Hello everyone.
So I recently purchased a few Comfast CF-EW72 access points followed the wiki guide and bricked the firmware after a while of trying to figure out what was going on, someone pointed out they were running off the Mediatek SOC not the usual Qualcomm.
I'm not sure where to go from here. I've messaged Comfast to try get some info as all their specifications they publish show the Qualcomm chip so either they recently changed or I've managed to get a bunch of counterfeit access points.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, If anyone can help and need more details please let me know.
Many thanks Bowen.
The FCC ID on the label should provide you with some answers, the ID must match the innards and should show the PCB and relevant components (yes, the images are often blurry and bad, but still a first hint).
Ty I've been banging my head against a wall for days even if I can't get it working I atleast know it's not totally my fault now.
I'll go check the FCC label now
They don't match! So where do I stand? The FCC listing only shows the Qualcomm board, seems this Mediatek variant isn't listed I'll wait for Comfast to reply and confirm but it looks very much like someone is doing something naughty either it's counterfeit or Comfast has changed the products and not notified the FCC.
There's no FCC hit (or Google) on the ID of your device?
I just bough the Joowin version/clone, from eBay (open box), will be interesting to check what's inside it, before flashing 
So as I have nothing to loose at this point I went ahead and flashed some generic Mediatek mt7621 firmware I found on the openwrt site. It boots I have 18.06 running on the device but no WiFi drivers.
It's too hot to do anything now so I'll have a play later and see how far I can get.
Seems most of the chips have heatsinks plastered to them which it seems I might have to remove to figure out what drivers to use. If your lucky you might get one with the Qualcomm chip but if you don't and end up with the Mediatek like I did let me know and I'll send you anything I come up with.
You can probably figure out which modules to install by reading the kernel log, and running lspci.
I'll open mine, and hook up the serial once home, esp if I discover the FCC ID doesn't match.
Will the kernel log tell me anything considering ive flashed another kernel onto the device? Sorry I'm an idiot I don't tend to learn anything untill I break it this is the 2nd one of these I've had in so many weeks the first one I killed uboot on so I'll have to use a eeprom programmer to fix it.
The kernel will list everything it detects (using serial, or running dmesg), and so will lspci (post boot).
It should be enough to point you in the right direction.
Installing the incorrect modules shouldn't kill a device, if the hw supported by module X isn't discovered, the module isn't loaded.
1 Like
Ok great! thanks! I'll get it an IP set up and install lspci, fingers crossed I should start getting somewhere. Damn things have been stressing me out! Even not working but having firmware I can boot has calmed me down alot.
Seems this is as new as I can go if I try to load a 21.xx image of OpenWRT it gets stuck in a boot loop. Not totally sure what to do at this point. I don't want to start working on the modules if they are indeed counterfeit and I should be sending them back not working hard to fix them. I'll wait to hear back of Comfast and see what they say about the fact these are Mediatek units.
How likely is it that a product with an FCC tag but no FCC listing is legit?
Not very, unless it's another version.
How did you open your AP ?
Unscrew the top two screws at the based of the antennas, and then ? just pull it apart ?
So there's two nuts on the antenna and two screws behind the label
It claims it's version 2 but I've been through all the FCC listings and there's no version 2 I'm still waiting to hear back from Comfast I even sent an email to the general manager but no one wants to reply and the seller I got them from is claiming there's 2 versions but Comfast only lists one firmware. it's all a massive pita.
Either Comfast or the seller is pulling a fast one I'm just hoping it's not the seller with me and my e-commerce now giving him greif
