On 06/02/2020 07:06 PM, Steve Newcomb wrote:
On 6/2/20 4:02 PM, Ben Greear wrote:
Have you tried using IPQ4019 based systems? They seem pretty affordable, and the 3-radio Linksys MR8300 & EA8300 seem pretty stable in my testing recently (in AP mode, not tested mesh).
No. Used, on E-bay, the cheaper of the two, the EA8300 is at least twice as expensive as what we're using now. To buy a dozen or so in hope of getting them to work with Batman is out of the question, alas.
Ben, I fully understand your lack of incentive to spend your time on drivers for older hardware. This is not your problem, really. (Unless, like me, you are seeking ways to address the digital divide, where low entry cost is the key consideration. Every dollar cheaper means more people can connect, which was important even before the pandemic began. I selected these Archer [AC]7 v[245] units because there are so many of them for sale that they are kind of hard to sell. True, I didn't know the QCA driver would limit me to 3 nodes per mesh, nor did I know your driver couldn't support encryption nor DFS, at least not out of the box. It looked like a reasonable bet at the time; with 2 drivers to choose from, what could go wrong? Oh, well, nothing worthwhile was ever easy.)
Steve
I'm working with the TIP project, which aims to provide stable OpenWrt capable hardware, among lots of other things.
I know some others in that group are interested in low cost solutions, so curious to know what price you think is viable for your market...
https://telecominfraproject.com/wifi/
Thanks, Ben