Correct firmware for Picostation M2-HP

[Malcolm McLeod]

Hi Dirk,

Long time no speak, I'm back on track with this now!

Fantastic progress on MESHdesk, it looks great, love the Google Maps integration in the front end.

Just a question around the best firmware for the Picostation M2-HP, last time I was using a default Attitude Adjustment image then manually configuring Coova Chilli etc. Reading your latest wikis and such, it looks like you've created some firmware images for these yourself (http://sourceforge.net/p/radiusdesk/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/meshdesk/firmware/)

Which of those should I be using for this hardware?

Cheers,
Malcolm

[ZtarkVokehc]

Might be a bit late for the reply, in case someone else has the same inquiry.

The UBNT radios can use the same exact firmware - Pico/Bullet/Rocket without issues.

There might be some other features with others - like the AirRouter - for have multiple interfaces, but they generally will work/not brick the unit. :)

[Dirk van der Walt]

Hi Malcolm,

Yes long time indeed! Glad you're back with us.

Yes things changed for the better now.

Here's a few of the new developments:

• You can download one of the images from SVN and simply flash it then after start-up use the MESHdesk node config utility (small Windows program) to point the node to your server.
• We are using / promoting the use of Barrier Breaker since it has been released recently and we managed to track down the item which caused the instability in the WiFi (an option in the config file which should not have been there in the first place - I take for responsibility ;-)- )
• You can actually try Barrier Breaker stock image and install some extra packages as specified here: http://www.radiusdesk.com/technical_discussions/md_firmware_install_ipk
• Take heed of the warning at the top of that page though since I have not managed to get stability on my hardware yet with this method.

Then just as a very latest news bit. We are working on supporting dual radio (Like the TP-Link N600) mesh nodes. This will allow you to create a back-haul using the 5G radios while keeping the 2.4 for the access layer which should increase the capacity and performance of the mesh.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers

[Malcolm McLeod]

Thanks Dirk, some good developments it seems. I'll keep a close eye on the dual radio support!

Presumably, CoovaChilli still needs to be installed on each node in the MESH ? Is it included in the firmware you've uploaded?

Cheers

[JimmyH]

Hi Malcolm,

I have quite a few of those Pico's that are working. I use the Rocket image as I find it to be more stable than the Bullet. There is someone that is uses the Bullet image.
The Rocket image from AA and BB have both worked well, one of my meshes with 3 Pico's has an uptime of 17 days with usage by the guests of just under 40 gig and about 12 gig on the bridge internal network, these are running Barrier Breaker Rocket firmware.

Hope this little bit of useless information helps,

Cheers.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Hi Jimmy,

Far from useless information that, a good pointer - I'll try BB rocket first on my Picos.

Cheers

[Dirk van der Walt]

Hi Malcolm,

The Firmware on the SVN is just an execution of this page:
http://www.radiusdesk.com/technical_discussions/md_firmware_common

CoovaChilli is already included but strictly speaking only required on the gateway node.

I've just finished the latest modifications for the dual radio support and will be updating the firmware images (and also add the ones for the TP-Link etc) in the next few days.

So far the tests shows a potential of nearly 3x the speed when comparing data throughput between a mesh consisting of single radio nodes versus one consisting of dual radio nodes.

So if you are looking for speed over the mesh, definitely something to investigate.

Cheers

[santhosh]