IOT Cricket WiFi - easy to use, battery powered AAA, AA, ..., HA integration

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Hi, we spent more than 2 years, at Things On Edge, designing a WiFi module, which could be both easy to use and powered for a long time directly on AAA, AA, … batteries. In April this year we launched IOT Cricket Wifi Module (https://thingsonedge.com), which has those features.

It doesn’t require any programming, coding and can be easily integrated to Home Assistant over MQTT presented here: https://www.thingsonedge.com/post/bringing-cricket-iot-into-home-assistant. It also can be integrated over REST api (Webhooks).

For the ease of use it is configured entirely over the air from a cloud. Once configured it can operate within a local network without accessing the cloud.

The low power design and 0.5 nanoAmp deep sleep mode, enable devices based on Cricket to run on batteries for a very long time (in some use cases for many years).

We also enjoy helping developers to realise their projects.

I just wanted to check if there is any interest in HA community in a such module?

Many thanks,
Sylwester

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I think there will be interest in this.

My first use case would be for a wireless temperature sensor. It looks like there is already a built-in temp sensor on the device? is that correct?

what kind of other sensors do you support? IOW, do we have to buy the sensors from you for compatibility or can we use any off the shelf ESP8266 compatible sensors (DHT22, HC-SR04, etc.)?

It looks like shipping is included in the cost? How quickly could you ship and where are you shipping out of? How long would shipping be to the US?

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Hi @finity thanks for your comment.

Yes, the module comes with the built-in temperature sensor.

Cricket doesn’t support i2c or spi protocols yet. I believe the sensors you mentioned might require it. Currently it supports most of analog sensors which can be connected to the ADC pin e.g. temperature, motion sensor, humidity, moisture, pressure sensors and the like. It also supports digital binary sensor which can give 0 or 1 state e.g. buttons.

We ship IOT Cricket round the globe including US. Recently we learnt that shipping to US may take up to 3 weeks due to COVID slowdown. In EU it is up to 1 week.

I wonder if I answered your questions.
/Sylwester

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@thingsonedge this is very interesting indeed and exactly what I personally am looking for!

It says on you website that IOT Cricket - Wi-Fi module is Out of Stock. When do you think you will be able to ship again?

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Hi Bart, thanks for your comment. We recently had significant surge of interest in Crickets and we ran out of stock. Currently you can purchase Cricket in RS Components only (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wi-fi-modules/2131900/?sra=pmpn)

Other stores should be back in stock later next week.

Hope this helps.

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I’ve got a project this would be a absolutely PERFECT for, is it available in the US anywhere other then your store? Yours seems to be sold out (good for you!)

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PC Pro had another article about them last month (April edition) which I suspect didn’t help (or did, depending on your perspective :wink: )

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Hi Xelinor, Great! Have you tried RS Components LINK ?
They have Crickets in stock. They ship Crickets to US and other part of the world.

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I did, but it was SUPER not clear they were shipping to the US! I’ll check it out, cheers!

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That is awesome! Thanks for the reply!

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I’m late to this party, but I wonder if this would work with the Sonoff DS18B20 temperature sensor?

I am looking for a way to get temperature readings from a pool pump pipe - so it is under pressure.

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Hi Steve61,
Cricket supports DS18B20 over 1-Wire protocol. If your Sonoff DS18B20 is 1-Wire based then it should work.

For more information please have a look at the DS18B20 section in the documentation LINK.

HTH,
Sylwester

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That’s great - thank you. So the one wire for data and two for power.

I missed that documentation and that is the sensor I have, so that helps a lot.

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@thingsonedge something puzzling me – your docs list the HCZ-H8-A humidity sensor as a supported external peripheral. However, that sensor requires a stable 1kHz AC signal and something to measure impedance. Surely this is an error in the docs?

The best analog humidity sensor I’ve found so far is the HIH-4030, which is 5v so would require a separate power supply plus a step-down voltage converter on the output to 3.3v (I’d link to it, but I’m limited to 2 links :frowning: )

Any chance for 1-wire support for the DHT22, similar to the special treatment y’all have given the DS18B20? :pray:

Edit: There’s also DFR0588, which can run on 3.3v and output wouldn’t need a step-down converter.

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I know this is getting a bit old and things have moved on to ESP32 more than this chip, but I finally got around to installing my Cricket, linked to a DS18B20. It is working very well in a waterproof case near my filter.

I am monitoring pool water temp and so far it is doing the job. It was fairly easy to set up although I did need a bit of LIA5 help. I have it reporting every 10 minutes if there is a change. I am impressed at its wifi range.

The cloud configuration doesn’t seem as detailed as the local config page, so I have opted for local. I like the wake-up function that allows you to connect the battery to the “wake-up” pin to get an instant reading. I connected a magnetic reed switch between the two and so can trigger the update by running a magnet along the case - I don’t need to open the case.

I am now moving on to ESP32 for my next project, but thanks to the TOE guys for getting me into this arena.