I have 6 x Edimax EW-7416APn Devices that I Acknowledge aRen't on your Supported Hardware List, However the ChipSet that it Uses is being Ralink RT3052 is, of Course the Processor MHz could be a Problem? The eNd Goal is 2 Mesh Network them, w/ B.A.T.M.A.N.... is this Do - able?

I Have of Course Been on a Learning Curve w/ this, Loads of yoUTube Viewing & Mind Warping Reading on the interWeb that I'm rather Challenged at, eXploring DD-WRT, Tomato, Gargoyle & OpenWRT, which Leads Me Here, it Seems OpenWRT is the Most likely.

I Believe in Recycling & Being Resourceful, such R & D if it were Feasible could be somewhat Disruptive or Paradigm Shifting! So I Hope this has Worthy Merit, But if Not, Please just Flame Grill me Mildly!

:)K

(Last edited by a1.computeko on 10 Feb 2018, 00:39)

Edimax EW-7416APn has only 4 MB of flash memory. This is not enough space for a bread-and-butter OpenWrt image, at least not without some serious customization and tweaking.

So, yes, it might be possible. But it will also be very difficult to achieve. You can take it as a learning experience, wrap your sleeves and get to work. Ask questions as you go. Be advised though that most of the work will be something that you must do on your own, and there are many questions to which we do not have answers.

Thanx Antek 4 your answer, if I were 2 take the Plunge, should I use the Older Backfire image? is it smaller? & should it still be able 2 Operate as a Wireless Mesh Node w/ B.A.T.M.A.N. Running or is it unlikely because it's just an Wireless Access Point rather than a Wireless Router, or an Unsupported Device even tho I thought I saw that the Ralink RT3052 ChipSet Worked? Could the Flash space on this Device be Different from another Device Reported as Working as I Recall be because altho it was Reported as having the same ChipSet that it might have had a bigger Flash space? Say 8Mb or 16Mb rather than 4Mb in this case.

Pardon My ignorance of this Basic Matter in Custom Firmware Flashing, My Only Previous eXperience was Gargoyle about 5 years ago on a TP Link Wireless Router & Tomato 6 years ago on a Cisco Router.

I think I may have other more suitable Subjects available if yoU Advize this is Too Challanging, But they're likely 2 be a Similar age or maybe older 802.11G? ( I Guess I Really should Cull those Gs! )
Does it Matter if they're WAPs or Routers? ( Altho Size & Weight is Critical in this eXperiment ), since I can't recall if I have any single port Wireless Routers?

Thanx 4 your Feedback!

:)K

It looks like the RAM size is only 16 MB.  That's a deal killer.  The 4.x kernel alone takes close to that.  32 MB is the absolute minimum even for a really basic application.

You could remove the covers and look up the chip numbers to see what you actually have.   Everything I see is about a v2 model that is 4 MB flash and 16 MB RAM as two 8 MB chips.

The RT3052 is not a bad SoC especially when built out to full 2x2 MIMO with external RF amplifiers.

One thing to know about BATMAN is that different versions do not mesh with each other.  And since it is part of the kernel you have to change the kernel to change the BATMAN version.

Yeah, I remember running old AA with 16MB ram :-) But actually anything good worked correctly: no opkg, no sysupgrade, nearly everything failed or crashed router. But as dumb ap it worked better than with stock. You can try it, but I doubt it will work. 4MB flash is usually OK, as long as you can build your own image and select your packages wisely.

Just to answer this particular sub-topic, development only happens in current code (the master branch, musl and device tree based, kernel 4.9 or 4.14), if you decide on working on older (read abandoned) code bases, you probably won't get any help (the code can't be merged, everyone has forgotten the old nooks and crannies -or tries hard to forget- and you will lose a lot of development of the last 5 years, not to forget 6 years worth of unfixed security bugs).

And even when you manage to install that, you will never be able to figure what does not work and why. You will never know, if it does not work as expected because of typo in config, or because something crashes silently with low ram. Sometimes it is best to put electronic waste where it belongs and invest $20 or less into new device.

I think I installed some of quite recent lede in 2017 on ralink device with 16MB ram, it worked, but it crashed and rebooted when I enabled wifi. And then it entered into inifnite reboot loop. It just had not enough ram to execute hostapd.

(Last edited by nozombian on 10 Feb 2018, 21:23)

Thanx All 4 your Advice, But I'm Still Nun the Wizer if this is even Do - able on a WAP or that it is Preferable 2 Wireless Router? I'm Speculatively Guessing that a Router has more Processing power & perhaps a larger Flash Memory Space & / or more RAMemory? Please Confirm or otherwise.... Sorry 2 be a Pain!

:)K

I recently built a custom image for a 4MB flash / 16MB RAM RT3052 device. I used the Attitude Adjustment version with some features like zram (kernel RAM compression), a couple of wifi backports, and minimal features. It works quite fine, I can even make it work as AP and client simultaneously.

The device works at the limit of RAM only when I configure the wifi using the LuCi web interface, but never crashed by the lack of RAM (OOM killer).

I didn't test BATMAN. Only tested it as a dumb AP, AP + router, AP + client routed, client routed, and client bridged with relayd.

Via wifi with a good signal, I got throughputs around 3~5 MB/s. I must say that my device has some hardware problem (I suspect about the external crystal oscillator).

RT3052 is still a decent hardware, but you need at least 32 MB RAM or more if you want to stay up to date with latest OpenWrt firmwares.

Thanx danitool 4 your interesting answer, having now searched thru my stockpile of Wireless Devices, the Only other candidate is 3 x ZyXEL NBG-417N slightly bigger & Heavier 4 Port Wireless Router & having just 1 Antenna  rather than the EdiMax EW-7416APn V2, 2 Antennae & also the same Ralink RT3052 Chipset, altho I can't find any more eXplicit info about how much RAMemory or Flash size?

& I'm still Challenged about Appreciating if there's a Preference & difference between Starting w/ a Wireless Router as Host or Wireless AP for Flashing for this eXperiental eXercize of Mesh Networking, Can yoU Please Educate me, also I Sure would Love 2 get my hands on that Custom image!

:)K

(Last edited by a1.computeko on 16 Feb 2018, 21:52)

Wireless AP's are based on the same router chipsets but typically have only one Ethernet port.  Also they may have features like being able to be powered through the Ethernet cable, better RF stage, directional antennas, or a weatherproof case.  As far as software goes they are the same.

The NBG-417 is probably 4 MB flash and 32 MB RAM.   Likely very similar to the NBG-419v1 which there are OpenWrt builds for.  One antenna may mean the SoC is a RT3050 instead of RT3052.  The 3050 is a stripped-down 3052 without circuitry for the second antenna or a second RAM chip.

The best way to tell is to open the case and look up the chip numbers.

This is the image I built. Patches and config used for compiling the firmware included

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11JNJKH … sp=sharing

Regards