Fwd: SECN 4 TP- Rachel MR3420. V3

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T Gillett

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Apr 7, 2018, 6:51:13 AM4/7/18
to village-telco-dev

Hi Joe

Some comments below:

1. You must install the firmware that corresponds to the hardware version of the device you are using. If you try to install the wrong version (eg V1 firmware on a V3 device) you risk damaging the device.

Also, if the device is running the original manufacturere's firmware, you need to flash it with an OpenWrt/LEDE "factory" version of firmware.
You cannot use a "sysupgrade" firmware version for the initial flash. All VT SECN firmware is "sysupgrade" version.


2. The MR3420 V3 device is a more recent hardware release and as far as I can see it is not supported in OpenWrt or LEDE development.
The ToH page for the MR3420 states that V3 and V4 are specifically *not* supported.  (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-mr3420)

So we are not able to develop SECN firmware for this version of the device.


3. The MR3420 (V1 and V2) device has only 4MB of Flash memory (like many other popular TP Link devices).
This amount of memory is now on the lower limit of what can be usefully supported with OpenWrt/LEDE, particularly if more than a basic firmware is required.
It is recommended by the LEDE development team that devices have a minimum of 8MB Flash.


4. TP Link (like other manufacturers) have been affected by FCC directives (as well as commercial considerations) that result in potential difficulties with installing firmware other than that distributed by the original manufacturer. So it has become somewhat problematic to buy these types of devices and install OpenWrt/LEDE based firmware.
You may be successful in installing firmware on particular devices purchased this week, but if you purchase the apparently same device next week it may not work. It is not really possible to predict with any certainty whether the next batch will work or not until you buy some and test them.


5. For this reason, my personal recommendation is that you are probably better off looking at devices that are manufactured specifically to run OpenWrt / LEDE based firmware. Good examples are devices from Dragino (www.dragino.com) and GL.iNet (www.gl-inet.com).

Alternatively you have to test and qualify each new batch of proprietary devices prior to any bulk purchase.


So the bottom line for your project is that you will need to find a different router to use SECN VT-RACHEL firmware.

Please let me know what you think.

Regards
Terry


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