tx power rt-ac87u

[BartPl]

Quick check.
How can I increase the tx power?
Setting the ccode in the nvram will do the trick?

Any good forum link?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

 

[Deleted member 22229]

There is no way to increase TX power all Asus routers are capped at 80mw unless you use older firmware such as John's fork. Since the 87U is a newer router and John don't support it your stuck with a max of 80mw.

 

[greggy101]

There is a way to increase TX power on 87U (it is not factory supported!) I am using it on one on my two 87's.
Search for posts by hggomes and his fork based on Merlin's FW. (consider all pros and cons)
As the files are no longer available for direct download -you can PM him and hopefully he will give you a link ( very nice guy!)

 

[baos]

One could just change the antennas.

 

[BartPl]

One could just change the antennas.

which one do you prefer?

 

[ColinTaylor]

One could just change the antennas.

This has been discussed elsewhere on these forums many times. From what I've read, whilst some people see an improvement most do not.

 

[greggy101]

Antennas are hit or miss. I tried quite a few of them on my old 56's, 66's and 68's routers. Not a significant improvement over a long period of time and in my particular scenario (many walls, 1 of them with metal surface etc). Plus the extra cost for something that may not work to your satisfaction. I strongly recommend a firmware option or 68 router and downgrade the FW with John's fork. It works very well.
Also, I can say that hggomes fork works very good. You just need to go slow - from the minimum TX settings up - and test your clients to make sure you are not overkilling them as it may become worst performance that what you would expect.

 

[baos]

On an old setup I used a directional antenna designed for cell phone boosting which the 2.4ghz fit into.

 

[L&LD]

Quick check.
How can I increase the tx power?
Setting the ccode in the nvram will do the trick?

Any good forum link?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

PM hggomes to get a link to his RMerlin based fork. Unlocks the Tx power levels available.

Just know that you will need to do a reset to factory defaults though followed by a manual and minimal configuration of the router to secure it and connect to your ISP.

 

[Tat1Bolla]

Really only 80mW? On 5GHz Channel 100 up to? In Switzerland 1W would be allowed.

 

[hardtotell]

I edited my CFE 1.0.2.1 US on RT-AC68U with Asuswrt-Merlin 378.53, to increase the max tx values. However, it does not work because I think those max tx values are locked to 80mW somewhere else. The command "wl txpwr_target_max" reports 28.5dBm (708mW), but there is no effect when I test it.

Does anyone know the reason?

My wifi tx adjustment scripts all do the same thing now. There is no effect.

wifi-708mW.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo "Changing Tx power adjustment to 111%, 28.5dBm (708mW)"
echo -n "BEFORE: " && wl txpwr_target_max
nvram set 0:maxp2ga0=120
nvram set 0:maxp2ga1=120
nvram set 0:maxp2ga2=120
nvram set 1:maxp5ga0=120,120,120,120
nvram set 1:maxp5ga1=120,120,120,120
nvram set 1:maxp5ga2=120,120,120,120
nvram set wl_txpower=111
nvram set wl0_txpower=111
nvram set wl1_txpower=111
nvram commit
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i maxp
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i txpower
echo "Restarting wireless..." && service restart_wireless>/dev/null && sleep 30
echo -n "AFTER:  " && wl txpwr_target_max

wifi-316mW.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo "Changing Tx power adjustment to 100%, 25.0dBm (316mW)"
echo -n "BEFORE: " && wl txpwr_target_max
nvram set 0:maxp2ga0=106
nvram set 0:maxp2ga1=106
nvram set 0:maxp2ga2=106
nvram set 1:maxp5ga0=106,106,106,106
nvram set 1:maxp5ga1=106,106,106,106
nvram set 1:maxp5ga2=106,106,106,106
nvram set wl_txpower=100
nvram set wl0_txpower=100
nvram set wl1_txpower=100
nvram commit
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i maxp
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i txpower
echo "Restarting wireless..." && service restart_wireless>/dev/null && sleep 30
echo -n "AFTER:  " && wl txpwr_target_max

