Banana Pi BPI-R4 Wifi 7 Module design

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4(MT7988)
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It builds fine, just cannot make any changes or build crashes. Making the correct build environment was harder than building the image. I can let you use my build environment, or I can just give you the built image.

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which environment do you use?

using image does not help much as i need to add debugs afterwards to compare with upported code

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Ubuntu 20.04. Kernel 5.4. Do not update kernel. Switch to gcc 10 and c++ 10. Built fine after that.

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No matter what I changed it would cause build to fail. Couldn’t add any drivers or anything. Atleast any changes I tried to make.

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And what about a board? Q1 2024 is gone, but no news

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Last state i have is this from 2 weeks ago: Banana Pi BPI-R4 BPI-BE14 Wi-Fi7 NIC module - #33 by simon

But having the module is not enough,you want driver support and this is only in downstream openwrt…no mainline support yet (no mainline compatible firmware yet)

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Thanks for an answer

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Little bit OT:

Which Wifi6 module works with the R4 and OpenWrt? For the time being I want to install a Wifi6 board if the 7 board is not widely available …

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look in the mt76 supported boards…e.g. mt7915/mt7916 if they match your requirements, this driver is mapped into openwrt and some of them i have tested on r4 too

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thanks, will look into that.

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If I get mt7916 WIFI what image can I put on the device which will have the needed drivers and UI for easy router setup?

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Please open new thread for this as this is for r4 wifi7 card

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There was news today on X about the WIFI7 NIC: https://twitter.com/sinovoip/status/1790331961963401630

Banana Pi BPI-R4 WIFI7 NIC 6 antenna finish all test, and will public sale soon

2 Likes
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awesome news. i am wondering if there is a “list” that is recommended to buy, e.g. what antennas exactly (quality etc.), and if there are any things to consider when using a case (layout of the antennas and their connection to the card)

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I made a remark on the “official” Wifi 7 Nic board chat:

Thanks :ok_hand:

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Hi…

Where can I buy it?

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nowhere, its WIP. when its done, you can buy directly from sinovoip e.g. on aliexpress.

for anyone interested regarding antennas: if i understood the person from sinovoip, seems like there are special antennas required for wifi 7 which will be sold when the card comes out.

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Ok, will they also work with Wifi6? Or will you need different ones?

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i assume they will work with all wifi standards. otherwise, it would be useless, wouldnt it.

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So there is no 14 antennas version anymore?