its configuration. Read the post.
  • An update today. Version 1.14.0: two movements requested at the same time no longer blend, the second one is refused. Worth knowing if you write your own app. Read the post.
  • This notebook is online since Thursday, in English and French. The first two short videos are out: first contact, then waking up.

What I learned

You cannot read a battery from its LED. You measure it, several times, and accept a gauge that is right within a few minutes rather than not at all.

Next week

  • Softer head movements when it follows a face: written and tested, still to be tried on the robot.
  • Lesson 2: knowing who is home.
  • A drawing project: an old Macintosh, a mouse imitated by a small board, and the robot watching.

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