Hi
On Thursday 20 December 2012, Nicolás Echániz wrote:
> TP-Link WDR3600 is supported since r33219. It has the same hardware as
> the WDR4300 with one less chain/antenna.
>
> However the model WDR3500, which is similar to WDR3600 is not yet
> supported. Outstanding differences in relation to WDR3600 are:
For the TL-WDR3600, the situation was easy (once TL-WDR4300 was
supported), because it's essentially the same device, with only minor
differences for the 2.4 GHz radio (but still supported by the same
driver, ath9k). Without knowing any details, I fear this might be
slightly different with the TL-WDR3500.
> - no gigabit ethernet
Yes, and this means there is a big chance that the switch chipset might
be different. In contrast to wlan support, where you might be able to
just risk it, missing ethernet/ switch support would have much bigger
consequences. Given that The Atheros DB120 reference architecture, from
which these TP-Link routers are closely derived, is quite well
integrated and is specified with an Atheros AR8327N GBit/s switch,
there is a significant chance that a different switch chipset might be
used here - or eventually some completely different base board.
> - one USB port instead of two
This should not have any impact on firmware support, but there may of
course also be other differences which may require new hardware support
(e.g. flash chipset, etc.).
> Here in the QuintanaLibre network we have been testing WDR3600 with much
> success as a cheap multi-band router. WDR3500 is even cheaper and we
> would very much like to test it.
If you'd only need a single, or a handful of devices, I wouldn't risk
it - especially because the price difference is pretty small, but I
think you might need a few more… However if you really do, make sure
to check the abilities of the network switch before ordering a larger
quantity.
> What would it involve to have the WDR3500 supported?
[…]
First, you should try to find (or make) high resolution pictures of the
PCB used in this TL-WDR3500, ideally also try to find (or make) a
bootlog of the original vendor firmware; you could also try to compare
the GPL firmware tarballs for TL-WDR3600 and TL-WDR3500 for important
differences. Like mentioned above, the most interesting aspects, once
you can confirm that this TL-WDR3500 really is a close derivative to
the other members of this new router class, are network switch and
flash types.
Of course, you may also just risk it and adapt the (binary-) firmware
header to the needs of your device and pray that everything else "just
works™" - while there is a certain chance for this, you should at least
have a serial console prepared (and once you considering this, do check
the original bootlog and make high resolution pictures of the PCB
before trying your luck) - as you would need it to recover from a
bricked device.
Regards
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
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