Request for Asus rt-ax53u support

[Sousaj]

Hi,

Any chance that anyone could help me add the model Asus rt-ax53u to the list of supported routers?
I believe (maybe wrongly) that the firmware Asus rt-ax56u could work, although the 53u has less ram and processing power they are of the same family.
There's a couple of links on the Asus website about these routers family.

So I'm wondering if is there any particular reason for this router not being supported?
This router has a good price, and amazing has been doing promotions, ao I can imagine there are a couple out there, it could be an opportunity to add one more model without too much effort.
I'm willing to test if it is the case.

Thank you in advance

JM

 

[octopus]

Hi,

Any chance that anyone could help me add the model Asus rt-ax53u to the list of supported routers?
I believe (maybe wrongly) that the firmware Asus rt-ax56u could work, although the 53u has less ram and processing power they are of the same family.
There's a couple of links on the Asus website about these routers family.
View attachment 38541

So I'm wondering if is there any particular reason for this router not being supported?
This router has a good price, and amazing has been doing promotions, ao I can imagine there are a couple out there, it could be an opportunity to add one more model without too much effort.
I'm willing to test if it is the case.

Thank you in advance

JM

[FAQ] READ ME FIRST before posting a question

Model support Q: Will you support the RT-xxxxxx that was just announced? A: See detailed answer in post #3. Q: Will you support router XYZ from this non-Asus manufacturer? A: No. Asuswrt-Merlin only targets Asus-supported models, due to both technical and legal reasons. Q: I'm having...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Sousaj]

I understand, especially the part of supporting the model in question. I'm a developer myself, so I fully understand the concern. Maybe for what I need, Asuswrt merlin may be overkill. I want to redirect the traffic of one device through the VPN client and the rest not, and I was expecting to achieve this with simple routes or something, even with the firewall, although my network knowledge is limited. If you can direct me, I would appreciate it. If there's the need for additional hands to support the development of merlin, I'm available. Although I only had C in the university, it's always possible to start to pick up and give a hand.
Anyway, this router is available in many countries, from Canada, India to all of Europe, and through Amazon, which makes it more commercial and probably widely available.
Considering all this and that the model is quite similar to the ax56u do you think the would be too crazy to support it?

thank you
JM

 

[RMerlin]

I believe (maybe wrongly) that the firmware Asus rt-ax56u could work,

Each firmware is model-specific. You need the prebuilt component that are specifically for that model, you can't reuse anything from a different model.

 

[alex1236hk]

Is that a google translate?
I saw some broken english...........

 

[Sousaj]

Well, Alex, the English may be broken because it is more British than American, so I can imagine that may sound a bit different, although, is not my primary language. By the way, don't get me wrong, but I speak at least four languages (maybe a bit broken). How about you? (of course, not counting with the ones that I use to code, haha)
Anyway, I'm open to constructive feedback.

Merlin, thank you for the explanation, and congrats on your work. Probably it's better to buy another router, but I'm curious, so I'll have a look at the code base and try to make some sense of it.
Any chance you point me in the right direction to some info about this project? I know that there's no documentation. I've read some of your answers to other requests, but maybe some knowledge base or specific topics to help me kick start my investigation?

I appreciate any help you can provide.

JM

 

[RMerlin]

Any chance you point me in the right direction to some info about this project? I know that there's no documentation. I've read some of your answers to other requests, but maybe some knowledge base or specific topics to help me kick start my investigation?

There's not really any documentation for that, because it`s a lot of hands-on expertise that's involved, and not something that can be summarized in documentation.

 

[sl4fko]

Wait, really? You REALLY want to spend A LOT of precious time just to "look into the code" for fun and justifying the buy of this router... And then come back here and try convincing RMerlin again to start coding for some budget router... Is your AX53U made out of gold? Or did you won it on Bingo somewhere?


Just sell the damn thing and buy at least AX56U and leave the programming to Mr. God here...

 

[Tech9]

Anyway, this router is available in many countries, from Canada, India to all of Europe

I can't find it in Canada, in this form. What we have here is called RT-AX55 with the same FCC ID, but looks differently.

 

[Sousaj]

I can't find it in Canada, in this form. What we have here is called RT-AX55 with the same FCC ID, but looks differently.

sorry for the delay in replying.

Thank you for checking, I can't find either, although I could swear I had seen it.
I think the best way is only to try to get one that is supported.

Thank you for your attention

 

[Sousaj]

Wait, really? You REALLY want to spend A LOT of precious time just to "look into the code" for fun and justifying the buy of this router... And then come back here and try convincing RMerlin again to start coding for some budget router... Is your AX53U made out of gold? Or did you won it on Bingo somewhere?


