Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite Wifi7 Router board design with Mediatek MT7987

[Lorem_amicus (Michael Fischer)]

I think Eric talked more about these products:

But this does not mean that you are wrong!

Surprisingly, AsiaRF used a mini-PCIe (1 Lane) for the AW7990-NPD.

Because of power consumption, the last one is the only one I will consider using. So, for me, the mini PCIe decision was good in the end!

But for people who want to try the AW7991-AE2…

[moore (moore liu)]

We can use m2-to-mPCIe adapter card if we want to use AW7991 card with bpi-r4 or r4-lite.

M.2 AE Key to Mini PCIe Wi-Fi module Adapter M2A2MP

[Lorem_amicus (Michael Fischer)]

I checked the pinout. Looks like it has only one lane.

AsiaRF Wi-Fi module Adapter M2A2MP - M.2 A E Key to Mini PCIe

Okay, it looks like we have to make an Adapter [grafik] This should be makeable … But after the release of the the AW7990-NPD I’m not sure is it worth the work … It would be a simple project to get more in touch with Altium. At the end all depends on the driver support … but this, I can’t do

But you can recheck. I’m new to this topic (the chat shows this…)

[moore (moore liu)]

The AW7991 is a BE5000, and the bandwidth of mPCIe 1 lane is sufficient.

[Lorem_amicus (Michael Fischer)]

You should also be interested in the possibility of an “open wrt two”:

• MT7988
• 10G SFP
• 5G copper
• 4 port 2.5G copper
• 1-2 port 1G copper
• Tri-band Wi-Fi 7

https://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2025-February/043722.html

But I think the R4 lite will find his friends.

[sinovoip (bpi team)]

you can seet BPI-R4 Pro design:

BPI-R4 Pro design with MT7988, update version for BPI-R4, any good idea?

Ah ok thanks for the update

[totkeks]

What’s the reasoning behind increasing the NAND size and also adding a NOR flash to the mix?

[simon]

We have arranged to test 4GB DDR, but not sure if many people need it?

[simon]

Thanks.

As for this, you may need to add it yourself

@Lorem_amicus

III.)

MikroBUS Header on the Board → Will Banana Pi provide the necessary driver support to ensure seamless integration and functionality of the MikroBUS socket within official OpenWrt?

[simon]

In this way, you can install dual systems on nand without bricking.

@totkeks

What’s the reasoning behind increasing the NAND size

Another way to prevent bricking

@totkeks

NOR flash to the mix

[C_Soellinger]

Nice, this one can be a nice mesh ap cause if i use the normal r4 with a modem i only would need the WIFI7 nic here.

Two things i saw here and would love to see it maybe at bpi r5

• USB C Debugging Port (like someone said before, this is a game changer! but i also have to say, it’s a dev board. So people who do not know about Serial Connecting by PINs (RX/TX) should consider buying another board/router but it makes the setup “cleaner” and easier to connect/disconnect)
• RTC Battery place. This is so much more comfortable, easier and more safe than the RTC port at the normal r4

One thing i am missing at the Lite Version (but for my use case not important)

• No GPIO header cause for example i am watching the RPM from my used fan with this and give an alarm if fan RPM is zero. Not sure how much heat this one will get, but at the normal r4 with be14 nic and queltec rm520n modem it will get very hot without a fan.

Looking forward to this, especially to make a nice WIFI7 mesh network at home

greetings

[lu_zero (Luca Barbato)]

I guess the mikrobus can be used for that purpose.

[meco]

I have to say I’m intrigued. Seems to offer a lot for a prosumer device.

[ChaingTsung (tigerH)]

So what the speed of USB Type-c Debug console is?

[frank-w]

Serial settings are 115200 8n1 flowcontrol off

[ChaingTsung (tigerH)]

I tried to build firmware for r4lite with openwrt ‘main’ branch code, firmware built but failed to boot: Failed to boot openwrt on BPI-R4-LITE · Issue #21676 · openwrt/openwrt · GitHub

Anyone knows why?

[frank-w]

Bootrom looks like bl2 is missing…can you show hexdump of starting at 0x4400.there should be something like SDMMC_BOOT

[ChaingTsung (tigerH)]

yoki@coding:/tmp$ xxd -g 1 -l 256 -s 0x4400 openwrt-mediatek-filogic-bananapi_bpi-r4-lite-sdcard.img
00004400: 53 44 4d 4d 43 5f 42 4f 4f 54 00 ff 01 00 00 00  SDMMC_BOOT......
00004410: 00 02 00 00 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004420: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004430: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004440: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004450: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004460: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004470: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004480: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
00004490: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044a0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044b0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044c0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044d0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044e0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................
000044f0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ................

firmware: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KUuBLB37Rlw5jpK_AJN2CvbtjYlJAuVT/view?usp=sharing

[frank-w]

But now it boots further than your post in openwrt forum…

Is it self compiled? Maybe image too large? I’m no expert in openwrt…maybe write was not complete? Try sync command after dd is finished else it is possible that dd returns and data is still in cache

[ChaingTsung (tigerH)]

Boot failed too. https://forum.banana-pi.org/uploads/default/original/2X/8/83de35c2ff0a3a75a9d857aaab999d58c25c54f0.png The startup process keeps getting stuck here. Can this firmware （https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KUuBLB37Rlw5jpK_AJN2CvbtjYlJAuVT/view?usp=sharing） successfully boot in your test?