New here, 1st post.
I have baught a second TP-Link Archer AX23, hoping it was a V1. Unfortunately it’s a V2. I want OpenWRT in it so I started exploring. Cracked it open and went to probe the UART port and a bunch of SMDs are missing, the scope says no data on the TX/RX pins. Looking at the circuit it’s definately a level shifter. Found the 1.8v TX/RX, 1.8v, 3.3v and GND traces. Soldered in a lvl shifter, and WE ARE IN! Stopped autoboot and got the wanted 5018# UBoot command prompt. Aparently, TP-Link did not think we would get into UBoot. I’ve never seen one with so many utilities.
The router has a IPQ0509 and QCN6102 chip combo with a RTL8367S switch
no picture of the switch chip, it has heatsink on it, but in the console a normal boot i get:
[ 15.713942] rtl8367_gpio_reset[3618]:INFO:GPIO33 reset switch done
and on a autostopped boot i get:
Set RTL8367S SGMII 2.5Gbps
Next step, decompressing the OEM Firmware... found out:
It is running OpenWRT 12.09-rc1
SupportList:
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:55530000}
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45550000}
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:43410000}
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:54570000}
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:53470000}
{product_name:Archer AX23,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45470000}
{product_name:Archer AX1800,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45550000}
{product_name:Archer AX1800,product_ver:5.0.0,special_id:55530000}
{product_name:Archer AX21,product_ver:5.0.0,special_id:55530000}
{product_name:Archer AX20,product_ver:5.0.0,special_id:55530000}
./ini/QCA6290.ini
./ini/QCA8074.ini
./ini/QCA9984.ini
./ini/QCA5018.ini
./ini/internal/QCA9984_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA6018_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA5018_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA6290_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA9888_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA8074_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCA8074V2_i.ini
./ini/QCA6018.ini
./ini/internal/QCN9000_i.ini
./ini/internal/QCN6122_i.ini
./ini/QCN6122.ini
./ini/QCN9000.ini
./ini/internal/IPQ4019_i.ini
./CA/default/lib/firmware/IPQ5018
./CA/00000002/lib/firmware/IPQ5018
./CA/00000001/lib/firmware/IPQ5018
So I’m thinking we can build a hole device tree for AX23 v2, AX1800 v2 & v5, AX20 and AX21, way past my ability. But this is about the AX23 v2 so: IPQ5018 for the IPQ0509 SoC, QCN6122 for the QCN6102 5ghz radio and RTL8367 5 port switch right?
Compiled a custom OpenWRT image with ‘what I think I need’ and it ‘boots’ into console. But nothing much is working probably because I don’t have a custom target profile for this router and havent red/applied the calibration data. I’ve tried the MX2000 MX5500, doesn’t even reach console, the CMCC MR300D-CI does boot up to the console, but not much is working. The original OEM firmware is running target profile qcom-ipq50xx-mpxx device tree blob, it is not listed.
And this is where I’m at. I am still going to dig this rabbit hole deeper. Right now I’m thinking I need to create a custom target profile for this device. I have a hole bunch of firmware configurations, partition configurations, package configurations in the OEM firmware. GPIOs I can test once it boots and works. Got to RTFM add new platform & device, an other day...
I could use some pointers on what direction to take. I don’t see a way I can post my OpenWRT .config and kernel .config here. Maby pastebin if somebody would like to see it.
