PicoStation M as a MP02

[Gary Griffin]

I would like to convert a PicoStation M to a MP02. I have seen multiple posts on the forum discussing this, but have yet to find one putting it all together. Can you refer me to a guide or appropriate forum thread? My ultimate goal is to have the Pico run the Wildernets image. 

[T Gillett]

Do you mean that you would like to run the same firmware on the Pico M as runs on the MP02?

The MP02 has some additional hardware such as USB and second Ethernet port that I assume you are not wanting to add to the Pico. It also has more flash and RAM.

The Picostation M runs the same OpenWrt firmware as the Bullet M.  

    http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/ubiquiti/picostationm2

So you can run the SECN Bullet M firmware on the Picostation M.

WNets firmware is based on SECN but has been developed for the MP02 only at this point. 

There is no technical reason that it can not be built for the Picostation M.

Keith Williamson is looking after the Wildrnets codeset.

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 7:09 PM, Gary Griffin <prepperlink...@gmail.com> wrote:

I would like to convert a PicoStation M to a MP02. I have seen multiple posts on the forum discussing this, but have yet to find one putting it all together. Can you refer me to a guide or appropriate forum thread? My ultimate goal is to have the Pico run the Wildernets image. 

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[Gary Griffin]

Thank you for the quick reply. 

My goal is to run the PicoStation as a node on my MP02 Wildernets network, basically to extend my range. I do not need the additional USB/Ethernet ports. 

[T Gillett]

OK  So it will just be a matter of porting the WNets codebase to use the Pico/Bullet configuration.

On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 1:43 PM, Gary Griffin <prepperlink...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you for the quick reply. 

My goal is to run the PicoStation as a node on my MP02 Wildernets network, basically to extend my range. I do not need the additional USB/Ethernet ports. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/village-telco-dev/f33b1572-e974-4e43-b1c3-2ea9e944b2f9%40googlegroups.com.

[Gary Griffin]

Whatever you think is best. Thanks for the help. 

[Wayne Abroue]

Hi Gary

The process in a nutshell.  Check to see what version bat-adv you are using on the mp02's  .
Batctl -v

Then go to openwrt download site.
Check out the application folder on top of each release to establish it is built with the same compatible version.

Reflash the pico by downloading the relevant image..
Setup wireless same as the mp02's
Install setup bat-adv

You should be good.

Wayne

On 21 Nov 2014 11:09, "Gary Griffin" <prepperlink...@gmail.com> wrote:

I would like to convert a PicoStation M to a MP02. I have seen multiple posts on the forum discussing this, but have yet to find one putting it all together. Can you refer me to a guide or appropriate forum thread? My ultimate goal is to have the Pico run the Wildernets image. 

--

[T Gillett]

If you just want a node on the mesh that is compatible with the Wildernets nodes then you can use the SECN 2 firmware for the Ubiquity Bullet device.

This is available on the Village Telco Downloads web site.

Do you have WilderNets firmware running on MP02 devices already?

On 22/11/2014 1:43 PM, "Gary Griffin" <prepperlink...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you for the quick reply. 

My goal is to run the PicoStation as a node on my MP02 Wildernets network, basically to extend my range. I do not need the additional USB/Ethernet ports. 

On Friday, November 21, 2014 4:52:47 AM UTC-5, tlg wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/village-telco-dev/f33b1572-e974-4e43-b1c3-2ea9e944b2f9%40googlegroups.com.

[T Gillett]

And do you have OpenWrt firmware already installed on the Pico, or is it still running the original firmware?

[Gary Griffin]

I have been busy lately, and apologize for not getting to this sooner. This is what I tried so far. 

I flashed the Pico with the OpenWRT firmware. 

I then tried the instructions by Bob Hunt with no avail; Picostation M2 as node on SECN (batman-adv) network. I believe this worked the best, as the WNETs and SECN shared the VT-WNET-AP connection settings. However, the Pico did not appear as an available hop/connection under the WNET network (Status Tab).

Next, I flashed the Pico with the SECN 2 firmware for the Ubiquity Bullet. I attempted to replicate all of the settings, but was unable to set the Wifi Mesh settings (it would not take the changes). I couldn't get them to talk. 

Last, I flashed the Pico with the new SECN 3 firmware. I was able to change all of the settings, but I do not think they are talking. First, the Pico doesn't appear under the WNET's available hops/nodes. I can not connect to the Pico through the VT-WNETS-AP, and can only connect to it if plugged in via ethernet (even though the configuration is all the same). 

I noticed that the WNETs and the Pico SECN are running different versions of Batman; not sure if this is the issue. 

Any more ideas? Should I start fresh?

[T Gillett]

Hi Gary

The different versions of batman-adv used in SECN 2.x and SECN 3.x are not compatible, so they will not talk to each other.

This is unfortunate but apparently necessary for the continued development of batman-adv.

However, the developers have promised to maintain backwards compatibility for a 'long time' going forward...

 

WNETS is based on SECN 2 and so will not talk to a SECN 3 device on the mesh.

I do not personally have a Pico M or Bullet M device to test with, so I can't speak first hand. I have Nano M and Rocket M devices to test with, and the firmware is all generated in one compile operation, so I can only assume that the Bullet/Pico firmware works as the Nano and Rocket ones do.

Since you have had the most success with the SECN 3 firmware running on the Pico, do you have an MP02 or a TP Link device available that you could flash to vanilla SECN 3 just to sanity check that the two devices do actually communicate on the mesh?

This should also work for SECN 2.0.

The key to checking that the system is working at the basic level is to flash the two devices and change *only* the IP address of *one* device.

