First off, thanks to all the developers and contributors for their time and efforts in making openwrt as useful as it is. I had previously (long time ago) been using releases whiterussian and then kamikaze, predominately on linksys wrt54g(l) platforms.
I recently started deploying tp-link eap225 hardware as access points running openwrt. I have a tp-link eap225 v3.8 wall(/ceiling) model and a tp-link eap225 v3.8 outdoor model.
I was under the impression the wall/ceiling and the outdoor model had the same hardware, even though they have different profiles in image builder (tplink_eap225-v3 vs tplink_eap225-outdoor-v3).
One of the (hardware) differences I noticed is that the outdoor model is a class 4 poe device that reserves 30 watts (port 13 below), while the wall/ceiling model is a class 3 poe device that reserves 15.4 watts (port 14 below). Otherwise both models seem to use more or less the same amount of power. I guess the amount of (allocated, not necessarily consumed) power reserved for the device could be an issue if that exceeds one's total poe budget? My POE switch is not even close to the total budget, it's just an observation.
Port Admin Oper ---Power(mWatts)--- PD Type PD Class Pri Fault/
State State Consumed Allocated Error
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
1/1/13 On On 3300 30000 802.3at Class 4 3 n/a
1/1/14 On On 4300 15400 802.3af Class 3 3 n/a
What I'm really curious to know is this minor difference ethtool reports for the on-board ethernet. On the outdoor model it reports;
ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Supported FEC modes: Not reported
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Speed: 1000Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 6
Transceiver: external
Auto-negotiation: on
MDI-X: Unknown
Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
drv probe link timer ifdown ifup rx_err tx_err
Link detected: yes
while on the wall/ceiling model it reports:
ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Supported FEC modes: Not reported
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Speed: 1000Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 4
Transceiver: external
Auto-negotiation: on
MDI-X: on (auto)
Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
drv probe link timer ifdown ifup rx_err tx_err
Link detected: yes
What is PHYAD and why would the outdoor model have a value of 6 while the wall/ceiling model has a value of 4?
As an aside; I've soft-bricked the wall/ceiling model more than once and couldn't find the exact steps on how to enter recovery/failsafe mode. After multiple attempts this worked for me: Power on the device and wait for device's LED to cycle through green, red and orange. When the led then turns solid green, hold the reset button until the led starts (quickly) flashing green and then release the reset button. The device should immediately start (quickly) flashing orange and failsafe/recovery mode has been reached. If the reset button is held for too long when the LED starts quickly flashing green and the LED then starts slowly flashing green, the window will have been missed or else exceeded and failsafe/recovery mode will be skipped. This could be common knowledge but I couldn't find these exact steps and it took me a while to figure it out.