Banana Pi BPI-R2 Open Source smart router with MTK 7623N design

Banana Pi Router design
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Agreed SinoVoIP does not owe us anything.

It would be really nice if they set expectations right. If they can set release date, it will help everyone.

Something like End of April 2017 , will calm anxious people :slight_smile:

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it support pcie interface ,so we can use it do many works . such as do a 7615 module ,so , it support AC function .

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Why? R2 has no ‘mini pci’ but mPCIe and anyone able to search for ASM1061 on eBay gets the same for less money than from you: http://www.ebay.com/itm/381525809274

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9kYAAMXQDnpTYKDs/s-l1600.jpg

Well, you already heard the answer which should be a warning. Those guys don’t do software (correctly), just look through the forums. And the interesting question isn’t which distributions they provide (since that’s easy, they do this all the time, it’s just exchanging the rootfs on images), the important stuff is kernel/drivers and I doubt they will ever be able to provide sources (since they can’t afford paying the NDA to get sources from MTK and even if they had they’re not allowed to publish them, you’re dealing here with ‘closed source router’ all the time :stuck_out_tongue: )

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You are a very funny guy.:slight_smile: , why not just waiting and see .

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I already own a BPI-M3 and the Hardware works well, but the Kernel is very outdated as you may know I see the BPI-M64 will be integrated to 4.11, are there any plans for BPI-M3 too?

You say the MT7623N is in the Mainline Kernel, are there chances to easily roll out other Distributions than the ones provided from you?

btw, BPI-R1 works great for Firewalling with ipfire, cant wait to setup a Firewall with the new one :slight_smile:

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C’mon, if you try to inform you now your disappointment will be not that huge later. @sinovoip does no software. They throw at you what they get from the chip manufacturer and that’s the reason the M3 is still at 3.4.39. With M64 all software development is driven by community: you can follow all the progress here, no need to trust in ‘just wait and see’ stuff board makers will tell you all the time: http://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort#Status_Matrix

With MT7623N there’s NOTHING compared to that regarding mainline kernel: “As of next-20170106 still only serial is working, no MMC or network.” (this GeekForce never happened). They get closed source blobs for the R2 based on a vendor kernel drop from Mediatek… and around Mediatek there’s zero community. Wish you all good luck rejecting reality. The only MTK CPUs with good open source support are those from Ralkin (MTK aquired them).

And BPi R1 combined with firewalling seems like a great idea :stuck_out_tongue: http://linux-sunxi.org/Lamobo_R1#Security_Implications

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Thanks for the links, they are very interesting The Firewall is for testing proposes only but good to know this

Well Sinovoip, how will the new MT7530 react?

If you guys do proper software support it could be a nice piece of Hardware… I still have a little bit hope :smile:

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Why? R2 has no ‘mini pci’ but mPCIe and anyone able to search for ASM1061 on eBay gets the same for less money than from you:

I wasn’t aware that sinovoip had published a price list for the BPI R2 yet. Have you seen it?

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Wow, great news. Upstream support for DSA by Mediatek themselves: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/3/13/738 so maybe in a few months it will be in official kernel. And there’s also something going on around 7623 upstream: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/1/16/591 (seems MTK isn’t that much or at all involved here and the whole thing is progressing rather slowly :frowning: )

No, and I guess that’s for a reason! :stuck_out_tongue: The whole excitement might be gone once you know how much they will charge for this :joy:

Anyway: if I would need two more SATA ports added to one already existing I would clearly choose Marvell’s EspressoBin instead (great device and great software support) and add a cheap ASM1061/1062 mPCIe card.

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Sadly Marvell’s EspressoBin’s mPCIe only supports wifi & bluetooth. Actually ClearFog Pro is a more powerful but expensive SBC.

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Why’s that? It’s mPCIe as per specifications according to released schematic: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/MarvellEmbeddedProcessors/main/files/arlp/Block-Diagram-Schematics.pdf

If it’s mPCIe you can attach any PCIe device, right?

Funnily it’s really easy to spot the difference between so called ‘Open Source’ blabla as it’s the case here and true open designs. Schematic and sources are released even before product launch, you find everything already below https://github.com/MarvellEmbeddedProcessors/

And now compare with this Banana joke here :joy:

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Don’t know why.

source ( from http://espressobin.net/forums ): The PCIe slot on Espressobin is for WIFI and BT usage only. It doesn’t support mSATA.

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Exactly, it’s mPCIe only and that’s the reason you can add 2 more SATA ports for less than $15 as explained above: Banana Pi BPI-R2 Open Source smart router with MTK 7623N design

I think with the Clearfogs you can switch between mSATA and mPCIe while on EspressoBin it’s PCIe only. No idea.

But since it’s PCIe you could even add real PCIe cards with 4 or even more SATA/SAS ports with something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/PCI-express-to-Mini-PCIe-expension-adapter-PCI-e-x1-to-mPCIe-card-supports-Sound-Card/909573_32780634356.html (not that useful when just a single PCIe lane is available :wink: )

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Does the new hardware have 3rd mpcie slot? Because i want to use it like a dual band wifi AP (dual module), the only one mpcie slot is not enough. I will not use MT6625L in AP mode. I beg you, SOC has 3, just add on your board, please. :wink:

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i see . if you not use USB 3.0 , you can get two pcie interface , the other one is for sata interfact.:slight_smile:

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With lots of hardware to get PCIE from USB3.0, single module, i think we have to put them on the table not in case. Now it’s look like a board for developer, not home user :joy: Last thing, i still want 3rd mpcie slot on back side than via usb3.0

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2nd pcie and usb3.0 interface are co-phy for mt7623, i.e, they share same phy to save the cost, so the 2nd pcie port is a native pcie port when usb3 is not enabled, thanks.

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Faster, China! Too long…

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there is the picture function diagram from ASIARF & Shenzhen Gainstrong Technology Co., Ltd

i edited it for our BPI-R2

correct me if i’m wrong, i just want to cleanly understand.

As i said, i wanna use BPI-R2 like a real AP, so i thing MT7623A is better.

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mt7623n supports hdmi, GPU to be a SBC (single board computer) and can use TRGMII and RGMII interface to connect to mt7530 gigabit switch,so it is better than mt7623a.

in addition, I found many upstream activities in past months, including IR, 7530 DSA, I2S, PWM, pcie, DTS… etc. it is a good news for us :smile: