Banana Pi BPI-BE1900 Wifi7 Module design

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4/BPI-R4 Pro(MT7988)
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I’m not looking for advanced features, bleeding-edge support, or to match someone else’s 1 km performance — just a reliable baseline firmware that actually works. Than I can add something on it.

Like many others, I kept the R4 because of its advertised expandability.

I own many routers and dev boards, — even lesser-known ones like the Radxa Orion O6, which has been an outstanding experience. Wi‑Fi 7 is no longer new or experimental — even the stock routers and free optical modems provided by ISPs now support it, I also bought a COMFAST USB dongle (983BE) back in August 2024.

Other routers based on the MT7988A/D series work just fine. As far as I guess, none of those vendors wrote their own drivers from scratch. They’re using MediaTek’s SDKs, just like SinoVoip.

This isn’t cutting-edge R&D — it’s basic integration work. So if everyone else can get it working…SinoVoip, c’mon

From recent posts, it’s clear that BPi still wants to turn the R4 into a more powerful platform — and they clearly have access to MediaTek’s proprietary SDKs, without reverse-engineering .

At the very least, they should be regularly updating the clean firmware images, even if they’re not open-sourced — just to replace the broken ones currently online. or just a reference to make sure our board is fine.

Before I spend another $100+ on the BE19, and potentially countless hours more on top of an already $200 platform, there’s only one thing I want to know:

Can it actually perform better or not?

Maybe sinovoip just give us some numbers — even simple test results, like throughput at various distances, stability under load, would be enough. Right now, we all agree the R4’s Wi‑Fi can’t even beat a $20 AX router like the Cudy TR3000 (2Gbps+ over 5Ghz) , which also can runs OpenWrt. :smiling_face_with_tear:

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i can only talk for another vendor, there is a clear NDA from MTK for them, which means: nothing of that SDK must be made public, nor anything related to it. The funny thing is tho, those use GPL software and then forbid to comply with the GPL. Anyway, thats another topic…

no one knows that until someone is willing to buy it and do those tests. if you want to know such stuff, its probably best to write them an email. but i doubt that they will release any information when the product is not even available to buy.

COMFAST USB dongle

Funny, i have the same, and it works like crap… it states it is connected as wifi7 to my AP but i lose all the time the connection and the speeds are terrible. Really terrible (20-30mbit/s). My mobile phone and the pcie wifi 7 card do the job very decent.

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I found the sibling of Banana Pi’s BE19 on AsiaRF:

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grafik

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sample ready:

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Very good. I surely believe there are many others than just me waiting to see, if this would complete “the best WLAN access point/router available”. Because others than BE14 range issues, I still believe this is.

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I don’t see a shield for it, had the noise issues of be1400 been solved with the be1900

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I’m absolutely certain this is yet another piece of e-waste. As much as I don’t want to believe it, there’s a high chance something’s wrong again — and it’s all because this is a “development board”!

The BPI-R4’s CPU frequency is way too low. At a similar price point, the ASUS RT-BE88U is powered by a powerful quad-core 2.6 GHz CPU!!!

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Looks like provision for the shielding, though? the edge lines do look like they are present. Would there be the shielding on already (on such speculated lines) the photograph would have very little to show.

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The BPI-R4’s CPU frequency is way too low. At a similar price point, the ASUS RT-BE88U is powered by a powerful quad-core 2.6 GHz CPU!!!

Are you sure that Cortex-B53@2.6ghz (custom version of A53) surpasses Cortex-A73@1.8ghz?

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Yeah there’s markings for shielding which the be1400 also had but didn’t really improve the noise at all from other people testing

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Not necessarily mere markings - should be the actual ground plane the shields attach to (via soldering).

Impossible to say for sure, of course, from just that picture.

If they are, this will, of course, yield better shielding than just having metal plates.

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Yeah I just forgot they were called, but no one is sure if it’s actually connected to ground plane due to the lack schematics

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I’m not sure whether the Cortex-B53 @ 2.6GHz (a custom version of A53) truly surpasses the Cortex-A73 @ 1.8GHz in performance. But what I do know is that I have an ASUS RT-BE88U, and both its wired interface speed and Wi-Fi signal strength are far superior to the BPI-R4 combined with the BE14. Honestly, I really regret buying the BPI-R4 + BE14 combo—it feels like I just bought electronic waste. Even the official firmware is outdated.

