CICADATAK
Build-your-own MANET radios with mesh text, image, voice, GPS tracking, and internet backhaul — no cell towers, no infrastructure, no subscriptions.
Build a Node
Build-your-own MANET radios with mesh text, image, voice, GPS tracking, and internet backhaul — no cell towers, no infrastructure, no subscriptions.
Build a NodeWhat it does
Encrypted text and image messages over the mesh. No cell service needed. Messages hop across nodes automatically.
Opus-encoded PTT audio over the mesh. Hold the button, talk, release. Works like a radio.
Every node shares its position. See your whole team on an offline map with satellite imagery cached on-device.
Optional LoRa radio extends alerts and positions to Meshtastic devices. Three-radio architecture: HaLow + WiFi + LoRa.
If any node on the mesh has an ethernet or Starlink connection, it shares internet to every other node and connected phone.
Broadcasts Cursor on Target (CoT) messages. Interoperates with ATAK, iTAK, and WinTAK over the mesh.
WPA3-SAE on the radio link. Team passphrase for application-layer E2E encryption. No data leaves your mesh.
batman-adv mesh routing. Nodes find each other, relay traffic, and reroute around failures automatically.
Why it exists
OpenMANET is a free, open-source firmware that turns a Raspberry Pi and a Morse Micro HaLow radio into a real ad-hoc mesh network — BATMAN Advanced routing, 802.11ah at 913 MHz, over a mile of range per node. It’s impressive technology, but getting it running means SSH sessions, UCI commands, and understanding how bat0, br-lan, and 802.11s fit together.
OpenMANET was built to work with ATAK, the Android Tactical Assault Kit used by the military and first responders. ATAK is powerful, but it comes with its own learning curve — TAK servers, data packages, plugins, and certificates just to get two devices talking.
CicadaTAK bridges the gap. Same mesh hardware, same network, same ATAK compatibility — but you don’t need to know any of that. Flash an SD card, connect your phone to the node’s WiFi, and the setup wizard walks you through five fields. After that, your node is on the mesh with text, images, voice, GPS tracking, and internet backhaul working out of the box.
No SSH. No command line. No TAK server. Just turn it on and go.