This is only necessary so that you can connect to the devices without an IP address conflict, as both devices will come up on the default IP address of 10.130.1.20 when flashed. You can change this setting on the Basic page, Save and reboot the device to make the new setting effective.

Once you have two devices running, connect to one device and check the Status page to see if the other device appears.

If we can establish a baseline of working firmware, then we can work forward from there.

As I understand, you ultimately want to run WNETS firmware on the Pico device. What other devices are going to be in your network?

Keith is planning to move WNETS to BB and the later batman-adv version,but it may be a little while yet.

Regards
Terry

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/village-telco-dev/04844fd9-6201-4be3-aeb2-d2f1576125d3%40googlegroups.com.

[Gary Griffin]

Finally got it to work. Thank you for letting me know the SECN 3 would not be compatible with WNETs. 

So here is my fix to get a PicoStation M on the Wildernets network. I know it doesn't make sense, and there is probably a better way to do it... 

1. Flash Pico with OpenWrt (I used one of the recent versions).

2. Flash OpenWrt with SECN 2

3. Flash SECN 2 with SECN 3

4. Flash SECN 3 with SECN 2

5. Configure the same was Wildernets. 

Reason why I flashed so many times. The OpenWrt flash and SECN 2 are needed since the SECN 2 works with Wildernets. However, I could not get the SECN 2 image to work with Wildernets the first time. I even tried an entirely new Pico (I have two of them), and it would not work by flashing the SECN 2 image. As stated before, it would not take the changes to the WiFi Mesh settings under the Advanced Tab, nor will any of the Wildernet/SECN 2 nodes show up under the Status Tab. 

Even though the SECN 3 image is not compatible, it did allow the WiFi Mesh settings to be adjusted. I saved the settings, and flashed the SECN 3 image with SECN 2. 

The WiFi Mesh setting carried over to the second SECN 2 flash. Next I configured the remaining properties to work on the Wildernets image, and then rebooted. 

After reboot, everything appears to be working. 

=====

Complete Steps (hopefully everything is included)

1.       Setup PicoStation, run Ethernet cable from POE to Pico .

2.       Using a Ethernet cable, plug one end into the LAN port of the PicoStation, and the other end into a computer.

3.       If necessary, adjust your computer’s Ethernet adapter to 192.168.1.x

4.       Open a browser, and type the default IP address for the PicoStation (192.168.1.20)

5.       On the menu, input the following information

a.       Username: ubnt

b.      Password: ubnt

6.       Select the System Tab, and flash with OpenWrt firmware.

7.       After image is flashed, you are now using the OpenWrt firmware. Direct your browser to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci, to log into the PicoStation. Username and Password is root.

8.       Under the System Tab, select the Backup / Flash Firmware Tab

9.       Under the Flash New Firmware Section, upload the SECN 2 Firmware.

10.   After image is flashed, you are now using the MP02 SECN 2 Firmware. Direct your browser to http://192.168.1.1

11.   Flash the SECN 2 Firmware with SECN 3 Firmware. After flash is complete, point browser to http://10.130.1.20

12.  You may need to change your computer’s Ethernet adapter to 10.130.1.x to log into the SECN 3 firmware image.

13.   Under Advanced, WiFi Mesh, change the settings to reflect the Wildernets settings. After complete, select save.

14.   Flash the SECN 3 Firmware with SECN 2 Firmware.

15.   Configure all remaining settings to work with the Wildernets image.

16.   Reboot.

[T Gillett]

Hi Gary

Wow! That is a serious work around.

I am glad to hear that you have the Pico successfully running SECN firmware at last.

However I think I can see at least part of your problem.

One thing I noticed in your instructions is that when you flashed SECN 2 on to the Pico running OpenWrt, you did not clear the "Preserve Settings" check box. So it used the OpenWrt settings on the new SECN firmware.

It is really essential that you do *not* preserve settings across firmware versions, because otherwise the new SECN settings files are overwritten by the original OpenWrt settings.

This is done at a whole config file level rather than just individual settings. So for example the whole /etc/config/network file gets clobbered.

The most obvious result of this is that the device comes up on the OpenWrt IP address (192.168.1.1) rather than the default SECN address of 10.130.1.20

This also explains why you were unable to save mesh settings - the OpenWrt config files are not set up to handle the mesh settings at all.

One way to recover from this situation is to click on the "Restore Defaults" button on the SECN Advanced page. This writes a copy of all the default SECN config files back into place. If you then reboot, it will come up as a normal SECN device on 10.130.1.20.

However it is better to always flash a new firmware without preserving settings, so that you get a completely clean configuration. You never really know what shrapnel has been left by a previous firmware.

I removed the "Save Settings" option from the SECN 2 firmware upgrade page for just this reason. So when you flashed from SECN 2 to SECN  3, it forced the use of the correct SECN 3 config files. And the same when you flashed back to SECN 2.

Unfortunately the OpenWrt default is to try to preserve settings across a flash operation, with somewhat unpredictable consequences.

As an aside, in the SECN 2.0.1 update firmware, I have included a facility for saving and loading the system configuration files. This is a very flexible arrangement. The settings files are saved as a normal compressed tar file which allows you to save the settings, edit them, and then safely restore them to any device running the same firmware version.

I would be interested to know whether you are able to correctly flash a Pico with SECN 2 from the OpenWrt firmware by selecting to not preserve settings.

I expect that this will work correctly, but if not, it would point to some other issue lurking.

Regards

Terry

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[Gary Griffin]

Makes total sense. I will take a look at this tomorrow, and will let you know if the preserve settings was throwing me off.