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Meraki MR16

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KF6ODE
Meraki MR16

GitHub indicates that an image has been built for the Meraki MR16, however I have been unable thus far to track it down.

Does it in fact exist?

KF6ODE
Thanks!
I looked in the nightly builds, but my wife will tell you I am horrible at finding things, especially when they are right in front of my face!
KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
Thanks NC8Q! Are good
Thanks NC8Q! Are good flashing instructions lying around somewhere? I have a few of these arriving tomorrow and I'm looking forward to setting them up.
K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
MR16 is dual band, does mesh support 2.4GHz or 5GHz side?
The Meraki M16 is a dual band device with a 2.4 GHz antenna (near the Ethernet connector) and 5GHz antenna near the top of the device. Which one of those are used on the mesh side (the AREDN OSLR protocol side)?
I'm also very interested in the flashing intructions.
- Damon K9CQB
KO4CEE
MR16 uses 2.4GHz for mesh by default

5GHz can be used for WiFi at the same time.

K6CCC
K6CCC's picture
Any chance that any of other
Any chance that any of other Meraki APs will become usable on AREDN?  I have several MR34s that will eventually be replaced with newer APs (one fairly soon).
 
KO4CEE
Other Meraki APs
Maybe if the hardware has good OpenWrt support. Start there.

In the MR16, the Atheros chipset used was already very close to several other supported devices.
 
N3XKD
I just picked up 4 of the
I just picked up 4 of the MR16's because I'm a glutton for punishment
KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
Have you found any good
Have you found any good flashing instructions? I'm ready to work on mine as soon as I get some guidance on the process.
N3XKD
I've looked at the OpenWRT
I've looked at the OpenWRT projects' pages for this device. I will probably start there and flash it with OpenWRT first and then load the AREDN image from there. I'm still awaiting the devices in the mail. 
KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
That was my plan, too, if no
That was my plan, too, if no one came up with start-to-AREDN instructions. I have 8 of them already opened up, USB to serial adapter on hand, and am ready to go. Did you find any good instructions for flashing openwrt? I found a couple, but they weren't consistent and I'm not sure which I should follow.
N3XKD
Other than verifying that

Other than verifying that there was support in OpenWRT and that there look to be instructions, I haven't got by that. I have 4 of these coming in though and as soon as I don't brick one, I'll be sure to post what I came to. 

Update: The 4 units I ordered should come in tomorrow. So I'm expecting to play with them on Tuesday.

Does anyone know how an image for this was built to begin with ? Just seems kinda weird just appeared on the support matrix all the sudden. Was there a thread where someone built this image ? 

AB7PA
Look on the AREDN github site

Look on the AREDN github site here:  https://github.com/aredn/aredn/pull/104

N3XKD
Thanks, This is exactly what
Thanks, This is exactly what I was looking for. 
KO4CEE
Flashing instructions

For mine I flashed OpenWrt first using the AR71xx instructions here: https://openwrt.org/toh/meraki/mr16?s[]=mr16#ar71xx_19075_and_before

After that I just used the sysupgrade file and installed AREDN with the updater in LuCi.
 

KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
Here's what I've got:
Here's what I've got:

U-Boot 1.1.4-g5416eb09-dirty (Mar  3 2011 - 16:28:15)

AP96 (ar7100) U-boot 0.0.1 MERAKI 
DRAM:  b8050000: 0xc0140180
64 MB
Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 84000000
Reserving 228k for U-Boot at: 83fc4000
Reserving 192k for malloc() at: 83f94000
Reserving 44 Bytes for Board Info at: 83f93fd4
Reserving 36 Bytes for Global Data at: 83f93fb0
Reserving 128k for boot params() at: 83f73fb0
Stack Pointer at: 83f73f98
Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 83fc4000
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 16MB, sector count = 256
Flash: 16 MB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7100_enet_initialize...
ATHRF1E: Port 0, Negotiation timeout
ATHRF1E: unit 0 phy addr 0 ATHRF1E: reg0 1000
eth0: 00:03:7f:e0:00:62
eth0 up
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
ATHRF1E: Port 1, Negotiation timeout
ATHRF1E: unit 1 phy addr 1 ATHRF1E: reg0 ffff
eth1: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
RESET is un-pushed
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
ar7100> tftpboot 0x80010000 mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin; erase 0xbfda0000 +0x240000; cp.b 0x80010000 0xbfda0000 0x240000
Trying eth0
eth0 link down
FAIL
Trying eth1
ATHRF1E: Unkown speed read!
pll reg 0x18050014: 0x991099  Using eth1 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.101; our IP address is 192.168.1.2
Filename 'mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin'.
Load address: 0x80010000
Loading: T 
Retry count exceeded; run boot command
## Booting image at bf0a0000 ...
Bad Magic Number


