So what do I get if i pick the £61 option? Why can’t if be found on aliexpress.com rather than de.aliexpress.com?
This whole process has been exasperating.
For the love of god, put clear information up on the website - stop putting pictures of board + antennas + wifi module in the advert when that ISNT WHAT WILL BE SHIPPED.
How hard is it to not be totally vague about what will be received by a paying customer?!
Oh, never mind. Its out of stock there, too. What a shambles.
I REALLY wanted to love this product, but it has been an unending nightmare trying to get hold of it.
A real shame, because right now, I have a non-wifi router that is apparently reasonably fast, but completely useless because there is no WiFi card.
When is this going to change?
And when are we getting the promised 14 antenna version?
Please you have to read AND click on the links.
Here is a picture of the link:
You can use the R4 with older WIFI 6 Boards.
You buyed a development board!!! The software is not eaven finished:
I understand, that you are may right now realizing the environment you are joint in!
And you are welcome! If you want 
PS: Please have patience!
Its far easier to have patience when information is provided - look how easy it it:
Hi! We are making a WiFi 7 Router platform. Features:
Not very hard to do, is it?
Instead, I find myself trawling through page after page of misinformation, and adverts showing pictures of things you wont get, even if they were in stock. (When I bought my router board, the picture showed a NIC installed, but it was not supplied. If this was CLEARLY mentioned (like, on the picture, in a language I can read), that would be less of an issue, but it wasn’t.)
Like I said - the project looks really cool.
The communication about the project is total garbage.
Open source projects live or die by volunteers and COMMUNICATION.
speaking of the wifi 6 boards… where can I get one?
There is a positive report about AW7916:
But I’m not sure that this will be the best compatibe board.
There is the link to Asia RF:
… as Oli sayed 9 days ago the BE14 will be available in about 6 weeks.
I would only buy a wifi 6 board if you need it right now!
So there is no “official” WiFi6 board? OK, I may as well wait.
Will the new batch be available in quantity? or will it just sell out instantly in 6 weeks from now?
This all are interesting questions … 
… i have no answers.
It would be a surprise, if they not produce enough …
For me it is not clear, what happening right now … .
Is it a problem of banana Pi? Or a delivery delay problem of Mediatek? And in general, I do not care … because the price for this wifi NIC board it to high for me! → I have the mony, but not for that …
The BPI-R3 is a wifi 6 board, you can buy it right now, the software is functional and it is less expensive.
All problems solved.
I already have the RP-4. I need a wifi6 NIC for it. Im not about to buy a BPI-R3 now as well…
Its a problem of BPI. It certainly wasnt clear from reading before I bought my BPI-R4 that it was a development board.
I found this place because someone was showing a picture of an assembled and working PBI-R4 with the NIC fitted, and raving about how well it worked.
When I got here, I read about a bit, saw that a NIC was in development, but had no way to know that what I had previously seen was merely a dev with an early prototype.
This would have been FINE, had BPI not advertised the BPI-R4 on aliexpress WITHOUT the NIC, but WITH pictures of the fitted and apparently existing NIC attached to it.
I expected to receive a fully functional WiFi7 router. IT WAS ADVERTISED AS THAT - the adverts call it a WiFi7 Router.
When it arrived and turned out to merely be an ARM single board computer WITHOUT any WiFi at all, let alone 7, it was a BIT OF A SURPRISE. (I did think it seemed cheap, but stuff from China CAN be cheap.
I LIKE the concept. I LIKE the execution of the base platform. I THINK I will like the WiFi7 card when it is finally available. I EXPECT the promised 10/14 antenna variants to be produced.
As I said before, communication is important. If the advert I bought my BPI-R4 from had clearly stated that the NICs would NOT be available, I would have been a LOT happier.
I dont know how else I can say this. I dont hate the project. I’m here because I liked what I saw and I want a part of this.
But Im only STILL here because Im stubborn and I spent money already. I’m hoping this situation improves, and I find myself wanting to be here because the project team are giving up to date and clear information - which includes not making borderline false claims on the website.
I might sound rude but next time that you buy something on Aliexpress do some research before. Also read the description and take a look at the photos in the reviews so that you know exactly what you are buying.
By the way the docs lists a compatible wifi 6e card.
It does sound rude, because I just clearly stated that I did do research before buying.
Research does not guarantee a perfect outcome - ESPECIALLY when the main website is really not very well organised.
