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The Chinese company Phicomm has a device called the K3C AC1900 Smart WLAN Router in its lineup of Wi-Fi routers.
The device uses a bunch of Intel AnyWAN SoC GRX350 and Intel Home Wi-Fi Chipset WAV500 (By the way, the same hardware is used in ASUS Blue Cave: the same Intel PXB4583EL processor and Wi-Fi chips Intel PSB83514M/PSB83524M instead of PSB83513M/PSB83523M).
There are several versions of this router:
- B1, B1G, B2 - for China;
- A1, C1, S1(LIFE1) — for other countries (I got - C1 with firmware v.34.1.7.30).
What got me interested in this IEEE 802.11ac router?
What is available: 4 gigabit ports (1 WAN and 3 LAN), 5GHz band, support for MU-MIMO 3×3:3 and USB 3.0. Well, not only.
1. A little background
Optional partMy previous router was TP-Link TL-WR941ND with hardware version 3.6 (4MB Flash and 32MB RAM). The standard firmware periodically hung for no reason, regardless of the versions (updated a couple of times, the last update for my hardware was released at the end of 2012).
Disappointed in native firmware, I flashed (emnip, version 1.8; the firmware is based on OpenWRT, if someone is not in the know) and finally the router began to work as it should.
WR941 at the time of purchase had good hardware for my needs (And that was about 10 years ago), but now I already began to miss its performance. The ports are all 100 Mbps, the maximum Wi-Fi speed is 300 Mbps. It may still be normal for the Internet, but transferring files over a local network between devices is somewhat slow. Also, the built-in Flash memory is not enough even for the Russification of the firmware (even by replacing files through WinSCP, I tried somehow), not to mention installing more capacious plugins (of course, you can expand the memory, install the firmware for an increased amount of memory, but I don’t have enough direct hands to solder the memory chips).
But, probably, even all of the above would not soon force me to change the router. I just bought myself at the very beginning of September this year Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 to replace the untimely deceased Redmi Note 4 (after 2 years of exemplary service) and it turned out that RN5 and WR941 had mutual incompatibility - RN5 did not want to reconnect after disconnecting from the wireless network created using WR941 (and this is not an isolated problem, as I discovered a little later reading ).
In general, there is a need to change the router. Why the subject? I was interested in its filling (I read about it just on SmallNetBuilder a year ago) and possibilities (although it is unlikely that even half of them will be used in the near future). But even this was not decisive in choosing Phicomm K3C (I also looked at Xiaomi Mi WiFi Router 3G), and the affordable price (bought for $32 at the exchange rate) with a good filling and the ability to change the stock firmware to a full-fledged OpenWRT. The router comes with a manufacturer-cut OpenWRT modification (I read somewhere that a spy was added to it, but I did not find the details).
Modification of OpenWRT to work on Phicomm K3C (officially OpenWRT does not support the Intel WAV500 chipset) made by a Chinese with a nickname Paldier (his и for this router on the OpenWRT forum). He also made a firmware port of Asus Merlin for K3C (because to install it, you need to replace the RAM from 256MB to 512MB, we will not consider it).
2. Specifications of Phicomm K3C
I hope there is no need to translate them into the great and mighty?
Specifications Phicomm K3C
Hardware
Wi-Fi Standards
IEEE802.11 ac/n/a 5 GHz and IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz
CPU
GRX350 Dual Core main processor + 2 wireless co-processors
Ports
1x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN, 3x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN, 1x USB 3.0, Flash 128 MB, RAM 256 MB
Buttons
power, reset
External Power Supply
12V DC / 3A
Antennas
6 high gain antennas inside
Length
212 mm x 74 mm x 230,5 mm
Radio Parameter
Transfer Rate
max. 1.900 Mbps
Frequency
2.4 GHz = max. 600 Mbps and 5 GHz = max. 1.300 Mbps
Basic functions
Enable/disable wireless, Hide SSID, AP Isolation
Advanced functions
MU-MIMO, Smart ConnectWiFi Security: WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK
Software
WAN type
Dynamic IP / Static IP / PPPoE / PPTP / L2TP
port forwarding
Virtual Server, DMZ, UPnPDHCP:DHCP Server, Client List
Security
Firewall, Remote Management
Utility functions
Guest Network, DDNS, Client Settings, VPN Pass-Through, Bandwidth Control
USB functions
Storage Sharing, Media Server, FTP Server
Other Features
Content Package
K3C router, power supply unit, ethernet cable, QIG including DoC and GPL licenses
Operating Temperature
0 - 40 ° C
Storage Temperature
-40 - 70°C
Operating Humidity
10 - 90% non-condensing
Humidity
5 - 90% non condensing
Taken from (other options - a Chinese site with translations into several languages and brakes).
You can also read more about it at (the site, for a reason unknown to me, did not update the expired certificate on October 20 and the page can be viewed in ).
If you are interested in a detailed review, tests and photos of the giblets of this device, then all this can be found on и (there are a lot of photos and everything is in Chinese).