ARP Retry count exceeded; starting again
Trying eth0
eth0 link down
FAIL
Trying eth1
ATHRF1E: Unkown speed read!
Using eth1 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.101; our IP address is 192.168.1.2
Filename 'mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin'.
Load address: 0x80010000
Loading: T 
Retry count exceeded; run boot command
## Booting image at bf0a0000 ...
Bad Magic Number

ARP Retry count exceeded; starting again
Trying eth0
eth0 link down
FAIL
Trying eth1
ATHRF1E: Unkown speed read!
Using eth1 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.101; our IP address is 192.168.1.2
Filename 'mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin'.
Load address: 0x80010000
Loading: T 
Retry count exceeded; run boot command
## Booting image at bf0a0000 ...
Bad Magic Number

ARP Retry count exceeded; starting again
Trying eth0
pll reg 0x18050010: 0x110000  Using eth0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.101; our IP address is 192.168.1.2
Filename 'mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin'.
Load address: 0x80010000
Loading: checksum bad

Retry count exceeded; run boot command
## Booting image at bf0a0000 ...
Bad Magic Number

Any idea what might be going wrong?
KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
My set up is as follows: 
My set up is as follows: 

Raspberry Pi 4B with a direct serial connection to the Meraki, and an ethernet connection to an unmanaged switch, which is plugged into my router and to the Meraki. The Pi has a statis IP set at 192.168.1.101, and is running a tftp server. I tested the tftp server and it seems to be working. 

C:\Users\Willi>tftp 192.168.1.101 GET  test D:\Downloads\test
Transfer successful: 6 bytes in 1 second(s), 6 bytes/s
N3XKD
Don't keep us in the dark,

Don't keep us in the dark, what did you do to solve this ? Was it something obvious? 

I was able to get it working with the OpenWRT directions. Though I was using a TFTP on my laptop under linux. Loaded up OPenWRT first and then loaded the AREDN file and did a sysupgrade from there. On the ar71xx Openwrt code. the ath79 code loads up on these fine also, I haven't converted that to aredn though. 

KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
Nevermind, I have 3 flashed
Nevermind, I have 3 flashed to AREDN so far and I should be done with the rest shortly. I used the cucumber tftp method
K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
Thank you. I just got my 2 Meraki units today.
KM6SLF, thanks for confirming that these things do in fact take an AREDN load, although not as easily as the other brands.
I have some niche uses for these devices and at less than $22 each (used) on Ebay, it should be pretty inexpensive to have a decent 2.4GHz node with a 5GHz WiFi AP built in.

- Damon K9CQB
KM6SLF
KM6SLF's picture
Is the one and only RJ45 port
Is the one and only RJ45 port usable for LAN, WAN and DtD? Or is it only usable for one or two of the three?
KO4CEE
RJ45 port use
VE7NL
Meraki MR16 with nightly built firmware

Hello all,

This is my first posting on this site. First I'd like to send my thanks to all involved in the development of AREDN, our emergency coordinator mention en passant the existence of AREDN during this year's field day. I can tell you I was electrified by the potential of this network, this is the future of emergency communications hands down. After I started with 2 CPE510 I realized I needed more devices to "play" with, so a couple weeks ago I ordered half dozen Meraki MR16, bellow are my notes on flashing AREDN firmware:

1. before you start: flash your units using OpenWRT 19.07.8, it is meant for ar71xx platform. Do not use the latest (21.02.0) firmware, is meant for ath79 platform and won't accept the arden software wrote for ar71xx, can tell you from experience it get messy. Good news is, you can downgrade easily from 20.02.0 to 19.07.8 if you already flashed your MR16, I did and it works, better not get yourself in that situation.

2. tools you need:

2.1 TORX T5, Rona in Canada has a nice set: https://www.rona.ca/en/precision-screwdriver-multi-bits-black-and-red-18-pack-00276948

2.2. couple old plastic cards you cut in 4 (you need about 6 to 8 cut pieces) and use to open the case after removing the 2 TORX T5 screws at the bottom and top of the unit: https://github.com/btvmeshnet/hardware/blob/master/platforms/Meraki/MR16/flashing/Flash-MR16.md. You must use the spadgers all around, not only the 4 places showed in the picture. Please don't force anything, it comes out with relative easy, just pry the cover where the small rectangular hole on the side of the unit is located, from there on is a breeze

2.3 TTL serial to USB dongle, set for 3.3V to be on the safe side. Connect as per instructions here: https://github.com/btvmeshnet/hardware/blob/master/platforms/Meraki/MR16/flashing/Flash-MR16.md. I bought my dongles from ebay here: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/263102898174. Buy a few, they're not expensive and your friends may need one, I can never have enough of them ;)

2.4 jumper breadboard cables, female to female, to connect serial dongle to the board, you need 3 pcs

2.5 computer (set ip manualy to 192.168.1.101) with the following software installed:

2.5.1 a terminal program, I use minicom on a linux machine, device is /dev/ttyUSB0 usually, and the speed must be set at 115200 8N1.