Case in point - the WiFi6 module you refer to in the docs looks great - but when you click on the link it takes you to a page for a completely different module.
this link, to be clear - which sometimes works (but shows (apparently) the wrong product) and sometimes 404s.
The same page that says to use a “RT5400B” for PoE, but neglects to even mention that different voltage variants and topolgies for the module exist…
For the PoE it is the 12V variant (you can find that page 9 of the schematic of the board).
I dont have issues with the AsiaRF link and I see AW7916-NPD on the docs, the website and even the image of the module (you only need to plug one mini pcie with this module and this is normal).
And you said that you were surprised by the fact that the board didn’t come with the NIC which makes me think that you didn’t research enough.
Thanks, I haven’t had a chance to review the schematics yet.
BUT - this REALLY should be made clear on the webpage as well - it was only on my second trip to aliexpress that I discovered that there even ARE variants of the 5400B - in the forums, no-one mentioned this (or if they did, it was not seen by me).
Luckily, I guess fitting the 5V variant would probably not have damaged my board, but fitting a 24V one (I wouldn’t have, because I am experienced enough to know better) would have really ruined some other less experienced persons day.
Looking again, I can see why the image on the page differ from what I see on the aisiaRF page - it’s because the image on the page is the (still unavailable) WiFi7 board.
Now to be fair, there is a small caption above the image saying “WiFi7:BPI-R4-NIC-BE14”, but the layout of the page is terrible, and I missed it.
I am TRYING to be constructive here - I’ve worked on linux for over 25 years now, and on SoC support and SBCs for nearly all of that time, so I have some experience of quite a number of hardware projects.
I’m TELLING you that, as someone who has written pages for SoCs before now, these are unclear and badly laid out.
The Wifi6 module should have a picture. It should also be in a seperate section of the page, not lumped in with the (completely different) WiFi7 module.
The Wifi section of the page has the heading “mPCIe WiFi6/WiFi6E/Wifi7”. It has a subheading for WiFi6, which is underlined, and NO subheading of the same type separating the WiFi7 information out.
Instead of telling me I’m too stupid to use a website, why not accept that the website has room for improvement?
I’m not the only person saying this. Here’s an example linked from the BPI mastodon for another of their products, and the reviewer clearly has the exact same issues as I do - nice products, lousy webpage. Its the only thing the reviewer really criticised: This SBC Puts Raspberry Pi 5 to Shame
Rather than spending your time telling me how stupid I am, maybe spend some of yours improving the documentation?
C’mon bpi isn’t big company to put 1000 devices of cheap wifi 7 router with two 10gig sfp, this is understandable that they managed to put base board at first and get money back to finish case and wifi module. And when you know something more than basic, you can see clearly that this isn’t just one simple rf chip but more.complex build, and that’s because of wifi 7 mlo and other tech, if You want cheap pseudo wifi 7 router then buy what is already on the market , without mlo, 320MHz channel and more of wifi 7 advantages.
I am confident there was a polite way to deliver your feedback. I wish you had put as much effort into seeking to be polite as you have blaming others for your mistake made in haste. You had perhaps intended to be constructive, but you have tripped on your own feet in your attempt. You selected an overbearing, condescending tone to convey your message, couched in an argument from your own authority.
You appear to have decided that your haste and ignorance is annyone else’s problem, but I assure you, it is not. You seem to be the only person insisting that this mistake was solely made due to the state of documentation. It appears many others were able to navigate this hazard more gracefully. May you find peace.
I’m sure everyone would have welcomed your energy in the form of sharing the complete edits you would like to see made to the wiki, or suggestions on the wiki content that are far less abrasive than you have been in this thread. If you do attempt either of these, for the love of god, leave your caps lock key unbothered.
Yes, its understable AND practical for bpi to deliver the product in two parts.
But its unacceptable to produce misleading advertising.
Ive seen less misleading pictures on eBay.
Look, i dont want to go on about this, but if youre going to keep defending misleading practices, i will.
Im not singling out bpi either. Go look on the pine64 forums. They got far worse from me.
“Development board” isnt supposed to mean “undocumented crap”. Too often “dev version” is used as an excuse for not writing any docs for a product that ultimately gets abandoned unfinished.
The pinephone is a good example of how not to do it - It “works”, but the design is so bad that battery life is measured in minutes, not hours. The docs are attrocious.
The bpi-r4 actually seems to work quite well, from the little i can do with it right now.
Some of its docs are ok (board layout, pinouts, etc.)
Some is very poor, eg. PoE mod info, etc. as ive mentioned above.
Now, can this community take constructive criticism or not?
