Would be possible to add OpenWRT to this hardware?. Recently I bought some of the Cudy AP3000 Outdoor because I need to provide WiFi connection to outside my home and they are good in quality/price. I'd like to install OpenWRT on it to have more advanced features and maybe even better performance, but I see that there is no Official support.
I have asked the Cudy team, but they said that they are not able to do anything until official OpenWRT support is provided. Other models like WR3000 and M3000 have already got support for OpenWRT, and the Cudy team has provided the firmware to disable the signature check, but it's not the case of the AP3000 Outdoor.
The differences seems to be mainly in the flash space (which is bigger), and the CPU model termination (from CN to DAN):
Model
AP3000 Outdoor
Version
V1
CPU
MT7981BA
CPU MHz
1300
CPU Cores
2
Flash MB
128 MB (1 Gbit) NAND
RAM MB
256 MB (2 Gbit) DDR3
WLAN Hardware
MediaTek MT7981BA+MT7976DAN
Ehternet 1Gbit ports
1
They provide a GPL Firmware based in the OpenWRT v21.03:
I was able to build it, but the device should have a signature protection and I was not able to install it in any way. I have tried the official method (web interface), and the recovery method (tftp), and in both cases it uploads the firmware but it doesn't updates with the OpenWRT firmware.
Also I have tried to dissasemble the device to investigate a bit more to see if I can get more data, but it's an outdoor device and it is not easy (I don't want to break it).
I don't know If I can do anything else to help without to disassemble the unit.
Hi
Glad You've managed to build fw . Only known method is to stop u-boot and connect serial console then boot ramfs.bin from TFTP. As far it goes CUDY is consistent and all models follow same porting route.
Please consider create PR (WiP) even If you're unable to unscrew it and test it.
I was able to build the FW that they provide, but not using this repository. I don't understand if it's possible to copy the configuration, and if it's possible, I don't understand the project to be able to do it right now.
I'll try to see if I can stop the u-boot in any way without to dissasembly the unit, but If I am not wrong, to access the serial console normally requires of a direct connection to internal points. I'll try to investigate a bit.
The Cudy team has provided me an intemediate image, but right now I have no time to test it. Once I'll have some time I'll try to do it and I'll report back here.
Tested and looks like it works fine. The connection between my PC and the Wifi is up to 2.4Gbits so it's reaching speeds near the LAN limit. Maybe even the limit problem is my ISP
The only problem that I have seen for now, is that when I try to update the base-files package it just gives a "RO Filesystem" error and stops working. I have to reboot it to make it work again.
I have installed htop and upgraded several packages, and all were working (just the base-files makes it fail).
So it's normal. I take notes. I'll keep it testing for a while and I'll report If I see any other error. I have to start learning how the OpenWRT works.
I have to check if there is any "centralized" management system, because to manage 5 wifi endpoints one by one is a pain in the ass.
For now I have not seen any strange on it, the cudy support team has uploaded the intermediate image to their shared Google Drive, and the commit has been merged to master (now we have an snapshot image of the device).
I think that this thread can be closed. Thanks to all for add support to this device!
