Hello! I can’t seem to keep up with everything. I can probably spend up to $300 USD (including tariffs), but would be nice to stay < $200 USD. I need a minimum of 3 (downstream) Ethernet ports, but 4+ would be better, as I develop hardware and firmware – sometimes including OpenWRT.
I would like a single piece of hardware, but not a strict requirement. I would love a nice beam-forming WiFi 6 or 7, but maybe all of that shit is proprietary right now in which case I’ll make do with what works in the FOSS world. Not a fan of embedded x86/amd64, but will take it if it’s the best option.
I would love to go with OpenWRT One just because of MikroBus and having gotten to participate in it’s requirements, but even if I could add an external Ethernet switch, I’m guessing it’s a bit light for what I need.
I have a Pi 5 around, can I add an mPCIe 4 port Ethernet switch to something like that?
Thanks for that. I was considering that one as well! I’ve already ordered the GL.iNet, but the Bpi-R3 has two radios, each 2x2 doesn’t it? They’ve got the same SoC, MT7986, but the BPi-R3 would have given me a USB-only mPCIe slot which I could use for a LTE/5G modem, and a crap ton GPIOs. Well I’m going to eventually want a router for my car, but I need to figure out a 5G modem that’s compatible with T-Mobile’s home network service (to use instead of their hardware).
I have a BPi R2 Pro. It was given to me for a project that was going to be based off of the rk3568 and I did a bunch of work to get OpenWRT running on it, but now the project changed and we’re not going to use it. But I’ve still got to get all of my patches for OpenWRT, device tree, and such mainlined.
Thanks, frolic. I’ve ordered one and I think that should do me, as I’m in the states. GL.iNet has a Flint 4 out with WiFi 7, but different chipset (Quectel 4x1.5GHz), but it’s not in the hardware DB and I’m not risking it.
Based on the OP's description, the flint2/ gl-mt6000 should be a very decent choice.
The BPi-r3/ r4 is predominantly a devboard, not a complete router - to make it a router, you will spend quite a lot of additional money on all the little tidbits and will fail/ have to order something different/ better at times. If you want that, cool, it gives you quite some additional leeway. Now from to the bad things, wifi7 support in OpenWrt is still very much a work in progress, with quite some acitivity over the last few weeks (which made it basically possible in the first place), but it's not finished and you will need very recent snapshot code at least for the next few months. That aside, the BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 network card that goes with the BPi-R4 (and no, you can't easily replace that with something else - well, you can, but that means a lot more work/ risk) seems to be quite 'problematic' and buggy (if not downright broken, misprogrammed EEPROM, insufficient shielding, stability issues, …), it's not something I could recommend with a good conscience (great on paper, real problems in practice).
Note: openwrt wifi7 support is still 6-12 months away.
Openwrt devs put their finger on the scale are prefer Mediatek Filogic SoC's now. Since Openwrt One and Two are based on them, I would stick with filogic.
This is very helpful info, thanks. I’m not terribly concerned with WiFi 7, but if I get 6 then that’s great. 5GHz is still sufficient in my location, where of course 2.4GHz is horrible at peek times.
However, my next project will be my car’s router! I should open a new topic for that (once I’ve searched enough to be sure the info isn’t already available). And I think the BPi-R3 will be perfect for that, presuming I can get a matching 5G mPCIe card. I have the T-Mobile home service for about $40/month which isn’t too bad, but using it in my car involves an inverter and their unwieldy router that doesn’t even have connectors for an external antenna.
Wait, OpenWRT Two! woot! I missed this announcement!
Thank you! This is a helpful summary for the state of things in OpenWRT today! I like MediaTek because they aren’t under Qualcomm / Chinese government control, though working with them and their parts is NOTHING like working with a European or American company – the tight control over data sheets, the complete lack of support options. I worked a project a few years ago based on the MT7620 and ran into an apparent silicone problem and there was nothing my company could do to get the time of day from them. Even our manufacturer (that did a lot of bulk business with MediaTek) couldn’t get a response. We eventually worked around it.