Wireless Joint

I just purchased a Quectel EM160R-GL (Lenovo)

For some reason, it's not showing up on the router. I'm not sure it's restricted to Thinkpads/Thinkstation Lenovo devices?

I automatically assumed hey it's a Quectel EM160R-GL - plug and play.

I'm not sure if it's LOCKED or there's something I'm missing a firmware update.

If anyone has any idea what I might be able to do thank you in advance.

In the same boat here. picked up a (new) Lenovo-branded EM160R-GL. No response from the modem in any of my m.2 to usb adapters or routers (tplink archer C7v5 and mikrotik RBM33g, both on GO/Rooter.) This is supposedly a NEW unit, so I'm thinking it can't just be dead. If these are somehow locked to pcie mode, there must some way to unlock it for use via USB on OpenWRT-based systems... I have a Lenovo laptop with empty m.2 slot, but it's an older model and the em160 is newer, so not whitelisted on this device. Are the Lenovo-branded em160's really locked down so hard they can't be used in other hardware?... TIA. Paul.

As a followup to my own post, I'm now pretty sure my EM160 is dead. I have an older Lenovo laptop that usually fails to boot with an error message indicating 'un-whitelisted modem' when anything but a small list of modems is installed. I have an Fibocom L8650-gl and L860-gl that both behave this way in this laptop. This Quectel EM-160 does NOTHING, laptop boots fine and no new device seen of any kind in the device manager. It no workie via USB and it no workie via PCIe, so I con only conclude "He's dead, Jim". YMMV...

i have the brand new seal in box, seal in anti-static bag, never open Lenovo quectel em160r-gl Wireless Cellular Modem 4g LTE as well, and when i tried to install on my m.2 to usb adapter and plug in to pc, the blue LED light flashed split second, and then that is it, nothing on device manager, rooter doesn't recognize it either. the description said it will only work on lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2, P17 Gen 2, T15g Gen 2, but i would be wrong.

It's likely set in PCIe mode, instead of USB. I think you can access the AT command terminal with the right drivers and simple SSH or telnet like tools. I'm no expert there though.