Hi
This category has been renamed including BPI-R4. Are there any information about it? Is it a new board based on mt7988?
Regards Frank
I hope they will not rush and put some sort of discussion before pulling out the final board.
Thanks
Here are some key-features of filogic 880: https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/05/23/mediatek-filogic-880-and-filogic-380-to-power-wifi-7-access-points-and-clients/
At least r4 should be more ram (4G+,better 8G)…i have no idea why it needs 4 sim-slots
It will take some time for proper linux support
Just bought an R3…
Not sure if I would take on any wifi-7 device just at the moment given the spec is not to be adopted until next year - been burnt in the past…
You can already use MT7988 with my work-in-progress tree on Github:
Or you can use the backport to OpenWrt which is available in the mediatek/filogic target in main branch as well as openwrt-23.05.
Regarding support in upstream Linux:
- Lorenzo has been working on Ethernet support and we will queue patches for the next merge window.
- cpufreq needs a small change, will also be sent for next merge window.
- DSA support has already been merged for v6.4.
- built-in 1G Ethernet PHY driver has been submitted but deferred to the next merge window.
- built-in 2.5G Ethernet PHY driver will also be submitted, but also needs firmware to be published by MTK (looks like SinoVoip didn’t make use of that built-in PHY, as they have put 2x SFP+ and you can only use either the built-in 2.5G PHY or USXGMII with GMAC2)
- I2C support went upstream
2 Likes
Looks like 3 sim slots. Perhaps there are two more expansion slots on the bottom of the board?
I just hope they fix problems like the fragile ipex connector. The R3 has the most delicate ipex connectors I have seen.
I am happy that the m.2 slot is on top. The R3’s m.2 slot can take a wifi card, but you really can’t use one there because of thermal issues when it’s underneath unless you use a very custom case.
I’ve complained about it too. The PCB designer has to consider mechanical sturdiness of those. I have already had to replace one connector also, and the PCB is very fragile and not well built.
Also the board should have more vias at the edges board, it is a basic countermeasure for static discharges, simple but elegant.
Thermals are the second discussion, especially for a product like this.
They should be discussion regarding it. Well… it is for free for them, that we share our field and professional experience.
For me, i’m waiting for a board with either one 2.5Gbps SFP + one 10G SFP+ cages , or with 2x10Gbps SFP but able to do 2.5Gbps too.
The reason is that current GPON modules are 2.5Gbps SFP modules, thus for a CPE it’s a must-have feature. The 10G SFP might be used for a NAS (with a dac cable), or a 10G copper ethernet (carefull to the power supply in this case).
For now the R3 is limited since the link between the 4 ethernet ports + 2.5Gbps cage share a single 5Gbps link to the CPU => Bottleneck with a NAS for example.
With current electricity prices, I cannot justify using 10Gb at home.
The NIC’s and router itself would become a current sink. My current DIY NAS system consumes 14W at idle and it uses a i9 11900T. I don’t want it to be 35W. Add in 10Gb card. It costs few banana pies… don’t even mention the old Mellanox turds.
This is a well balanced device for the price. Utilizing the M.2 for another NIC is the way to go. Actually a custom case with riser to proper PCIe would be better, like ZimaBoard.
The ideas to use it for nvme or add in consumer grade wifi is rather weird in my books. NAS without data safety RAID1 or 5 etc is against logic, and consumer WIFI cards are not designed for AP mode, just thermal design wise, it has to look like ASIA RF solutions, but again, Sinvoip decided to have rather weird M2 placement limiting possibily for larger cards.
It is only 2.5g to cpu…it is sgmii on mac0 (mac1 is wan sfp-cage)
With current electricity prices, I cannot justify using 10Gb at home. […] The ideas to use it for nvme or add in consumer grade wifi is rather weird in my books.
Everything depends on the usecase. I work from home a lot, so the electricity spending is worth it in my opinion. For now I uses a ryzen-based PC as my home router which uses a 2x10Gbps PCIe card from broadcom which supports the afordmentionned GPON SFP , with a simple 18gps HDD attached as a NAS for a budget of 40W at idle. All my home network is 10gpbs , since it’s usefull to me. I have no wifi at all and don’t plan to.
Now, if I could get a SBC like the R3.1 like I described , then I think I can lower my electric consumption a bit (but not significantly), but also lower noise & space as well as the satisfaction to have achieved this 
It is only 2.5g to cpu…it is sgmii on mac0 (mac1 is wan sfp-cage)
Damn , yes, I forgot that. For now i’t not an issue since I plan to use the R3 only for the internet routing, not really as a NAS (althrough it might be used as a second-stage backup).
All of this is my opinion only and I am not providing any advice for others - just exposing the usecase I would need.
Since the Filogic 880 seems to be capable of penta-band 4x4 WiFi , I hope to have a BPI-R4 with twenty antennas ! 
… and room for more antennas for the three LTE/5G MIMO 2x2 subscriptions 
Assumming it has filogic 880 soc it is going to be an amazing board, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. I’m happy with R3 and given the right price I’ll definitely upgrade when this one comes out. The only complaint I have about R3 is initially it was marketed as Wifi 6e, but later (after the purchase) redacted to be Wifi 6 (no “e”), still great product and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it again. Thanks for sharing and I’m very excited.
What the… I just got my R3’s and already R4 is almost here?!
It is not yet “here”. Only forum renamed and first informations. I guess it takes some months till first devs get the board.
I would prefer a hard reset button like on r2,reset on r3 is only software and do not reset if there is no process looking at it. I know openwrt uses reset button for entering recovery. So it is more factory than reset button…so maybe r4 should have 3 buttons (reset,factory and wps).
Also it would be nice having a rtc on the board (with battery holder) to have still have valid system time when no ntp is reachable. Imho this can connected to same i2c as pmic like on r2pro.
And please add coupling capacitors for pcie tx lanes. We had this issue on r64 and now on r3 too…some devices work without but some not.
sample will ready soon , but we need some time to public information , just some limited.
Couldn’t WPS share with factory? If the button is pressed at boot time, then it’s factory. If it is pressed after boot, it can be WPS.
The board appears to have two buttons, labelled WPS and RST. I heartily agree about a hard reset though. Please have RST be a hard reset.
Actually, that reminds me, the getting started page STILL says it has WiFi 6e. And the R3-mini page lies about its wifi too, saying it’s 4x4 for both 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
Hello, please have 10G ETH WAN, it would be really awesome to use with XGS-PON ONTs (in my country, when you ask your ISP for an ONT instead of their router, they give you an ETH model, not SFP)