[BPI-R3] information

Banana Pi Router design
36

mt76 wifi driver now has support for this SoC

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What is the capacity of the network accelerator? (HW NAT) On R64 it can handle 1G NAT easily.

10G is becoming more popular, I think a product like R3 but with 10G only ports (at least one SFP+ for fiber) would be amazing. Also instead of the built in wifi chips on board, gives us PCIE ports instead (WIFI 7 is coming) Would such a device be possible in the future?

Either way, R3 looks like a solid product, a very good upgrade over R64.

@sinovoip @moore

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Did my first steps with bpi-r3,noticed some problems:

  • pcie seems usb-only (maybe use pcie switch like on r64 to have full featured pcie) and pin 46 is again +5v which may break some cards. See here: [BPI-R64] mPCIe hardware pin 48
  • usb-sockets near gpio are non-standard. Made a cable for testing it,but this is not end-user friendly.Please use a default 9-pin motherboard connector here
  • m2-slot misses hole for 30mm nvme, so currently cannot test it. If using an sata adapter there is a need for power (5v+12v+gnd). 12v seems to be behind power socket,but have not found a 5v yet (except usb/fan) which may give enough power for 2.5inch hdd

bpi-r3-nvme-hole-missing nvme-length

Apart of this r3 is a great board

Edit: got response:

  • Usb-sockets will be replaced my 9-pin motherboard connector
  • hole for 2230 nvme not possible because other side of board is pcie slot
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If doing new hardware rev imho it is better to move the switches all to top side of the board and maybe replace them by 2.54mm pins +jumper. This will allow moving these switches to somewhere on the case. As install to emmc requires switching multiple times this will be hard if board is inside a case.

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41

I started working OpenWrt support for the R3 and got most things working. Feedback and questions are very welcome!

Edit 2022-09-02: Support for the R3 has landet in mainline OpenWrt. See Banana Pi BPI-R3 OpenWRT image

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42

Looks like the RST button is connected to the NVME/M.2 PCIe socket on the back of the board and hence detected in always-pressed condition as soon as a card is plugged in. This is also visible in V1.0 schematics RST_PCB_COLO

Was this fixed in V1.1 or newer versions of the board? Because like this (obviously) the RST button doesn’t make much sense.

@sinovoip Imho for mass production you should remove R171 and R173 (ie. instead of 0R make it NC) so the buttons work. If someone really wants PCIe power management (because that’s what they are for, apparently), that would have to be changed in drivers/device-tree as well and one would have to populate R171 and R173 and sacrifice the button functionality. r3-fix-reset-button

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43

Are the wifi connectors U.FL/IPEX? I can’t find that info.

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Yes, WiFi connectors are U.FL (like on mPCIe WiFi cards).

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Thank you for confirming.

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It seems that next Filogic chip will bring us 10G, looking forward to have it in a BPI product.

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Nice if you have the right counterpart. My switch has only 1g so r3 is enough for me now :slight_smile:

I hope they have 2 mmc controllers that makes it easier to use emmc and dedicated sata,but it seems this part is same as r3.

But for next years r3 is a great board.

49

hey guys,

I just bought a bpi-r3 to use as a home router with some storage space. I need a case for this thing. Any suggestions? If there isn’t a case yet for sale, can the banana team release the cad for a case that can be 3d printed?

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Afaik there is no case yet, but i thought making one with lasercutter like i did for r2: 3D designed case for R2

Used this for creating the base: https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/index.html

Then adding holes for connectors/switches/ sdcard, assembling and air circulation. For the last part i had the 3d case. For r3 we need to make this manually. For r64 i made a photo from connectors,added this to inkscape and drawed it on top, removed the photo and scaled to match the correct dimensions

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that looks horrible :cry:

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Don’t worry…r3 is a really new board. Case is coming,but currently i try to get changes into mainline kernel and so cannot work on case too.

Maybe someone else can work on case…maybe someone who can create a real 3d model.

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I’m going to try and if successful I will share the model

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here the front connectors, HTH

r3_connectors

1 Like
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@Bluse Is there already an updated front-panel matching the R3 inside the printed outdoor case you guys are using?

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I got the banana. Where are the antenna thingies for the 4g lte card?

And any advice on the 4g card to use? I already got two 2.5gbe sfp gbics.

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also,

it appears there is a metal case for the banana: https://wiki.banana-pi.org/File:Bpi-r3_Metal_case.jpg