Just sell the damn thing and buy at least AX56U and leave the programming to Mr. God here...

You are probably right, Ahah. But yeah, some people do it just for fun and then they start understanding a couple more things.
Although I still wouldn't use the firmware before looking at the code.

 

[PRSXFENG]

I can't find it in Canada, in this form. What we have here is called RT-AX55 with the same FCC ID, but looks differently.

I myself own a RT-AX53u

It's not even close to the AX55 at all.

A lot of sites have incorrectly listed the FCC ID and also it running a Broadcom SoC

It actually does NOT run a Broadcom SoC, and is based on a Mediatek SoC instead.
Which sadly means no Asuswrt-merlin support.
I can provide proof of such (output from cat /proc/cpuinfo)

Feng@RT-AX53U:/tmp/home/root# cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type        : MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3
machine            : MediaTek MT7621 RFB (802.11ax, NAND with NMBM)
processor        : 0
cpu model        : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS        : 586.13
wait instruction    : yes
microsecond timers    : yes
tlb_entries        : 32
extra interrupt vector    : yes
hardware watchpoint    : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa            : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented    : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers    : 0
package            : 0
core            : 0
VCED exceptions        : not available
VCEI exceptions        : not available
VPE            : 0

processor        : 1
cpu model        : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS        : 586.13
wait instruction    : yes
microsecond timers    : yes
tlb_entries        : 32
extra interrupt vector    : yes
hardware watchpoint    : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa            : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented    : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers    : 0
package            : 0
core            : 0
VCED exceptions        : not available
VCEI exceptions        : not available
VPE            : 1

processor        : 2
cpu model        : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS        : 586.13
wait instruction    : yes
microsecond timers    : yes
tlb_entries        : 32
extra interrupt vector    : yes
hardware watchpoint    : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa            : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented    : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers    : 0
package            : 0
core            : 1
VCED exceptions        : not available
VCEI exceptions        : not available
VPE            : 0

processor        : 3
cpu model        : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS        : 586.13
wait instruction    : yes
microsecond timers    : yes
tlb_entries        : 32
extra interrupt vector    : yes
hardware watchpoint    : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa            : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented    : mips16 dsp mt
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers    : 0
package            : 0
core            : 1
VCED exceptions        : not available
VCEI exceptions        : not available
VPE            : 1

Also there's quite the amount of firmware bugs on this router
Out of box firmware had broken PPPoE, the status page says it's a 4 core CPU (it's only 2), and there are USB2/3 options in the system menu despite there being only a USB2 port on the router

 

[Tech9]

Thank you @PRSXFENG for the information provided.

 

[Emoform]

This asus ax 53u can't authenticate wpa-2 enterprise. I had 3 of them to replace my old 1300ac UHP. Tried all the firmware available, none of it works, there's no log on radius side, which mean this shirtty router not even contact to 3rd party radius server. Waste of money.

 

[PRSXFENG]

This asus ax 53u can't authenticate wpa-2 enterprise. I had 3 of them to replace my old 1300ac UHP. Tried all the firmware available, none of it works, there's no log on radius side, which mean this shirtty router not even contact to 3rd party radius server. Waste of money.

The firmware of this router is rather buggy, Asus should really bake it in the oven for some more time

Example, the out of box firmware had broken PPPoE, you had to sideload the update to a newer version so you could get it online.

With that said, there is 1 lone review out there where someone obtained the beta firmware for it, and it has new features such as AiMesh, but interestingly a codebase jump from 382 to 386, so hopefully fixed bugs?

I've sent emails down multiple different support addresses but none are willing to share it with me.

You could try asking them and mention your issues, and they might just hand over the beta firmware.

 

[tarzan2000]

Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386_67508
– Release Note –
Bug Fixes and Enhancements:
1. Supported AiMesh function.
2. Fixed IPTV bugs.
3. Fixed WPA2 PSK/ WPA3 PSK mix mode issues.
4. Improved system stability.

 

[PRSXFENG]

Yeah, its kinda cool they managed to add AiMesh to this budget router that launched without it

 

[tarzan2000]

Yeah, its kinda cool they managed to add AiMesh to this budget router that launched without it

Inside there is a completely modern MTK-based processor (two 880 MHz cores and 4 threads). The radio module is also from MTK.
Competitors on this platform support MESH features.

 

[mccg]

@Sousaj

If you want to use advanced router features, rt-ax53u works fine with openwrt.

[OpenWrt Wiki] ASUS RT-AX53U / RT-AX1800U

openwrt.org

Regards.