Please also consider Cudy RE3000 as a super-cheap device for AP and repeater scenarios, which also has enough brains to support a VPN.
The git commit notes on the EA7500 v2 are informative:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=31b49f02ca8a82a36f920d4b29626f2845e9eb50
You seem to have triggered the zeroboot-count, I'm curious if it's not functioning.
Can you open an separate topic?
tftp installation via uboot is not a simple installation method.
The instructions where you found this are outdated. Since May 2024, a transitional web-flashable firmware is available from Cudy: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BKVarlwlNxf7uJUtRhuMGUqeCa5KpMnj
There's no device page:
https://openwrt.org/toh/cudy/start
So I can only check the git commit, https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=e8f75973172749874afa13e4f746acd8cb515de2
If you own the device, please create the device page with details.
I don't own the device, but I was able to guide a person who owns it through the setup in a video chat, based on the information from Add support for Cudy RE3000
The NanoPi R3S (with metal case and no eMMC) is an inexpensive and capable router only option, but as Rich has already noted, it doesn't look like you need SQM with your ISP service.
It's functioning because when I originally flashed 23.05.05 I used the power-cycle-3 times trick to switch it to the other partition and I then overwrote that one (or tried to) with 23.05.05
I also loaded the luci app that manages the dual partitions and I'm pretty sure I confirmed that it was on both.
I wanted to make absolutely sure the Linksys firmware was dead. This is MY access point, it's not Linksys's network probe into my network to examine what I'm doing for marketing data.
Unfortunately, I may not have time this weekend to mess with it. It's a one-off I bought for testing as a potential for a large deployment but although (when it was working) it had a capable radio, the problems with it is, it occupies a lot of space, and lacks clear indicators for ceiling mount use and it's also very fugly. Once I get a console on it I'll post what's going on in a separate thread.
My current favorite is the Luma WRTQ-329ACN which has that beautiful light ring that is incredibly useful for locating. I can set all the rings solid green then turn off PoE power to the bad one, then send a facilities grunt out with a ladder to replace the one that "isn't green" if necessary. When you have a building with 30 of them in there it guarantees that you get the right one.
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Hi @bosukes ,
Is it easy to install openwrt in ASUS AX59U? Can we do it via firmware upgrade menu on Asus dashboard?
THanks
There's a link in his post where you can find and ask for more info.
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Yes, just at the wiki download initial files from the gdrive link. Then continue reading that.
[quote="tmittelstaedt, post:48, topic:223643"]
Unfortunately, I may not have time this weekend to mess with it. It's a one-off I bought for testing as a potential for a large deployment but although (when it was working) it had a capable radio, the problems with it is, it occupies a lot of space, and lacks clear indicators for ceiling mount use and it's also very fugly. [/quote]
I tried powering it up this weekend. On boot the Linksys logo remained constant blinking and I logged into it and discovered it was running the Linksys factory firmware. So the 3 failed boots DID switch it over to the backup partition and that had never been wiped.
I ran the "factory uppgrade" using the factory version of the latest 24.10 firmware and the router rebooted itself into OpenWRT 24.10.
So, it's back online now and I can use it. In digging into it further I see that there's no way to flash the backup partition.
So, I guess is does qualify as an "interesting low-cost router"
It's very cheap on Ebay
It will do 160Mhz wide 5Ghz
It seems to be recoverable without taking apart
The downside is dealing with Linksys's dual partition nonsense and the downside that you can't completely scrape off the Linksys firmware.
Yes, it's very easy to flash OpenWrt on Cudy RE3000 v1. Sorry for the phone "screenshots" below, they are copy-pasted from a support chat that I had with another person. The author of these screenshots is that other person, and that's all I have.
Connect to the device via Ethernet.
Go to http://192.168.10.254/cgi-bin/luci/admin/panel
Go to firmware:
Unzip cudy_re3000-v1-sysupgrade.bin from the intermediate firmware obtainable from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BKVarlwlNxf7uJUtRhuMGUqeCa5KpMnj and upload it:
It will, in fact, flash successfully, but the browser will never acknowledge that due to the IP change. So just wait 5 minutes:
As mentioned, after flashing, the device IP will change to 192.168.1.1 and you will need to reconfigure the PC. At this point, the device is running an unofficial version of OpenWrt built by Cudy, and we need to replace it by the official sysupgrade image that you can download from the firmware selector.
