Tenda Adds AC1900 Router

[philpoe]

Hi All,
I was reading the article about the Tenda AC15 AC1900 router
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-news/32810-tenda-adds-ac1900-router

On the FCC site, looking through the internal pictures, it looks like it has Broadcom BCM4708A0 CPU cores and BCM4360 radios, making it similar to the Asus RT-AC68U.
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=2719955

Any idea how a router like this might get prioritized for 3rd party firmware like Tomato?

The Tenda W1800/1R's similarity to the RT-AC66U at roughly 2/3 the price makes it appealing.

The AC15's similarity to the RT-AC68U at roughly half the price is even moreso.

 

[sfx2000]

Appearances can be deceiving - but also suggests that AC1900 is pretty much mainstream these days.

Which is good news

 

[philpoe]

Definitely good news!
These router speeds are so far in advance of ISP service (at least in the US), that it seems like overkill to spend so much.
Sub-$100 pricing for this kind of hardware is probably well within most people's comfort zone.

Appearances can be deceiving - but also suggests that AC1900 is pretty much mainstream these days.

Which is good news

 

[Pierino]

Less than $90 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9809649

 

[RogerSC]

Hi All,
I was reading the article about the Tenda AC15 AC1900 router
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-news/32810-tenda-adds-ac1900-router

On the FCC site, looking through the internal pictures, it looks like it has Broadcom BCM4709A0 CPU cores and BCM4360 radios, making it similar to the Asus RT-AC68U.
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=2719955

This one has the bcm4708, like the rt-ac68u. The bcm4709 is used in the rt-ac68p and the r7000.

 

[thiggins]

Review is in progress. If you get one, make sure to update to latest firmware. Original firmware had no DMZ.

 

[RMerlin]

Any idea how a router like this might get prioritized for 3rd party firmware like Tomato?

By looking if someone like Shibby is interested, and providing him with one to develop on.

 

[philpoe]

Typo on my part - it's the BCM4708A0
Thanks for the catch.

This one has the bcm4708, like the rt-ac68u. The bcm4709 is used in the rt-ac68p and the r7000.

 

[philpoe]

While I see that Shibby's an active participant in several forums (but didn't find a user by the name shibby or shibby20 here under the member search), I had hoped to find info on hardware donations on his Tomato page at http://tomato.groov.pl/ but it wasn't readily apparent. I did see the paypal donation for money. I guess I can try him (and/or others) via message on another forum.

Getting it from the US to Europe may present a challenge, but I'm up for donating one.

By looking if someone like Shibby is interested, and providing him with one to develop on.

 

[philpoe]

Good find! I had found the one at Newegg for $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...55059&cm_re=tenda_ac15-_-33-555-059-_-Product

Less than $90 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9809649

 

[RMerlin]

While I see that Shibby's an active participant in several forums (but didn't find a user by the name shibby or shibby20 here under the member search), I had hoped to find info on hardware donations on his Tomato page at http://tomato.groov.pl/ but it wasn't readily apparent. I did see the paypal donation for money. I guess I can try him (and/or others) via message on another forum.

Getting it from the US to Europe may present a challenge, but I'm up for donating one.

You can catch him on Linksysinfo.org. I would expect his email address to be somewhere on his website (I didn't check).

 

[RogerSC]

You can catch him on Linksysinfo.org. I would expect his email address to be somewhere on his website (I didn't check).

You can start a "conversation" with him (the Linksysinfo.org equivalent of pm'ing *smile*). His tomato release thread is:

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/tomato-shibbys-releases.33858/

 

[majnu]

Review is in progress. If you get one, make sure to update to latest firmware. Original firmware had no DMZ.

great stuff, would like to see how this stacks up against the ac68u

 

[thiggins]

Test results are in the Router Charts and Ranker
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view

 

[sfx2000]

Looks like it could use some tuning perhaps... but it's in good company..

 

[remixedcat]

tenda and edimax are the poor people's netgear and amped... ha ha.... and edimax literally is making amped's new stuff now.... took a look at the FCC stuff and found that out.

 

[sfx2000]

Nothing wrong with ODM - it's a different kind of challenge compared to OEM, but good products are out there that are built completely by an unknown company and sold under a major label.

 

[RogerSC]

Test results are in the Router Charts and Ranker
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view

So no review with chipset information and wireless testing?

 

[RogerSC]

Tim,

Thanks very much for posting the complete review for this router, I really appreciate it.

 

[sfx2000]

Always appreciate board shots... not much different than any other Broadcom AC1900 class router/AP - clean simple design.

When I saw the layout sans cans/heat sink, I was thinking, where are the connectors for the antennae? Were those magic ones - e.g. not connected to anything?

See below - CON1, CON2, CON3 is where one would expect the micro SMA connectors, but there's nothing there - and more importantly, nothing to indicate PIFA's on the board edges...

(FWIW, nice shielding on the USB3 port -- better than most...)

So had to chase back thru the FCC OET database, and found this, the reverse side... they're doing a thru-board connection with a large ground plane surface trace...

Nice thinking there... give the board layout and the RF engineer guy a cigar...