Mr33 replacement recommendations

Hi all l

Current setup.

ISP supplied router with home phone. Can't move away from the router due to phone.
HFC connection running at 100megabit.

Wifi turned off on router.
1 meraki mr33 hard wired to router
1 meraki mr33 meshed.
1 ssid with band steering.

Licence is up in a few months. Looking to either flash the Mr33 with openwrt firmware Or buy some replacement APs that are slightly more upgraded.

Main needs below.

  1. Cloud based management or management through the main AP. Prefer not software running on a PC just to manage the interface when needed.
  2. Band steering. Really hate the use of 2ssids.
    3.its home wifi so not really in the mood for to much cli, so any recommendations for a GUI would be good. I know Luci is there but I have heard of better alternatives?
  3. No more then aus 400$ or so for the 2 aps.
  4. Mesh mesh mesh.

Wishlist would be wifi6 and triband.

Looked into Tony cucumber, is that project dead? Don't see much passed 2018.

Openwrt is not a must. Just figured it check it out whilst I have the chance to upgrade.

Originally looked into basing Google wifi, but that recent report that wifi does if google goes down was a real turn off.

The Xiaomi ax1800 looks brilliant for the price. Can't use openwrt yet but I'm okay with that if I can't come to a better solution.

Ubiquiti fine also, would purchase cloud controller.

Anyone have any thoughts on aps that run well with openwrt that would combine both wishlist and needs. ?

Any recommendations are appreciated.

Cheers.

I still love my MR33s with OpenWrt. Using them for years and they are rock solid. However, if you are still running Meraki's SW you most likely have later boot loaders which won't let you install OpenWrt. You would need downgrading first which I believe is only possible using some low-level NAND programmer. I have all my APs wired up as I do not really believe in mesh too much, even less so without tri-band equipment.

Yeah, they are all on current firmware and they are truly amazing however at the cost for renewal to simply be used at home is a bit of a turn off. Granted I did get them via there web promos so shouldn't complain.

Sad that.so many of these go to waste when they know most of those freebies end up at the home of tech people.

Was just looking at the Xiaomi ax1800 which looks amazing for the price. Not fully openwrt compatible but does seem like a great choice none the less

I would never run anything non-OpenWrt, especially not Chinese. Who knows what exactly they are dialing home all the time!

If you were going to purchase new openwrt compatible kit with the requirements I was looking for what would you recommend so I can look into it.

Also I assume openwrt handles the following already

  1. Cloud based management or at least from the device itself.
  2. Mesh that pulls in setup from first main hub
  3. Band steering

Would love the device to be wifi6 compatible and triband.

Looking around 300 to 400 $ in Aus. Anywhere around on this site to run a search for devices based on requirements ?

Cheers

Your assumptions are not going to be met, neither of them.

Oh damn. What aspect should I be scratching off my assumption?