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I understand your frustration!

But you’re comparing things that should not be compared in this way!

The BE14 was described as an iFEM and had no shielding soldered:

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→ I did not understand the difference between an iFEM and eFEM because I’m a laiman :see_no_evil:. This why I cannot criticize it in general …

I know there are some other problems with certain BE14 boards (e.g. EEPROM issues). And we’re not even sure where the noise came from!

The OpenWrt (open source) drivers for Wi-Fi 7 are not finished yet.

→ We should talk about this again in a year… let’s see how OpenWrt 25.xx has improved!

Don’t get me wrong: If you want to make a general statement, I think it’s a good idea to include the following sentence beneath your individual comments :slightly_smiling_face::

No one should assume that setting up a Banana Pi development router board is as straightforward as using a fully developed ASUS router.

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Congratulations:

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You changed your opinion :slightly_smiling_face: and redesigned the BE19.

eFEM

  • Now there’s a really big eFEM on the board — it even looks larger than the ones from AsiaRF :cowboy_hat_face:.

Shielding

  • Much more improved — and now separated! :+1:

External power supply

  • Did I see it right — is external powering possible?

Power consumption

  • As always, I’d be very interested in the power consumption:

    • Max
    • Idle
    • 2.4 GHz only
    • 5 GHz only
    • 5/6 GHz only

  • That info would be really helpful! For comparing BE14 and BE19.

    like this:

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Most people who buy this board aren’t so-called “developers” — they’re regular consumers and tech enthusiasts drawn in by the supposedly powerful hardware specs, hoping to get something that can actually be used in daily life. But the BE14 is just garbage. I live in a big house, with neighbors far away and a very clean wireless environment. Yet, just stepping out of the room where the BPI-R4 is located, the signal on my iPhone 16 Pro Max drops sharply. At just 15 meters, it’s basically unusable. My main use case is as a Wi-Fi bridge, with my main router being an Asus AX11000 — and the BE14 performs even worse than an old Intel 7265 (whose Wi-Fi noise level is -100 :person_facepalming:). *Replaced the factory-installed thermal pad with TG Putty Pro. Image_20250710211710

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The ASUS has this memory which s**** :wink:

Memory 256 MB Flash and 2 GB RAM

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And if most people do not know what they buy (to be honest, they buy a board, a case, a card maybe a modem all as single product - which is not normal at “normal” routers ;)), they should not shout to much

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PLEASE remember: this is a thread about the BE19! The criticism of the BE14 likely led to the redesign that became the BE19 — I’m quite sure about that! Time will tell how well the board performs across the various compatible BPI boards :slightly_smiling_face:.

I’d also like to see a redesign of the BE14. But that’s not up to me…

“Most people who buy this board aren’t so-called “developers” — they’re regular consumers and tech enthusiasts drawn in by the supposedly powerful hardware specs.”

  • You may be right :slightly_smiling_face:

  • But that doesn’t change the fact that this is a development board. And it’s officially labeled as such:

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  • It might become part of your daily setup — but that’s not the board’s purpose. YOU / WE have to make it suitable for that! Getting the BE14 to run (in the way you want) still requires a lot of work (may be it is impossible)!

  • What I mean is: it’s not garbage, because it does work — it just might be useless in your specific case (and for many others). Its Wi-Fi range is significantly shorter compared to common routers.

  • As for general performance: they’re still working on the software…

  • You’re projecting your expectations onto the board — I totally understand that — but it’s not quite what it seems.

  • You bought a development board with no shielding on the main board or the Wi-Fi module.

  • And it was clearly declared as an iFEM:grafik

  • If we explore and improve this development board, what we gain is knowledge.

Your criticism is welcome! :+1:

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Okay, one question about this one, did you tested it in within the BPI-R4 default case?

And are all antennas necessary? (of course for full mimo setup you need all i think)

Cause with the default case i have four 5g antennas too, so i would need at all 18 antennas :rofl: Looks like if i want to use the BE1900 card i also have to use(and wait for) the new case :roll_eyes: Another option could be that i will use some internal antennas for some stuff :thinking:

Can’t wait for it – and to be honest, the BE14 (signal) quality lacks really if using inside the case :stuck_out_tongue: and cause of dust and to protect the hardware i want to have all in a case :slight_smile:

You already know a kind of price or release date?