EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: technix on June 14, 2017, 12:19:08 am
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I am thinking about building one myself, based on some kind of wireless router chipset and a LTE modem module. Is there any recommendations?
Specifications:
* Multi-band LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, HSPA+, HSDPA, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE, cdmaOne EVDO, GPRS, cdmaOne and GSM support, 150Mbps/50Mbps maximum connection speed.
* 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi access point. 150Mbps connection speed.
* Can run firmware I created myself. Preferably also a Web management interface.
* Supports some kind of encrypted tunneling mechanism.
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why not look for good hardware from xiaomi or whoever,
then see if open-wrt etc will run on it.
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why not look for good hardware from xiaomi or whoever,
then see if open-wrt etc will run on it.
I am hoping to also introduce features not founded on those devices: making phone calls and handling short messages on the inserted SIM card using an iPhone app, various tunneling and VPN options, microSD card or NVMe SSD external storage, etc.
Also especially in China everyone try to shove ads down your throat.
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why not look for good hardware from xiaomi or whoever,
then see if open-wrt etc will run on it.
I am hoping to also introduce features not founded on those devices: making phone calls and handling short messages on the inserted SIM card using an iPhone app, various tunneling and VPN options, microSD card or NVMe SSD external storage, etc.
Also especially in China everyone try to shove ads down your throat.
It sounds like what you are looking for is a phone.
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why not look for good hardware from xiaomi or whoever,
then see if open-wrt etc will run on it.
I am hoping to also introduce features not founded on those devices: making phone calls and handling short messages on the inserted SIM card using an iPhone app, various tunneling and VPN options, microSD card or NVMe SSD external storage, etc.
Also especially in China everyone try to shove ads down your throat.
It sounds like what you are looking for is a phone.
My ISP gave me one, but that damn thing are full of crapware that cannot be uninstalled without rooting, and there is no way rooting it yet. (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/vent-i-am-on-the-verge-of-smashing-this-phone-apart/) It have no use for me, and I have to firewall it from connecting to my home network even. The nonexistent custom ROM community does not help either.
This is why I have very little choice than building one from scratch myself.
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How about a DrayTek 2860Ln? http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860l (http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860l). I think this does everything you asked for except for built in VOIP. You might use the version with built in VOIP ports with a 4G USB dongle if that is critical.
I use the non-4G version of this router and I'm very happy with it. It's a professional piece of kit, not a consumer or SOHO level router.
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what fone did your isp give you?
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what fone did your isp give you?
Oppo A37m.
Absolute pile of turd.
If I ever see a teardown of the device I will open it up just to knock out (or bridge) the resistor that disables bootloader locking (regardless whether this causes a mass erase or not,) try to get the SDK out of MediaTek, and build my own AOSP build of Android (at least 5.1, hopefully 8.0) from source up.
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How about a DrayTek 2860Ln? http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860l (http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860l). I think this does everything you asked for except for built in VOIP. You might use the version with built in VOIP ports with a 4G USB dongle if that is critical.
I use the non-4G version of this router and I'm very happy with it. It's a professional piece of kit, not a consumer or SOHO level router.
The OP needs LTE-TDD, which is a Chinese standard and only used by a few countries abroad (some AT&T and Sprint stations in US, some SoftBank stations in Japan and a lot in India). TDD is not widely adopted out of Asia as TDD is designed for high population density areas, and it's worse than FDD in most cases except for the most crowded cities.
I live in Shanghai and my carrier is China Unicom. This is why I need both LTE-FDD and LTE-TDD: During my commute through downtown LTE-TDD works better, but both in my office and at home LTE-FDD works better. And when I leave the city the LTE-FDD coverage becomes spotty. I think China Unicom is the only Chinese carrier that have both LTE-FDD and LTE-TDD.
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Oh you want battery mobile operation as well! I think you are going to be out of luck.
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How about an RPi or whatever SBC, coupled with a Huawei 4G modem and a Ralink WiFi card?
It would be a fun project!
PS: if you want low power and real system level integration, you can consider an ARM SOM with castellated board, and similarly, castellated LTE modem module and WiFi module. If my memory serves me correctly, my first 3G USB modem from China Unicom is a Huawei modem module sitting on a USB carrier board with a HUGE (~2200uF?) capacitor. I won't be surprised to see if you tear down a 4G module the construction will be the same.
I am investigating MT7688 module + SIM7600CE (or the slower little brother SIM7100CE).
It would support the full cellular spec I listed above, as well as telephony and SMS functionalities on the SIM7600CE/SIM7100CE side. On the MT7688 side it provides the wireless access point, runs Linux, can accept a microSD card and something on PCIe (through a M.2 slot) and two USB devices (through a 4-port hub, the remaining two ports goes to the 4G modem and the M.2 slot.) The platform management subsystem provides power management, battery charging and low power mode operation.
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Purchase confirmed: MT7688 + SIM7600CE. The platform controller is either STM32F103CBT6 or STM32F405RGT6 depending on the complexity of the platform.
MT7688 (host) and SIM7600CE (device) are connected through a USB Hub and a direct I2S connection. This way both data and audio can both flow between the modules. The USB Hub also exposes two more USB ports as USB Type-A jacks. MT7688 provides wired and wireless network connection.
MT7688 runs Linux. The distribution for MT7688 is TBD between OpenWRT or something homebrewed. MT7688 module I ordered came with 256MB DRAM and I will give it 64MB Flash (replacing the original 32MB one)
Since SIM7600CE have GPS built in and I can extract a PPS signal, I am also giving MT7688 a DS3231 DTCXO RTC so it can function as a portable Stratum 1 NTP server. The platform controller can provide the long term trimming as needed.
The entire system runs on a Li-Po battery. The charger chip is TP4056, switchable through a MOSFET between 0.5A and 1A charging current. The platform controller attempts to negotiate the charging current through either USB enumeration process or USB BC1.2.
The platform controller also serves the purpose of USB to UART adapters, interfacing the PC through the charging port to both the MT7688 and the SIM7600CE.