A pond of rubber-duckie ducklings that lives on your desk.
Duck Pet fills a 2.8" color touchscreen with a pond of glossy toy ducklings. Every duck, ripple and lily pad is drawn live at about 25 frames a second. Nothing is a canned animation: it is a little pond that runs all day on your desk.
Each one is programmed and tested by hand before it ships. Plug it into a USB charger and it starts.
How it works
- Nature picks your duckling. A clutch of 8 ducklings paddles, dabbles and squabbles. The first one to prove itself is crowned: THIS ONE IS YOURS.
- It grows over about a week: fuzzball, fluffy, pin feathers, young duck, then a big grown duck.
- How you raise it shapes it. A bright room makes a sunny duck; a dim one makes a pale moonlit duck that sparkles at night. Winning squabbles makes a bossy duck with a crest; a peaceful life makes a sweet one with big eyes and a blush. Feeding it makes it chubby.
- Duck stuff: paddling, dabbling with its tail up, preening, quacking, and napping with its head tucked in at night.
- Visitors: bugs, frogs and goldfish turn up now and then for the ducks to chase, and a turtle paddles across once in a while.
- Rare evil ducklings: once in a while a duckling hatches evil, with dark feathers, a scowl and one glowing red eye, and goes after the others. A brave duckling can still bonk it. A SPLATTER setting picks red or feathers only, for younger fans.
- It never dies. Your duck flees hurt and recovers, and a neglected one forages on its own.
- Silly achievements pop up every few minutes, 150 of them, like HUNG OUT WITH THE TURTLE. OLD FRIENDS NOW.
- The RGB LED on the back blinks along with its meals and big moments.
- Desk clock: a big time with the date and your local weather, set over your WiFi.
- Touch to play: tap the water to toss peas and oats, tap an evil duckling to bop it, tap your duck to cheer it on. Pause its growing anytime, or start a fresh clutch.
Specs
| Board | ESP32-2432S028R "Cheap Yellow Display", 2.8" 320×240 color touchscreen |
| Power | 5 V USB: any phone charger or computer port |
| WiFi | Optional, only for the clock and weather. Set up on the touchscreen (on-screen keyboard or your router’s WPS button). It works without WiFi too. |
| Light sensor | On the front: the room’s daytime light shapes your duck |
| Saves | Your duck is saved to flash every minute, so unplugging never loses it |
| Firmware | Open source (GPL-3.0): github.com/revjmoney/CYD-LIL-BABY-DUCKIES-DESK-PET-CLOCK |
What’s in the box
- The 2.8" Duck Pet display in a clear acrylic case, programmed and tested
- A touch stylus
- A USB cable
Open source
The whole firmware is free on GitHub, so you can flash your own board, read the code or tinker with it. Buying one here gets you a board that’s ready to go, and supports more projects like it. Want a pond of cells instead? See Cell Pet.
More from the same workshop: RotatoCAM, 4- and 3-axis CAM for DIY CNC.
