The Duck
Project Name: Stealth Duck, AKA Super Daffy

• Summary
  

  The Stealth Duck is a custom designed and built flotational sound effects package built on a remote controllable boat platform and using a duck decoy as above water camoflage. The Stealth Duck will be able to slip into the midsts of hostile flocks of ducks undetected, deliver its auditory payload, and speed away with impunity. The Stealth Duck currently does not have information gathering capabilities, and as such, is intended primarily for delivering propoganda and for the disruption of primary functions, communications, and supply gathering of both foul and humankind. Information gathering capabilites will be incorporated in the Speed Goose, which is not scheduled to begin design and development until the completion of the Stealth Duck project.
  
  

• Photographs
  

  There are no photographs available at this time. All current work is classified.
  (This means the author is too lazy to make jpeg's for anything besides his car project)
  
  

• Specifications
  

  Duck Type:	Mallard Male Plastic for light weight
  Duck Carrier Device:	Redeye Engineering radio controllable boat. Electric power for stealthy approach and ease of maintenance. Top Speed will be approx. 15mph depending on motors and hull design.
  Controls:	Standard 2 channel R/C for speed and rudder control. Redeye Engineering RF link for SFX control and auxilliary data transfer (possible real time voice link). Line of sight range. PC controlled downloading of SFX analog data
  Effects Capabilties:	Single chip storage and playback solution. Adjustable audio level. SFX loading via PC sound card and serial or parallel link. 10 sec. up to 8 minutes storage capacity depending on device used. Battery saving power down mode.
  Expandability	Sound storage time up to several minutes are possible using cascaded devices. AGC on audio output if necessary. Fault Monitoring. Recharging docking bay.

  
  

• Latest Project News
  

  On Sept 17, 1998: An SFX storage and playback I.C. was tested in both record and playback modes using a 600 ohm microphone for recording and an 8ohm speaker in series with an 8 ohm resistor to achieve the 16 ohm differential output impedance required by the device. The device is capable of playing at normal audible levels, however the nature of this project will necessitate the development of a higher power output amplifier, which will also allow the use of a single 8 or 4 ohm speaker.

  June 16, 1999:  Latest releases of sound storage devices have pushed capacity up to 16 minutes and converted from parallel addressing to SPI controller mechanism.   Downloading software is 85% complete and I am currently debating whether to make the PC do everything or simply the software by using a serial-in, SPI-out microcontroller on the download board.  The desire is to make one board capable of handling all of the various architectures of storage devices, however, this is not a high priority.   The software is written to function in Windows 95 or 98.

  May 19, 2000:  Update on status - A new family of sound storage devices are available now that use SPI bus for control.  Z8 micro programmer has been purchased and the micro code has been flowcharted.  Main board hardware is approximately 65% designed and PC S/W for loading WAV's to the device has been written, although it will need some minor re-work due to changes in system design. Current plan is that the PC download board can see double duty as the MIST2, which will precede the Duck project.   The Duck Project will be a simple evolution, exchanging the PA amplifier of the MIST2 for an FM transmitter and possibly changing the micro to a stripped down playback-only PLD to help reduce current consumption (at a premium due to battery powered environment).

   

• Project Milestones and Status
  
  

  Sound storage device	Test for record and playback ability	Complete
  	Acquire Samples	Multiple 400 series parts aquired. Also have 2575 and 1020 series.
  SFX Controller	Device Selection	Z8 Zilog processor
  	RF Remote Interface	10%
  	SFX IC Interface	50%
  	PC Interface	85%
  Audio Output	Speaker Selection	Pending
  	Differential output amplifier	0%
  	Programmable gain circuit	0%
  RF Link	Transmitter	30%
  	Receiver	30%
  Duck Carrier Device	Hull Design	0%
  	Motor selection	0%
  	Battery selection	0%
  	Payload Layout	0%
  	Hull Construction	0%
  	SFX Power Supply	0%
  	SFX Carrier	0%

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