Cicada
Created by Okra
Drop in IoT Communications Module
Includes 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi
About this Project
Rural energy access organizations, in particular, find themselves operating in highly remote communities with little infrastructure. These are communities that are hard to travel to in the first place, let alone run and maintain a modern clean energy business in; and all while operating on a commercial basis. Okra’s communications solution, Cicada, is an open source module with 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi capability.
EnAccess supported this Open Source IoT Communication module so that other companies could avoid the cost, time, and frustration of this effort. The WiFi Cicada offers a way for energy providers to pair with VSAT satellite technology to provide internet access to remote communities, both for the purposes of IoT device communication and for general community access to WiFi.
We hope to see other similar projects come to be developed using this open source design. Read-to-use PCBA boards can easily be ordered on demand from the Seed Studio.
How to Get Started
This repository contains the source code for UART drivers, 2G, 3G, 4G and Wifi modems. This library is platform agnostic, designed to be portable – including examples for mbed, FreeRTOS, or bare metal.
Go to GitHub: Cicada Wifi
The Cicada IoT Communications Module for Energy Access is an easy way to get production ready, bi-directional communications for your IoT embedded device. This repository contains the hardware design for supported Cicada WiFi.
Cicada WiFi Hardware on GitHub
Do you have feedback about Cicada or need help in using it? The best way is to reach out to our community on Discord. If you need additional and more customized support, you can request technical assistance from our team.
Ready-to-use PCBA board
You can order ready-to-use PCBAs on demand from the Seed Studio marketplace
Go to GitHub: GSM Hardware
Go to GitHub: GSM Firmware
Okra’s source code for UART drivers, 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi modems. This library is platform agnostic, and designed to be portable.
Project Report
In 2019, Okra developed (and open-sourced) an embedded module from the ground up which was 2G, 3G and 4G compatible. In 2022, they focused on a solution for areas with zero connectivity: the Wifi Cicada.
FAQ
Bringing Energy Access to remote areas of the world is already a challenging enough task, and Open Sourcing this communication module is meant to help other Energy Distributors and manufacturers save time. This list of FAQs should help you get started using Cicada quickly.
Watch: Live Demo with Georg Lippitsch, Firmware Engineer
This demo includes a look at the hardware modules, a Wifi & 2G software demo, and a code explanation. If you would like to ask more questions, please join the chatroom on Matrix:
• Sign up at app.element.io
• Enter the room at #enaccess-cicada:matrix.org