wifi-159mW.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo "Changing Tx power adjustment to 90%, 22.0dBm (159mW)"
echo -n "BEFORE: " && wl txpwr_target_max
nvram set 0:maxp2ga0=94
nvram set 0:maxp2ga1=94
nvram set 0:maxp2ga2=94
nvram set 1:maxp5ga0=94,94,94,94
nvram set 1:maxp5ga1=94,94,94,94
nvram set 1:maxp5ga2=94,94,94,94
nvram set wl_txpower=90
nvram set wl0_txpower=90
nvram set wl1_txpower=90
nvram commit
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i maxp
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i txpower
echo "Restarting wireless..." && service restart_wireless>/dev/null && sleep 30
echo -n "AFTER:  " && wl txpwr_target_max

wifi-79mW.sh

#!/bin/sh
echo "Changing Tx power adjustment to 80%, 19.0dBm (79mW)"
echo -n "BEFORE: " && wl txpwr_target_max
nvram set 0:maxp2ga0=82
nvram set 0:maxp2ga1=82
nvram set 0:maxp2ga2=82
nvram set 1:maxp5ga0=82,82,82,82
nvram set 1:maxp5ga1=82,82,82,82
nvram set 1:maxp5ga2=82,82,82,82
nvram set wl_txpower=80
nvram set wl0_txpower=80
nvram set wl1_txpower=80
nvram commit
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i maxp
nvram show 2>/dev/null|grep -i txpower
echo "Restarting wireless..." && service restart_wireless>/dev/null && sleep 30
echo -n "AFTER:  " && wl txpwr_target_max

 

[ColinTaylor]

Does anyone know the reason?

Yes, the firmware is overriding those values.

 

[BartPl]

I edited my CFE 1.0.2.1 US on RT-AC68U with Asuswrt-Merlin 378.53, to increase the max tx values. However, it does not work because I think those max tx values are locked to 80mW somewhere else. The command "wl txpwr_target_max" reports 28.5dBm (708mW), but there is no effect when I test it.

Does anyone know the reason?

change the ccode.

 

[hardtotell]

Will see about the ccode. I need the maximum tx power because my cabin is way out in the forest.

 

[Michael B]

Sorry for picking this old post up again. I got recently an 87 for some bucks and tried the oem, merlins and also the ddwrt beta firmware on it (latest releases). My experience was, that the 5ghz radio is working great with all of them (exept the ui limitations in ddwrt), but the 2.4ghz radio is really bad with the oem and also with the merlin firmware.

With both of them, i can't connect to my 2.4 from my upper floor (distance maybe 20 meters and trough a couple of walls to my 87). Same thing from the outside of my house, i can't connect at all to my 2.4 from the garden and the garage. But with the dd-wrt firmware i have a perfect signal on every place. Why is there such a big difference? I used always the same channels and kept all other settings the same for my test.

I'm not a big friend of the ddwrt interface and concept and would like to switch back to merlin if i can get the same performance. Any idea how to get the same range for my 2.4 with merlin? Changing antennas should not be the trick.

 

[mattsq7]

There is a way to increase TX power on 87U (it is not factory supported!) I am using it on one on my two 87's.
Search for posts by hggomes and his fork based on Merlin's FW. (consider all pros and cons)
As the files are no longer available for direct download -you can PM him and hopefully he will give you a link ( very nice guy!)

Hello, I think hggomes is lil busy and not checking in snb or github recently. If u havehcould u please provide the frifrimw thanks.

 

[greggy101]

Hello, I think hggomes is lil busy and not checking in snb or github recently. If u havehcould u please provide the frifrimw thanks.

I am not allowed to share his files, sorry. I know that he just released the latest fw RT-AC87U_380.70_HGG-FINAL
Please email him again - he will answer you - sooner or later. Good luck!