OpenWrt support for Vodafone Gigacube (B157)

For Developers
1

Hello Guys,
I have a Vodafone GigaCube (B157), FCCID-URL = https://fccid.io/2ACCJB157 ,
but it's kind of useless because the vodafone mobile connection is really bad and its accept no other sim cards. However, I found out it's a IPQ8072A SoC, and a very exciting topic for making it work with promising progress. (Link: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/dynalink-dl-wrx36-askey-rt5010w-ipq8072a-openwrt-support)

The board has very spare labeling (Just Antenna marks), I can't figure out where is the Serial-Port ? (images below)

On the internal images of fccid.io, I can see a micro-usb port, but on mine, it's not soldered on it. Could be this the serial port? Pictures of mine are attached. FCCID internal Images link : https://fccid.io/2ACCJB157/Internal-Photos/TempConfidential-Internal-Photos-PART2-5395671

There are solderpoints next to the power connector, it seems to be a usb-a port ?

Im loving to use openwrt, I have very fantastic Wifi6 hardware but the firmware is limiting everything and makes it useless, I can't even upload a firmware-image file, just pull OTA-Updates if available by vodafone.

The webinterface is built with vue, there are no ports open except 53 (DNS) and 80/443 for webinterface.

Regards

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IMG_20230202_1642181920×864 96.5 KB

Since I'm a new user here, I have to link the other images externally:

Images: https://imgbox.com/g/IOqNUDfKhL
, more images from the backside (@Borromini ) : https://imgbox.com/g/3k8fdCOPYB

2

I'd think any soldering pads for serial would rather be on the other side of your PCB, going by the FCC pictures. I couldn't tell you which ones though.

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I added few more images from the other side

4

This board has many, sadly unmarked, test points, hot candidates might be the three horizontal ones left to QJ2012A and the 6 vertical ones above that chip, but many of the other could also be the one (e.g. the trapezoid made out of 6 test points below the three mentioned above). You will have to measure, ideally with a scope and/ or logic analyzer.

The pins/ test points for the serial console are typically not too far away from the SOC, often quite close to the flash chip - and their 4 pins (Vcc, GND, RX, TX in random order) are often easy to spot, but not always (and Vcc might be omitted, so 3 pins can be enough - or even 2, if you borrow GND from somewhere else on the board).

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