There has been topics recently about Ubiquiti (and other) devices being locked out to prevent modification. Trawling the net I came across this site. http://wiki.compex.com.sg/index.php?title=Overview_of_CompexWRT
These devices sell for around $60. Could they be used as mesh nodes. I haven't got a clue as to what would be required to construct the equivalent of a Ubiquiti unit, but it does appear that it will take the mesh software. Perhaps there is a "chasis basher" out there somewhere who could cobble together a working prototype.
These devices sell for around $60. Could they be used as mesh nodes. I haven't got a clue as to what would be required to construct the equivalent of a Ubiquiti unit, but it does appear that it will take the mesh software. Perhaps there is a "chasis basher" out there somewhere who could cobble together a working prototype.
Joe AE6XE
There are several vendors who make this kind of product (mini-PCI WIFI card) MikroTik being one. The products on the Complex web site show that their stuff is FCC certified. Starting mid year they will not be able to claim FCC certification unless they have some way to prevent unauthorized software from being loaded. It looks to me like they start with OpenWRT and then add patches for the different products. I think they require you to have a password to download the patches. But still if the patches are source code then there is nothing to prevent you from modifying the way it works so I don't think the FCC would accept that.
Of course, if you do not market it in the US you do not need the FCC certification and hams in the US can still buy small quantities for their own use by filling out an import form (just like for the Ubiquiti 3 GHz stuff).
If you look at http://wiki.compex.com.sg/wiki/Manual:Network/WiFi however, you will see that the example given uses a AR9344 chip. This chip unfortunately is not "frequency agile."
I guess there will be no Atheros (ARxxxx) chips in the future only Qualcom-Atheros or QCAxxxx. I do not know how you can figure out which of those chips will cover extended frequencies, but I suppose the folks in the OpenWRT community have the inside info.
Beyond the ath9k chipsets, anything is possible, but only speculation until investigated. There's also an "ath10k" driver in existence out there that may or may not allow us to extend frequencies for the respective chipsets and devices.
The list of known APs which are compatible with the ath9k driver is located here: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath9k/products/aps
Supported chipsets
SB = single-band 2.4GHz
DB = dual-band 2.4GHz or 5GHz