BananaPi BPI-R3, now with ROOTer support!

[token]

Hello,

I just wanted to spread the word on this little beast of a DIY router. It has a quad core MT7986 A53 chip @2ghz with Wifi6 AX, 2.5gbit ethernet, m.2/mpcie slots, 2gb of ram, and an on-board SIM slot. To say I've been grinning like a kid at christmas with this thing is an understatement. It's ridiculously quick and shockingly modest in price ($127 USD for the full kit). It's insanely unphased by whatever I'm throwing at it. I just ran steam updates and system updates.. 21MB/s, load average of 0.21 was the highest it went, averaging between 0.16-0.19. It's a monster! The WG1608 with its MT7621 would easily hit 3.00+ and start lagging like crazy under that scenario, not to mention it'd never actually hold 21MB/s when lagging that hard. I'm glad I went with this instead of an x64 router, because I can still power it with my 12v 2a backup-battery passthrough power brick for redundancy. Wifi coverage and speed are top tier, as well. Mediatek clearly learned some lessons and came out swinging with this chip.

I spent all of new years day getting it working with OpenWRT/modemmanager since it was still only supported as part of OpenWRTs snapshot builds.

However, I asked on the ROOTer forum what needs to fall into place for a ROOTer build, and in response, dairyman spent pretty much all day building a custom build system for this thing. Very unexpected, but as expected, it's been plug and play. I flashed it to the SD, copied to the NAND/EMMC, and it was online.

So I'm effectively here to mention that not only does this router exist, but is now supported by ROOTer ,and has many ideal aspects for cellular builds.

You can find kits on aliexpress that include the adapters, antennas and case as well. I'm very happy I found this router, and wanted to spread the word. It puts my wg1608 to absolute shame, and I predict it'll tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people looking for a new router.

Happy new year, and happy routing.

[Didneywhorl]

Is the wifi6 working?

[zac2424]

Do you have a link to the Rooter Build you got from Dairyman? Was wanting to go the Orange Pi 5 route, but don't see a build for it yet.

[zac2424]

I found the firmware, just wasn't looking correctly I guess

I am pretty new to this sort of configuration process though, is anyone aware of a video or maybe layout the process a bit more detailed on how to go from SD Card to Nand to emmc for Rooter setup?

https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_BPI-R3

Have tried following the setup for this (it references OpenWRT, but trying to use the Rooter firmware), but keep getting lost and stuff messed up.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[zac2424]

Update....

I see my usb stick in ROOter, looks like it mounts automatically, but when I try to execute

dd if=BananaPi-BPi-R3-GO2023-01-05-ext4.img of=/dev/mtdblock0

it says 'no such file or directory'

And I'm assuming using the ROOter firmware flash will only flash it to the sd, not NAND/EMMC correct?

Sorry for questions, I've just not done this before

+ @Dairyman any ideas?

[zac2424]

Sorry last update

Found great documentation on OpenWRT on how to do this. If you follow this guide, only using the ROOter firmware linked above it works perfect and I was able to get it flashed over the EMMC and have it working well.

Am going to test this out against my current USB3.0 Enclosure + WRT32X setup and see what performance differences I see. So far it still looks like the WRT32X has the edge, maybe not if I was able to get true 5G here and leverage the SFP ports.... but that will be a dream that never comes true...

@Didneywhorl I'll try to test wifi 6 as well. There are 8 wifi connections.... I'll have to see if I have enough connectors and antennas left over from other projects.

Thanks for letting me document my thoughts here for the past day or two

[zac2424]

Is the wifi6 working?

Can confirm wifi6 does work

[Didneywhorl]

Is the wifi6 working?

Can confirm wifi6 does work

Nice! How is the throughput performance from modem to wifi? I have mine coming in today.

[zac2424]

Is the wifi6 working?

Can confirm wifi6 does work

Nice! How is the throughput performance from modem to wifi? I have mine coming in today.

For a standalone router it seems pretty solid. My current setup is:

Quectel 502 in USB3.0 Encl > WRT32X running ROOter > Edgerouter4 > Unifi Wifi6 AP's in the house.

On wifi6 with the router 6 feet away it seems to match the performance.