3. OpenWRT firmware
- We connect the router to a computer / laptop through the LAN port (any of the three) and the Internet via WAN (because you will need to download the firmware, a little more than 30MB).
- Find out the address of the router in the local network (we will need it further, usually it is 192.168.2.1).
- Run the pre-downloaded tool RouteAckPro (600kB of weight and a bunch of Chinese text inside; I do not know where it is better to fill in, but it can be downloaded from after registration on it). If the address differs from the above, then enter it in the IP form. Press the button in the window telnet. If everything is done correctly, the text will appear in the window telnet 完成. Now the utility can be closed, i.e. we have prepared the router for changing the firmware via Telnet.
RouteAckPro window - Through the PuTTY program (Smartty or similar) connect via Telnet to the router (Specify the same IP as for RoutAckPro, port - 23).
PuTTY window with connection settings. - In the PuTTY console, enter to go to the tmp directory:
cd /tmp - We decide what firmware we need to download (the hardware version is printed on a sticker glued to the bottom of the router, in my case it is “H/W C1“, i.e. I need firmware for С1).
- We choose on the version of the file we need fullimage.img. For me it
http://k3c.paldier.com/openwrt/C1/fullimage.img
Therefore, we write the following in the PuTTY console:
wget http://k3c.paldier.com/openwrt/C1/fullimage.img - Then we enter the command
/usr/sbin/upgrade /tmp/fullimage.img fullimage 0 1and wait for a message about a successful firmware.
- After that we enter
rm -rf /overlay/* sync && sleep 10 && rebootand wait for the router to restart (a couple of minutes). After that, you can connect to its web interface (address 192.168.2.1, password admin).
- After the first boot, it is advised to do a reset (hidden button on the router, slightly to the right of the power socket, or through the web interface).
Now the router will have this interface
The instructions for flashing were compiled by a user of the w4bsitXNUMX-dns.com forum for which many thanks to him.
If you don't want to connect your K3C to the Internet right away and you have a USB flash drive or a USB card reader with a flash card. We skip step 5, and in step 7, instead of downloading the firmware file to the router with the wget command, download it to a PC (suddenly need more in the future) and copy the file to a USB flash drive and connect it to the USB port of the router.
In step 8, we enter the following command:
/usr/sbin/upgrade /tmp/usb/.run/mountd/sda1/fullimage.img fullimage 0 1The rest of the items remain unchanged.
4. Russify the interface
But the firmware from Paldier, unfortunately, does not contain a Russian translation, but it has a list of sites that should be blocked in China (therefore, we cannot go to the same github with default settings, but this is solved by removing one checkmark in the V2Ray settings).
Therefore, we will install Russian localization for LuCI.
This is done quite simply:
- We go System ==> Software ==> tab Actions.
- In the Download and install package we introduce
http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-base-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipkand press the button Ok on right.
List of links to packages for Russification of the interface and a quick way to install them
http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-advanced-reboot-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-42_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-aria2-ru_1.0.1-2_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-base-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-ddns-ru_2.4.9-3_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-firewall-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-hd-idle-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-minidlna-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-mwan3-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-nlbwmon-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-samba-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-transmission-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-upnp-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-i18n-wireguard-ru_git-19.297.26179-fbefeed-1_all.ipk*If you notice, our firmware is OpenWRT 15.05, and the packages are from OpenWRT 18.06.0. But this is normal, because. LuCI in the firmware is used from OpenWRT 18.06
Well, or download these packages, save them to a USB flash drive, and then connect it to the USB port of the router and install them via PuTTY with the command
opkg install /tmp/usb/.run/mountd/sda1/luci-i18n-*.ipk*All will be installed ipk-packages along the way /tmp/usb/.run/mountd/sda1/ and having a name starting with luci-i18n-. This is the fastest way to Russify (it will take a few seconds to install): you will have to install each package separately through the web interface (besides, I'm not sure what will be updated from local media) and the installation will take several minutes, via the Internet and PuTTY you need to write the path to each package, which is also not so fast.
- We go to any section or simply refresh the page and you can enjoy the almost completely Russian-language interface (some modules do not have Russian localization).
AdvancedTomatoMaterial Theme
Bootstrap Theme - We also have the item Russian (Russian) in the list of available languages.
5. Add Dark Themes
I’ll also tell you how to install a dark theme so that the default themes do not burn your eyes out.
We look at the previous algorithm of actions for adding a language and replace the link in it with
http://apollo.open-resource.org/downloads/luci-theme-darkmatter_0.2-beta-2_all.ipk
As a result, we get a nice theme in the list of topics darkmatter.
You can also install a dark modification of the Bootstrap theme (I like her the most, because works faster than material). You can take it (in the archive attached to that post *.ipk.zip twice packaged with the theme).
Dark theme by Sunny based on Bootstrap
I now have a version of it slightly altered by me.
PS Constructive advice on design/content is welcome.
Source: habr.com