Go to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/admin/system/system, switch the system to English language.
Then go to the firmware flash page: http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/admin/system/flash, click "Flash image..." and upload the official OpenWrt build (the sysupgrade image, currently https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.0/targets/mediatek/filogic/openwrt-24.10.0-mediatek-filogic-cudy_re3000-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin but the screenshots below show an earlier attempt to flash 23.05.3):
At this point, the user kept settings, but I recommend not doing so:
The official OpenWrt build will flash successfully:
And that's it!
After this, the suggested step is to configure WiFi and proceed over WiFi with the device configuration according to the intended use case. If necessary, the Ethernet interface can be removed from br-lan and then used independently as a WAN, thus turning a device into a router where the LAN is only accessible via WiFi.
However, the user whose unit was used on these screenshots above had a different use case, where the device connects to a WPA Enterprise network and reshares it as WPA2 Personal with a NAT in between. For that, while still connected via Ethernet, they had to replace the wpad-basic-mbedtls package with wpad-mbedtls (no "basic") through direct package upload and join the Enterprise network as wwan on the Network > Wireless page.
In any case, it is suggested to install luci-app-attendedsysupgrade to simplify further device upgrades despite any non-standard WAN/LAN setup.
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Here's my next entry for "interesting low cost router" the AirTight Networks C-75 / Mojo Networks C-75 / WatchGuard AP320
These are as cheap as $8 per device:
(21x) Mojo C-75 Wireless Access Point | eBay
A 3.3v serial cable is NOT required as the devices have a standard RS232-to-3.3v serial adapter -inside the device- connected to the board and brought out to a RJ45 jack on the device.
The device does not need to be taken apart.
The RS232 port - using standard RS232 voltages - is accessible using a standard Cisco serial cable - soldered together from your parts bin:
Or you can buy them cheaply:
1x RJ45 8P8C Male To DB9 Female Serial Console Cable For Cisco Switch Router 5FT | eBay
The instructions to convert these are here:
git.openwrt.org Git - openwrt/openwrt.git/commit
With one small change - currently the initram image has gotten a bit big so change the memory address you are tftping to or use an initram image from version 21 then sysupgrade - detailed here:
Can't install on AirTight C-75 - LZMA decode error - Installing and Using OpenWrt - OpenWrt Forum
For $8 you get a wifi AP that will do 80Mhz wide 5Ghz channels - pretty good deal!
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Thanks for the detailed write-up. However, I don't think a 16/128 10+ year-old router is an interesting choice in 2025.
If it's cheap enough, it might be OK, but just too much hassle to get it working.
I'm in Japan and found the Google WiFi (new) for USD$12 equivalent, and lots of PoE Elecom AP selling at $13, both having official OpenWrt support so flashing firmware is easy.
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Every time someone has posted something like this they never include a link and when they are prodded later to produce a link the thing is sold out. There are also multiple google wifi devices. Care to supply an actual model number and link?
The Merali MR52 is also around 10 years old and it has exactly the same specs as the Elecom WAB-I1750-PS
When people start dissing wifi devices based on age it just shows they don't really know what they are talking about. Radio standards change very slowly and the higher bandwidth requires higher frequency and wider channel spectrum, and the higher frequency goes shorter distance and cannot penetrate as well.
Any time you deploy APs into a location for optimal speed you have to do a radio site survey. You may NOT be able to grab a full 160Mhz wide spectrum because a neighbor's wifi is incorrectly configured. You may also have a LOT of neighbors. I've got one site next door to an apartment complex and there's got to be 30 AP's I can see advertisements from half of them stomping on each other with disjoint channels because the stupid morons that own them think setting a channel to 2 instead of 1 makes it "go faster" Much like the morons that think adding a "fart can" to their car (aka resonator) makes it go faster.
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