It's prob pretty subjective but when I setup the router in the middle floor of our 3 story house it has done the best of any router I've tested (at least with internal modem support). Better than NEXS2GO, both WG routers as far as Wifi coverage and penetration, and it's smaller.

I could see this being a good candidate for going in an enclosure (wish it was Poe powered...) with modem internally. I've had good luck with my RPI's in external enclosures with PI Hats or just USB3.0 enclosures, but they are impossible to find these days. I'd like to test out the SFP speeds on this Banana Pi but not sure I have any fiber cable/connectors left. The ER4 I use has WAN SFP cage on it.

Fun little router, I do wonder if there is a way to get full USB3.0 speeds from the M.2 slot under the board, but don't know of any M Key to M.2 modem adapter or if the board even supports that.

[zac2424]

WRT32X is still a beast, best I've used honestly. But they are getting harder to find and more expensive. If you can get them for around $150 I think they are the better option, but not for any enclosure, too big and heavy.

[Didneywhorl]

... I'd like to test out the SFP speeds on this Banana Pi but not sure I have any fiber cable/connectors left. The ER4 I use has WAN SFP cage on it.
...

Why not use 2.5G/10G SFP to RJ45? I use them on my Dream Machine Pro. Works good

[zac2424]

Update,

Getting some weird happenings with the Banana Pi. So testing with external usb enclosure worked, Sierra 7565 worked fine internally in the mini pcie slot, but my Telit lm960A18 seems to throw a fit. Says that no sim pin is set in the profile. Never seen that before.

Tell works fine with same SIM card in a Raspberry Pi 4 with same sim, so not sure why the Banana Pi would take issue with it. Only difference is my Rooter version in Raspberry Pi is older and a bit different.

Any ideas?

[Dazed-and-Confused]

I might try this DIY router but it looks very complicated to me. Thanks for posting about it. I would never've found out otherwise.

[blackjmyntrn]

just stumbling upon this post, received my bpi-r3 and planning the custom 3d printed case now. adding an oled lcd but thankfu for zac's words, the Sierra 7565 is what Ive been searching for!

I had narrowed down my choices to the EC25-AF, quectel RM520F-GL, and the quectel RM500Q-AE but the 7565 is perfect balance of all things great! thanks!

[zac2424]

Glad to help, I've tried more modems/routers/antennas then i care to admit... The 7565 has be the most issue free over the years. Not the fastest, but very reliable. 2nd would be the Quectel 502 I have in an external USB enclosure, I've had zero issues with it as well and it runs a bit faster in same scenario, but need some routing horsepower to keep up with it.

Ordered the new giga-whatever it's called device on pre-order. it comes with the newer 520 Quectel. Interested to see if shorter antenna runs (currently ones are about 25' lmr200), and the new modem squeezes our any more speed. I may be maxed out where i live though.

[blackjmyntrn]

You know... I almost did as well, just... using their products since the one fruit version.. man that goes... i have limped along driving a Prius around the world load balacing multiple USB devices. It wasnt until I used a raspbery pi4 to handle the devices with mwan... ive only had their routers constantly need to be worked on no matter what version of firmware used. the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.. nope! not gonna fall for it even with two sim chips.

now, someone positively confirms till work with esim, then ill be all over it! the thought what if two esim, two physical sim. 4 wan link aggregation!!!! oh, I'm happy! aside from no 2.5g. all that dual sim lovelyness with wifi 6 and no 2.5g. I'm appalled!

fwiw... anyone reading the banana pi r3, every one with user accounts on this forum needs at least one! its the little things like knowing when you connect to rj45 on your laptop, its the fasted to connect to win10 laptop out of any router I've ever used! that's what sold me!

[buggz]

Hello,

I just ordered one of these kits from Amazon.
I am in the US.
I figured I would get this before the still unavailable, Banana Pi BPI-R4

- QUESTION:
I am confused over the booting from SPI-NAND, SPI-NOR, eMMC
I understand initially the SD card, but from there, what is preferable?

[buggz]

Anyone use a 5G modem with this?
I was thinking of RM520N-GL...

[WJcolorado]

I am getting some mixed messages - Does this board have wifi6 built in or does one need to provide a wifi6 board?

[Didneywhorl]

Built in: https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/99.html