Openwrt One PoE question

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello

I am currently using an openwrt one that is connected with the USB-C cable for its power supply.

The WAN port is PoE.
Is it possible to unplug the USB-C cable so that the PoE WAN port takes over the electricity?
Or will the router turn off and I have to restart everything?

Thanks

2

Good question. I switched from USB power to PoE just yesterday, but since I also relocated the One, I first halt'ed it on USB before disconnecting it and powering it up with PoE.
What is the use-case you have in mind here hot-failover between power sources?

3

Yes that's it, hot switching of power supplies.

4

I think it's not possible. I'll test it directly by unplugging the USB cable ^^

5

Hot failover didn’t work when I tested it here.

As soon as I pulled the wall wart power it went into a reboot.

1 Like
6

Ah yes thank you.
Last question please, my WAN port cable is connected to an ONT box.
A simple RJ45 cable is enough to power the openwrt One with electricity?

Thank you

7

I just used a normal RJ45 patch cable from POE switch to OO.

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8

Ok thank you, I'll try

9

I used a 7.5 meter long "flat" cat6 patch cable, I guess if you use a cable with all 4 wire pairs and decent connectors it probably should work.

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10

Would someone point me to requirements/spec's for the POE of an OpenWrt One router?

  • Which port on the router (1Gbps or 2.5Gbps)?
  • 24v or 48v?
  • Current/power requirement?
  • Links to suitable POE adapters?

Many thanks

11

Any IEEE 802.3af/at compliant device should work to provide POE capability to the RJ-45 2.5 Gbps WAN connector.

Edit: to add to @moeller0 , I also run 1 device as an AP from a small POE switch providing 30 Watts Max to each port.

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12

Mine doing duty as AP is supplied by a PoE switch (zyxel GS1900-8HP still with zyxel's OS) with 802.3at ports consuming 5 Watts (I have not closely payed attention, but every time I looked it was sitting at 5 Watts). I have not measured the supplied voltage, but I would guess that to be nominally 48 Volts.

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13

@RuralRoots @moeller0 I would also like to set up this configuration (OpenWrt One acting as an AP running off POE). How do you configure the device?

  • As a bridge (Wi-Fi on same subnet as WAN port)?
  • As a router (Wi-Fi on a different subnet)?

Thanks.

14

Technically, the powering over PoE should be independent of the port configuration.

But it's usually more sensible to have the PoE port on the WAN side, be it that you switch the wan/ lan assignment around (two line change in /etc/config/network) or put both into br-lan. The wireless side is (also) independent of that.

So whatever you do is a policy decision, both are possible - but can make sense (even PoE on wan can make sense, in certain environments).

You have two independent ethernet ports:

  • 2.5 GBit/s with PoE (wan by default)
  • 1 GBit/s without PoE (lan by default)

You are completely free in deciding which role either of those ports plays in your environment - or how the wireless attaches to that. The defaults are just that - and easily changed to meet your expectations.

Disclaimer: no personal experience with this device (or anything filogic so far), just following from the side lines - but the setup should be straight forward.

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15

I went for the bridged/dumb AP configuration, and put both WiFi radios and both ethernet ports into br-lan.

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16

I went for the bridged/dumb AP configuration, and put both WiFi radios and both ethernet ports into br-lan.

This sounds like a good strategy, but I'm feeling a little dopey here.

Does anyone have a good step-by-step process for converting an OpenWrt One router into a "dumb ap" that connects to the local network via Power Over Ethernet? (I tried following the Dumb AP and there are a bunch of fussy steps involved in configuring a static IP on the LAN port, moving the LAN and Wireless over to eth0 WAN/POE port, etc.) Thanks

17

If you provide a default /etc/config/network file for this device, it should be easy.

In general (without having seen this device so far):

  • delete the list ports 'wan' line from your wan interface (dd)
  • add it to your lan interface, after the existing one (p)
  • change your lan interface from option proto 'static' to option proto 'dhcp'
    you can also configure a static IP, but that's a tad more complex (gateway/ DNS settings need to be added). personally I prefer DHCP with a static lease on your router (to keep all IP assignments there, in one central place - making renumbering easy, if necessary).
    • delete the options for ipaddr, netmask
  • bonus points for adding a lan6 interface modeled after wan6, with proto 'dhcpv6' (optional)
  • delete ula_prefix and the wan/ wan6 interface stanzas (this is supposed to be a client (or AP), not a device announcing its own ULA prefix).
  • disable all dhcp server settings (DHCPv4, DHCPv6-PD, RA, SLAAC, see https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/wifiextenders/bridgedap#step_3disable_dhcp_server ff.)
  • reboot (if anything fails, be aware of the factory reset (or failsafe) procedures for your device - bonus point for this particular device, you have serial console access with a simple USB<--> USB-C cable to the console port, so you can actually see and fix things in-place.

it sounds more convoluted than it is.

tl;dr: move the list ports from the wan interface stanza to lan, delete wan/ wan6 stanzas, remove the ula_prefix, disable all DHCPd's.

(as mentioned, it would be easier with a before /etc/config/network, so we could add an -after variant for it).

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18

Well, the PoE part is really independent and surprisingly simple:
assuming you run on the USB power brick

  1. gracefully shutdown the router
  2. configure a PoE injector/PoE switch port to supply sufficient power (iirc 48 volts and at least 5 watts, under load probably more, if you want to set a max power juat look at the USB bricks output wattage)
  3. connect the One's 2.5 Gbps port to the active and enabled PoE injector/switch port
  4. there is no 3, after 2) above your One should already be running merrily. :wink:

Than all that is left is configuring bridged AP mode (din't forget to persistently disable dhcpd/ohcpd/firewall/...).

I will share my config later once I have access to it again..,

19

@slh @moeller0 Thanks for these hints. I do know how POE works - it's powering the router now.

I am searching for a way to use LuCI and avoid a "big bang" - change a lot of configuration, then reboot, then hope...

I'm going to chew on a possible procedure (unless someone has one already typed up...) then post it. Thanks again

20

Ah, sorry, I think I misread your request then. Unfortunately I did not switch over via LUCI but mostly bey editing config files by hand, so I can not post-hoc write-up how I did that with Luci.

Sorry, I do not have one.

However, in a thread about future wishes for OpenWrt someone mentioned a simply luci based way to switch between bridged AP and full router mode. Something that would solve your issue quite nicely if it would exist already....