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This Raspberry Pi Pico-powered duck, created by Dmytro Panin, is a must-have guardian for anyone in need of a fun way to deter any unwanted presence. With a simple motion sensor and mini speaker, the Pico duck is designed to quack at a moment’s notice—alerting those around to the, in this case, would-be cookie thieves.
The project was inspired by the need for Panin and his wife to cut back on their cookie consumption. After remembering the old adage “The cackling of geese saved Rome”, he opted to create a wireless Qi powered duck that could quack, helping them save cookies. Panin has dubbed the creation “Guardian Duck” and hides the little bird in random places for surprise quacks.
In this project, Panin decided to use a Raspberry Pi Pico as the main driver board. However, this project could easily be reconstructed to use the new Raspberry Pi Pico W. The Pico W, if you haven’t heard of it yet, has the same specs as the original Pico but with the added bonus of Wi-Fi support. With a Pico W, this duck could work as an IoT device and even send alerts through different platforms like Twitter via IFTTT.
Like most of Panin’s previous Raspberry Pi projects, this one is entirely open source so users can make their own or at least get a very in-depth look at how they’re constructed. A complete parts list is available which includes a Pico, a PIR motion sensor, a mini speaker, an audio amplifier board, as well as a Qi receiver module for the power system that makes the duck wirelessly rechargeable.
The 3D-printed duck housing is available for download over at Printables. According to Panin, the code was written using CircuitPython version 7.3.1 and can be found over at GitHub for any interested parties to explore. Note that if you wish to build this with a Pico W, you will need to use MicroPython instead of CircuitPython.
If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, check out the original thread shared to Twitter for more pictures and additional details. Be sure to follow Dmytro Panin for more amazing Raspberry Pi creations as well as any future updates on this quacking duck guardian.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
