Meraki MR16

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

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

73

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!

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?