OpenWrt support for ZTE H1600

For Developers
21

Hi all, after looking for a while I found in the boot log this EN751627 which I guess is the SoC model
I got this from an online search
image
Source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/MediaTek/SoC

My only concern if both chips are same. Could anyone confirm this please?

EDIT: Apparently are same chip, this router have the same number in the boot log and has a similar PCB
https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/zyxel/zyxel_vmg8825-t50

I just wrote an email to ZTE asking about the tools used to build the firmware.
There is a manual how to start building a new target in OpenWRT
https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/zyxel/zyxel_vmg8825-t50

22

There is no support for Econet SOCs in OpenWrt so far (yes, they've been bought by Mediatek, but the SOCs have a different heritage and aren't supported yet), so you'd be looking at a steep learning curve.

23

Hello slh, thanks for your reply

I emailed my ISP, importer of the device and the headquarters in China asking for the SDK as is suggested in the reference guide, see link.

Assuming I could get the SDK, would it be feasible to add OpenWRT support to this chip? or am I on the wrong path?

24

Everything is 'possible', but only if you have enough time to bring up a new target (and it's questionable if you'll get the xDSL driver source in the first place). Even if you were familiar with this, you'd be looking at 6-9 months development time at best.

Long standing wisdom about Econet has always been "run away".

25

Hi, to all
As previously noted by isas, OpenWRT has already run in Econet 7516 https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/zyxel/zyxel_vmg8825-t50.

1 Like
26

What makes you believe that?

There is no indication in that device page about OpenWrt at all, but there is a very explicit "OpenWrt support: Not supported.".

1 Like
27

Thanks all for the help, apparently there is no support for Econet SoC

However I found several post with work in progress for Econet SoCs.

For now I'm following this reference guide
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/add.new.platform

And following this post which have good information about Econet
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/adding-openwrt-support-for-ancatus-a6-wifi-6-ax1800-ax3/104649/25

I'll keep looking what I can found in the wild.
Meanwhile I'm waiting for ZTE response, I'm getting fast replies

Thanks for help me out to identify the SoC
I'll keep you posted

1 Like
28

@isas @anon75569510

any news about this router?

@isas : did they reply to your emails?

I work now on H369A, I faced same problem, here is link to the Topic but i was able to extract the firmware from NAND and I got the root files. I may help you if I could of course.

I hope I can add this new platform to OpenWrt one day.

29

I have in my hands a succsesful dump of the WSON8 eeprom .

Its half a Gb . i dont know if it will let me upload it here

@saladin @isas @filippos are you still working on it ? if so i could upload to WeTransfer or similar the .bin and send it over

30

No, I was busy in improving my knowledge on how to build efficient Linux device drivers, for now I put the whole project on hold because unavailability of vendor documentations on hardware, device drivers and dts files required to build openwrt for this router, may be (and I hope) I get back to it because the router has very good hardware capabilities

31

Just want to add that I am also an owner of the ZTE H1600 and very interested for OpenWRT among other things. I would like to provide any assistance I can.