Actinius' Icarus IoT Brings Nordic Semi's nRF9160 Cellular Modem to the Feather Form Factor
Compatible with Feather add-ons, the new board runs the Zephyr RTOS — but be warned, there's no CircuitPython or Arduino support.
Adafruit has announced the launch of a new Feather-style IoT development board boasting cellular connectivity via Nordic Semiconductor's nRF9160 modem: the Actinius Icarus IoT Board.
"The Icarus is a cost-effective cellular IoT board built around Nordic Semi's nRF9160 modem and combines LTE-M, NB-IoT, GPS, accelerometer, USB, LiPo charger, as well as an eSIM with free data out of the box and a nano SIM connector," the company explains of the new board. "Control, monitor, and keep track of any asset, fleet or cargo, quickly and easily with this pre-certified device!"
"You might be looking at this dev board and thinking 'hey wow you know it kinda looks like a Feather!' Well, you've won a fabulous prize because it is in fact Feather-compatible! Yes, the brilliant engineers at Actinius checked out our Feather spec, and made something that is pin compatible so you can use our massive collection of FeatherWings to add more capabilities."
The board comes with an embedded SIM (eSIM) and a deal for 10MB of data for three months; after the trial period has expired, a subscription to Actinius' cellular service is required — or the eSIM can be ignored in favour of a nano-SIM from any cellular provider.
For anyone looking to upgrade an existing Feather-powered project to cellular connectivity, though, there's a catch: Unlike Adafruit's own Feather boards, the Feather-style Icarus IoT has no CircuitPython or Arduino IDE support. Instead, the board is programmed using Nordic's nRF toolchain and runs the Zephyr RTOS. "For that reason," Adafruit warns, "this Feather is for advanced engineers who are comfortable with learning and developing using Zephyr!"
The board is listed on Adafruit now at $130, without antenna, but at the time of writing was out of stock.