2.5.3 a tftp server set on the computer, in linux install tftpd-hpa and enable it. Copy following flash images to /srv/tftp/ folder (need to be root to access that folder): openwrt-19.07.5-ar71xx-generic-mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin, openwrt-19.07.5-ar71xx-generic-mr16-squashfs-rootfs.bin, and be sure server is up and running (try to connect from the console and download any of the files to check if tftp server works).

2.6 a router set as follows: router ip 192.168.1.1, dns range set from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.102 or higher. An older router is good enough if you don't want to mess up with your LAN

After you get all you all you need, read website instructions carefully to be sure you miss nothing, there is nothing more annoying than to discover you don't have a piece of information, or software or whatever, is usually difficult to stop a flashing process once started, most of the time will leave the device into an undefined state difficult to recover from. Regardless, document everything you do in case you run into trouble. Be sure you stop the booting process at the right moment, you only have couple second to do, press Enter to stop. If you missed it, just unplug the power and plug it back, you can do it as many times as you like, is easy to miss at first, after I flashed 6 units I sort of became an expert at stooping the boot at the right time :)

You should see something like this:

--------- lines removed -----------

eth1 up
eth0, eth1
RESET is un-pushed
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
ar7100>

------- end -----------

To install follow the instructions here: https://openwrt.org/toh/meraki/mr16#ar71xx_19075_and_before, they are well written and easy to follow. Very important to re-write the correct mac address in your newly programmed unit. PLEASE DO NOT CLONE mac addresses, use the original mac address for your device, number is printed on the sticker outside unit where the Ethernet and power port are located, the AREDN firmware name the nodes and allocate ip addresses based on that mac, you risk creating conflicts on the network, loose a few friends in the process too. After you can connect to interface from your computer (http://192.168.1.1), use latest nightly built sysupgrade MR16 firmware to flash the node, you can find the bin file here: http://downloads.arednmesh.org/snapshots/trunk/targets/ar71xx/generic/. Save MR16 sysupgrade bin file anywhere, browse from web interface and use it to flash. Just in case, uncheck "save settings" before flashing. If you did not skip any steps, or punch in a wrong command, you should have a newly built node, you now can go ahead and configure.

Note: remember to replace the name of the files in the first two commands as follows, best to use copy and paste so there are no mistakes:

tftpboot 0x80010000 openwrt-19.07.5-ar71xx-generic-mr16-squashfs-kernel.bin; erase 0xbfda0000 +0x240000; cp.b 0x80010000 0xbfda0000 0x240000
tftpboot 0x80010000 openwrt-19.07.5-ar71xx-generic-mr16-squashfs-rootfs.bin; erase 0xbf080000 +0xD20000; cp.b 0x80010000 0xbf080000 0xD20000

Also, this is the line where you set the correct mac address: echo -n -e '\x00\x18\x0a\x--\x--\x--' > /dev/mtd5. Please replace "--" with what's on the label. The first 3 groups should be 00:18:0a, if not, change accordingly although I doubt you have a different set, is the device code.

Now for the bad news: although not extremely difficult to re-flash the Meraki MR16, you need above average computer knowledge, remember you need to replace the original firmware with OpenWRT firmware, than replace OpenWRT firmware with AREDN firmware. After you read the instructions you figure is too hard, or too difficult, or you don't understand something, I recommend you don't go forward, although is a very well built unit and gave a solid feeling, you can use something else as paper weight ;)

 

Good luck

 

73

Ion VE7NL

VE7NL
dhcp not dns
2.6 set router dhcp addresses from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.102 or higher, not dns, but you probably got it

73
VE7NL
ttl serial to usb

ebay link above don't work, search for this: USB - TTL Serial Communication and Programming Adapter CH340 3.3V / 5V

73

K6BAT
MR16 Packages?

I've got the MR16 running great, but is there a tunnel client package that will work? When I try to install, I see ERROR: Package installation failed!

K5DLQ
K5DLQ's picture
the latest nightly as of this
the latest nightly as of this moment is 642
k1ky
k1ky's picture
Make sure running latest Nightly

You need to have the latest Nightly installed in order to install Tunnel.  I'm curious what ports are available on that device (how many Ethernet?  Is it 10/100 or Gigabit? Also would be interested what the IperfSpeed is when tested against itself?

K6CCC
K6CCC's picture
MR16 ports

I'm curious what ports are available on that device (how many Ethernet?  Is it 10/100 or Gigabit? 


Single port, and it's 10 / 100 / 1000.

 
k1ky
k1ky's picture
New Nightly 642 released 11/8/21
New Nightly 642 released today.  Supposedly improves Name resolution (the IP name issue)
Jury is still out on this one.

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