Building up a B.A.T.M.A.N. Mesh Hardware questions

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hey Folks,

I’ve been looking for Hardware which fits my needs since some days now, but still haven’t found a proper solution.
What I wanna do: my parents have a bigger house with garden and so on. The building is old and it’s capability to block my WiFi is astounding :sweat_smile: A Mesh system with nodes in several Spots and in the backyard should solve this problem, but I need round about 5 to 6 nodes for complete coverage. Buying a system like Orbi would cost a fortune. I found batman-adv and since I’m new to this and also to openwrt. First of all I’m looking for Hardware which I can hide quite well and is compatible with batman.
I found the TL-WR902AC of TP-Link, but I cannot find informations about the compatibility with batman-adv. Since there is no information about simultaneous use of WiFi (802.11abgn simultaneous) I don’t think that the router is able to do so.
Do I need that for batman?
Or do you have other recommendations for good nodes?
I’d be glad for some new input. Thanks in advance.

Ray

2

I have a similar problem and deployed five TP-Link Archer C7 units as access points, a mix of v2 and v5 devices, most purchased for GBP 25-40 on eBay. Two are connected to a GigE 'backbone' in first floor windows with the other three as WiFi repeaters in distant locations.

For most of the locations I have 'line of sight' but the furthest actually uses a directional antenna to make the link! (N.B. If you need different antenna, the C7 v2 has screw on antenna but the v5 are fixed.) I've used 5GHz for the mesh with B.A.T.M.A.N. and repeat 5GHz locally plus 2.4GHz for better local connectivity. I've also configured WiFi services for private use, IoT and Guests which is well worth considering.

Performance wise, I get 100-150Mb from remote locations to systems on the backbone which is more than sufficient for my purposes.

Where this solution probably doesn't meet your requirements is that you end up with what is obviously a router in multiple prominent locations around the property. If you really want to hide the routers, you may have to consider using external antenna as this will give more flexability in hiding the routers.

Alternatively, consider a Devolo solution which I have used with some sucess but isn't OpenWrt compatible. I've redeployed some of my Devolo units to further extend the IoT service as they don't require 'line of sight' locations.

Phil