It is preferred that modules are used with the Particle cloud, but it is not required. I have been testing out the local cloud option. Initial instructions can be found here.
I have a terse set of instructions for setting up a Raspberry Pi 3 as an access point with the local cloud software.
At this point I've replicated the issue on the forum with this post
I am hoping there is code over in Brewskey that fixes that issue.
