Is there a way to know which chipset my Tenda AC9 uses, without breaking it apart? The router page mentions that it's V2- so neither the V1 (Broadcom based- partly supported by openwrt) and V3 (unsupported).
Interestingly, this model does NOT have a USB 2.0 port to it. I just found this out. Could this possibly mean the it uses a different chipset- which might mean that it supports a custom firmware fully?
The label on the router mentions this FCCID: https://fccid.io/V7TAC9
I tried looking for pics of models w/o a USB 2.0 port- but couldn't find any
If you click on that FCC link, you'll see mention of other documents, among which PDFs which contain pictures of the inside. And on these you can clearly see a Broadcom SoC mentioned.
So if you need the wireless, it's probably useless.
Edit: the missing USB port might just be an unused header (compare DIR-878 and DIR-882 e.g.). Economies of scale means manufacturers won't mix SoCs they'd rather not enable all its features. Just like car manufacturers do: build a few engines, use an ECU to offer multiple models with different horsepower and torque.