Banana Pi BPI-BE1900 Wifi7 Module design

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4/BPI-R4 Pro(MT7988)
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What has been shared so far is not sufficient evidence that BE19 fixes the problems people observed with BE14. A screenshot showing only RSSI does not validate range, stability, or RF quality.

  1. RSSI without SNR/noise is meaningless High RSSI at short distance can still happen with a poor link (high retries, errors, MCS drops). The BE14 “range” reports look more like a noise / isolation / EMI issue than a simple “TX power” issue. Without SNR / noise floor (or at least serious proxies like retries/failed under load), no conclusion can be drawn.

  2. Publish the minimum reproducible metrics (required) If you want the community to validate “BE19 fixes BE14”, you must provide at least:

Exact distance + obstacles (LOS / 1 wall / 2 walls; wall material: brick/concrete/drywall, etc.) Channel + bandwidth + TX power + regulatory domain/country (especially for 6 GHz) RSSI and SNR (or noise floor + RSSI) Actual PHY: Tx/Rx rates, MCS, NSS, EHT/HE mode, GI, retries, failed, packet error / loss Real throughput (iperf3 TCP and UDP) at 1 m / 5 m / 10 m / 1 wall / 2 walls Stability over time (30–60 min sustained load), temperature, and whether shielding/heatsink is installed Without these, results are anecdotal and not comparable.

  1. If you claim “6 GHz / 320 MHz”, why does it show AX instead of BE/EHT? That is a red flag. 6 GHz + 320 MHz is Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be / EHT) territory. If the UI reports AX:

the client may not support EHT 320, EHT may not be enabled in driver/firmware/hostapd, the UI may be reporting incorrectly, or the test is not actually running at 320. Please clarify precisely:

whether EHT is enabled on the AP (driver + hostapd configuration), which client is used and whether it supports EHT 320 on 6 GHz, exact driver/firmware versions and the build tree used. 4) No “marketing screenshots”: we need repeatable results If there is no distance-based measurement table + the exact settings/logs/commands needed to reproduce it, then it is not evidence.

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93

May I ask when it is expected to be available for sale?

94

Just a small note :see_no_evil::

If you had read the chat, you might have noticed that you’re not the first person who didn’t know that Banana Pi usually doesn’t publish specific release dates. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Best regards

PS: Some people try again and again … :yawning_face:

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I’m more interested in the be19’s performance than the release date. Considering that the most detailed tests of this card, including signal-to-noise ratio, obstacles, and so on, haven’t been published yet, it makes me think the be19 is just as much garbage as the be14. I’m also interested in the release date because once it’s released, we’ll be able to evaluate the be19’s performance in real life. Conducting more detailed performance tests isn’t difficult, and if they’re not being shown, it means there’s something to hide.

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96

The OpenWrt 25.12.3 release only proved to me that the BE14 is useless. It’s pure garbage. This card simply refuses to work with any OpenWrt 25, which tells me the community doesn’t care about this card. I’m really looking forward to the BE14 v2 or BE19 release to replace my current BE14. And I don’t need laptop WiFi cards like the MT7921 or MT7925 because they have limited functionality. I need a decent WiFi card with good performance and range. And it’s pointless to say that this is a development board and that operational stability isn’t guaranteed. At the time of purchase in 2024, there was no mention of a development board for the bpi-r4 or be14. This board only started to be widely distributed after complaints about problems with these devices started pouring in.

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Many people’s misconception. OpenWrt’s slogan “wireless freedom” was never quite right to begin with. Vendors’ firmware (based on OpenWrt or not) always better tuned for wireless support & performance. The value of OpenWrt is its widespread support of many devices as “embedded systems” which some of them happen to have good working wireless drivers.

For your BE14, give a try to MediaTek’s firmware (which is based on recent OpenWrt releases): BPI-R4 OpenWrt Deploy System — 4GB/8GB, SD / eMMC / NVMe

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I have to add one important point: The whole system is open source.

What you said is not wrong, but I think the reason is different:

It is because OpenWrt is open source.

More precisely, OpenWrt does not develop CPUs, Wi-Fi cards, or routers itself. It depends on hardware vendors, upstream Linux support, firmware availability, and community contributions. That is why support for new hardware can arrive late.

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“Garbage” means that it does not work at all.

But you do not have a defective device, do you?

“… and if they’re not being shown, it means there’s something to hide.”

No, I would not go that far. But personally, I would not buy this board shortly after release.

I fully understand your anger, but choose your words carefully.

100

I understand the frustration, especially if the BE14 does not work reliably in your own setup. But I think the conclusion that “the community does not care about this card” is too simplistic.

The BE14 does not use a separate Banana Pi driver. On the open-source side, it uses the mt76 / mt7996 driver for MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 hardware.

The development history matters here. Generic MT7996 support was added to the open-source mt76 driver first, around 2022. That work came mainly from MediaTek engineers, especially Shayne Chen and other MediaTek contributors, and went through the Linux wireless / mt76 development process with maintainers such as Felix Fietkau involved.

The BE14 needed additional support because it uses the MT7996 2+3+3 variant. That BE14-specific work came later, around August/September 2024. Daniel Golle submitted the OpenWrt mt76 work for the 2+3+3 variant used by the BE14 / BE14000 module, with MediaTek involvement visible in the patch history.

So this was not simply a case of OpenWrt ignoring the card. BE14 support depended on several parts coming together: the open-source mt76 driver, MediaTek firmware, EEPROM data, device-tree integration, and OpenWrt packaging.

The hardware may still have real problems in practice, and I understand why you are angry if it does not work properly. Support arrived late and was complicated, but there was work from both MediaTek and the OpenWrt community.

The only reason I bought the R3 and R4 was that I wanted an all-in-one router with SFP. Unfortunately, the R3’s Wi-Fi coverage is limited compared to a commercial router.

But the past is the past, and times are changing. Turris, GL.iNet … and hopefully OpenWrt two. :slightly_smiling_face:

In the end, you really have to think about what your actual needs are.

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Are there any new news about a release date?

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You see how it has worked for new BE14.

→ released by surprise :slightly_smiling_face: as usual!

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Still no ETA? I’m now thinking of buying the GL.iNet Flint 4 if that releases first.

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I just bought a couple of the GL.iNet Fint 4 routers. Sorry but I could no longer wait for the BPI-R4 Pro set with the BE1900… I’ve been waiting for over a year. Best of luck to you guys.

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Why is the GL.iNet Fint 4 better than the BPI-R4Pro with the BE1400, which is available now?

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Probably because the GL.iNet Fint 4 works, whereas the R4 Pro and BE14 don’t? I mean, the R4 Pro + BE14 combination doesn’t perform as well.

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107

It’s been so much time since last update. Let’s be honest - the thing doesn’t work nor probably never will.

Any other options for openwrt, double sfp+ ports and WiFi 7 320mhz?

Thank you.

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the r4 is ok, i would probably go with a separate AP like something from ubiquiti

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R4 has been released for a long time, and the product is quite complete. Although there are indeed a few issues that need to be resolved, the SFP+ functionality should be fine.

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I’ll ask this question again: when is the announcement for the BE19000? Or was that not an announcement, but merely a render of a non-existent device? If it actually exists (which I personally strongly doubt by now), then where are the benchmarks, specifications, real-world photos of it in action, and so on—like we saw with the BE14000?

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lasciate ogni speranza ~Dante

1 Like