we have design wifi 7 module for BPI-R4, BE19000 ,totol 14 Antenna
now we also begin to design a new wifi 7 module BE14000, with 6 Antenna
This is the WiFi7 NIC we plan to make in the near future, but since the MTK’s driver is not yet perfect, so it will not be released until 2024Q1 at the earliest.
Are you going to produce both cards? I am only interested in the 14 antenna design but understand others may be interested in a design with less antennas.
My plan was to use diplexers for 2.4/5 ghz to reduce the number of antennas on my build to 10.
This is not yet decided
where are you buying them from?
Why not to make 4x4 streams instead of 3x3 ?
What’s the timeline for this to be released?
i asked someone from banana pi and she told me its expected in about 2 month
Awesome! Maybe there will be also case ready too.
AsiaRF’s MediaTek mt7996 module will be demonstrated this week; might be a quicker path to wifi7 on the bpi-r4, vs banana pi’s own module.
Was this timeline for the 14 antenna or 6 antenna variant?
I am looking forward to 14. Of course it is a lot, but who ever is interested in a platform like this will want the most of it. 6 could be interesting for a bpi r4 mini variant.
6 antenna, was not aware that there is a 14 antenna version
It was only a small batch as some users asked for version with less antennas,but if some users still want to have the original version,maybe it will continued
I’m looking forward to the module with 14 antennas. Thank you for the info! My preference would be to keep the hardware from 14 antennas but diplex 2g/5g
I would like the model with ALL antennas, thanks!
Same. Waiting for the module with full amount of antenas
whats the advantage of 6 vs 14 antennas? except that it looks probably monstrously?
based on the mixed feedback here i have created a poll here: [BPI-R4] Which Wifi-Module version do you prefer? so it’s easier to track if both version should be still be produced or only one
@oli 14 antenna version may get higher throughput but of course you need more antennas/cables/holes in case which may be have some disadvantages (e.g wallmount of case, overlapping frequencies,…).
I see a lot of marketing around high power FEMs claiming to help with range and wall penetration, more so on the QCA devices. This module seems to have them integrated in the MTK chips. Is there any comparison of the integrated FEMs against the high power ones that shows a difference or is all just marketing?
If it’s not just marketing, would using external higher power FEM on this module be possible and help with range?
Ideally the 14 antenna version would be redesigned to use diplexers in the same way the 6 antenna version has, reducing the antennas to 10 and retaining full fat wifi.
Hello,
there is a picture of the WiFi 7 modul with 6 antennas in the wiki:
https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_BPI-R4#4.1.29BPI-R4-NIC-BE14
This “explains” the case design of eight antennas → 6 antennas for Wifi 7 and 2 antennas for 4/5G cellular modem?
I also read the discussions about 6 or 14 antenna boards. For my little room the 6 antenna board is good. But what I ask myself in general (also for BPI-R3), is it possible to turn off one wifi chip to spare the power? → For exampe MT7977IAN (6Ghz) on R4?
