Banana Pi BPI-R4 Wifi 7 Module design

I would like to know if it is worth waiting for BE19 at all. I do not need details, just to know if BE19 has the right to exist. Now TP Link Archer C7 V5 is connected to my R4 via LAN as a WiFi distributor, I do not like it in terms of capabilities and stability. Therefore, I would like to insert a WiFi module into the R4, but should I wait for BE19 or buy BE14 right now?

@Stels & @Marazm Guys, I think you don’t got the point that Lorem_amicus is pointing to.

He and many others (like me) are volunteers here - we do stuff for fun and education. We are not affiliated with the manufacturer of the hardware, software or firmware. We informed ourself what we may get, before we purchased our hardware.

If you have expectations or release related questions, then please point them in the correct direction. In regards of your question Sinovoip (Banana Pi)/Mediatek are the correct partner that may be addressed.

The temperature is ok without SFP in use. When you use SFP, you need to do more than the OEM stuff. I guess they dont stress test their hardware. The SFP will heat the complete case to a state where its barely touchable without burning yourself.

I understood everything and went to look for other equipment

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So are there any wifi 7 modules with 14 antennas compatible with r4 that can be bought now?

After I read your question, my first idea is to ask you:


WHY WILL YOU BUY SOMETHING THAT IS NOT YET WORKING?

If you look at the chat of the BE14 you could imagine how long it will need to get it work:

short answer:

→ The BE19 WiFi 7 board for Banana Pi R4 is not jet released.

There was a BE19 WiFi 7 board which was not officially released:

For this topic I have the holy answer of Simon:

If YOU want to know more you should ask questions. BUT for this topic you should ask banana Pi directly.

I would try: [email protected]

And write the answer in this forum. I would really appreciate that!!!

Ask not what the Banana PI forum can do for you, ask what you can do for the banana PI forum :+1:! And by the way, you will help judy to get not so much question from so many users.

And I have a opinion an that question:

→ If you look for stability, I would not recommend you to use BE19 or BE14. And also not R4!!! But this is my personal opinion.

→ What wifi modul you need, depends on your individual needs. Did you use that alone?

→ right now, I use a wifi 6 router with 2 antennas for 4K videos -

I don’t know what you don’t like about r4, it works extremely stable for me, at least much more stable than archer c7. I’ll ask the question by email and if I get an answer, I’ll post it here. I wonder how long it will take to get an answer?

First of all there is this:

You have no stable release!

It is nor about “don’t like about r4”. It is is about the updates that can impact the whole system.

A good example is this chat! We have no working wifi driver! During the development process it can happend that a new update will influence other parts that run stable before.

If I remember rigtht this happend at R3 development … . And aditionally folders changed, commands do not work anymore, sysupgrade … (I accepted this :+1:)

You can look in this forum or in the open wrt forum. There are many open topics which will be undoubtedly solved :slightly_smiling_face:, but right now this it not the case.

I read some descriptions about R4 “runs like a charm”. And for these people it is a stable system right now … . But will these be the case after the next update (snapshot)?

If someone is comming to me right now, with a working Wifi 6 Router, and asking me, “Is it the right time to buy a wifi 7 Router”, I would say may be!

If he is asking me “as a endconsumer” should I buy a R4 router? I would ask hin: ARE YOU CRAZY !?! Please wait for good software support and a good price!

If he has a damaged router, I would recommand him to buy a R3. But only if he is willing to spend the work in time for open wrt!

To be honest, I don’t share your point of view. If the device is excellent but the software for it hasn’t been finalized yet, it doesn’t make the device worse. Yes, if your work is tied to this device, it won’t work at the moment, but for home use it’s the best you could buy. At least for me it’s already perfect and I haven’t had a single problem in a month of use.

If anyone really tried the mediatek openwrt SDK v4.0 on the BE14 board, it will be noticed the whole mental chassis is very hot to touch. The major heat is not from the AP SOC, but from the wifi board.

By nature, the BE19 board will generate much more heat, like it is supporting 4x4 5g/6g. It will be problematic to use with such heat generation.

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Then for r4 with be19 you need a special case with additional space at the bottom, so that you can place active cooling for the module there. And make the whole case more blown, because the current one seems rather closed

In general, I wanted to know about be14, does it have critically high heating? I mean, with constant active use, for example, with a VR helmet, it can fail due to heating?

Here is a example of my setup with BE14 module in a metal case, top plate replaced by by a 3d printed one with vent holes. OS is OpenWRT Snapshot build on friday.metal case.

Compared to the setup with a single Asiarf AW7916-NPD the WiFi module temp has increased for about 3° C - CPU Temp has increased for about 4° C. Interestingly power consumtion seems not to be increased and is kept at 11W (with Fibocom FM-350GL installed but not in use right now)

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Do you use a modified mainline openwrt version with the testing-firmware and the patch for mt76?

Jipp, used the changes that danpawlik introduced in his build on my git: GitHub - nextgen-networks/openwrt at BPI-R4-NIC-BE14

Also tested his hostapd changes (from here: [Banana BPI-R4] Wifi7 status - #95 by danpawlik - For Developers - OpenWrt Forum) but WiFi got constant resets - therefore reverted back.

(Edit: current Build is OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r27232-7e8409826a / LuCI Master 24.238.66800~2920c1f)

Seems like dan (and so yours) uses the 233 firmware from sdk (which was not compatibe with mainline in my tests) and not the testing firmware i use. And it contains the commit i had to revert because of warning (and aborted probe) for one phy.

Here is the answer regarding plans for be19

Good day! This is Wendy of BananaPi, I am glad to hear you are the owner of BPI-R4. BE19, we still have the plan to design it, but it is delayed and will take more time. I think it will not available this year. If you would like to use a wifi module soon, please try BE14. For your any more query, welcome to let me know.

Best Regards

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Thanks for asking :+1: and reporting!

I am a newbie, please tell me how to set up wifi for 5 GHz and 6 GHz. I mean that be14 is tri-band and I understand that 2 antennas are allocated for each network, but I want to use only two networks wifi5 and wifi6 and have 3 antennas allocated for these two networks, or if possible, allocate 4 antennas for wifi 6. If I just create two networks, do I need to somehow allocate specific antennas for specific networks?

Because of mixing different topics around the wifi module…please create dedicated threads