Linksys WRT1900AC V2 Firmware Ver. 2.0.6.166464

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #1

Just posted on the Linksys site. Version 2 of the WRT1900AC.

Product: Linksys WRT1900AC
Classification: Firmware Release Notes


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT:
- DO NOT power cycle the Router during the firmware upgrade process.

===========================================================================


Firmware version: 2.0.6.166464
Release date: April 10, 2015

- Wireless driver updated to ver. 7.2.8.6
- Fixed 2.4GHz connectivity issue on wireless bridge/repeater mode
- Resolved low throughput issues for some 802.11n clients
- Overall throughput has been improved when five or more clients are associated.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Firmware version: 2.0.6.166357
Release date: March 16, 2015

- Initial release

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Apr 29, 2015

• #2

Note that this is for HW version 2 - bumped up CPU and other changes - my guess is it's a HW spin to reflect similar changes on the WRT1200ac - deltas below:

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2015

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #3

Belkin removed the fan and put the WRT1200AC 1.3GHz processor in version 2. Hopefully I can get my hands on a v2.

 

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #4

Only V2 showing up on the Linksys support page for downloads. http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=156218

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Apr 29, 2015

• #5

Saw that mentioned somewhere - I would guess also that they went from a daughter board/mainboard config that was used in WRT1900ac to a single board - substantial cost savings there..

Not having a fan - might be an issue as there have been some reports of thermal issues on the v1 - but if I recall, the newer CPU is on a smaller geometry node, so perhaps doesn't run as hot...

That they're including a 3A power supply on the V2 vs. 4A on the V1 suggests as much...

 

RMerlin

Asuswrt-Merlin dev

• Apr 29, 2015

• #6

Now I know why there's a 70$ rebate on the WRT1900AC at NCIX since yesterday.

 

chadster766

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #7

I'm looking into whether or not Version 2 Firmware will run on WRT1900AC Version 1 Hardware.

 

RMerlin

Asuswrt-Merlin dev

• Apr 29, 2015

• #8

chadster766 said:

I'm looking into whether or not Version 2 Firmware will run on WRT1900AC Version 1 Hardware.

Click to expand...

If they released the GPL tarball for the v2 FW, you could try diffing it with the V1 one. See if they have any conditional code in there to handle different models/revisions.

 

chadster766

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #9

chadster766 said:

I'm looking into whether or not Version 2 Firmware will run on WRT1900AC Version 1 Hardware.

Click to expand...

Linksys engineering reports that the WRT1900AC firmwares are not compatible between WRT1900AC hardware versions.

WRT1900AC hardware V1 Firmware will be available on the support site again shortly.

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Apr 29, 2015

• #10

Interesting - I was looking closer at the WRT1200ac v1 board - I have a very strong suspicion that WRT1900ac V2shares the exact same board - they just de-populated the other two RF chains...

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2015

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Apr 29, 2015

• #11

Here's the RF section from V1 on the WRT1900ac, compare to the RF section from the 1200ac above

 

chadster766

Very Senior Member

• Apr 29, 2015

• #12

Note from OpenWRT developers:

All the new WRT routers have their own firmware images in trunk, you have to use the right one.

WRT1900AC(v1) - Mamba
WRT1900ACv2 - Cobra
WRT1200AC - Caiman

 

R

Raptorex

New Around Here

• May 3, 2015

• #13

WRT1900AC V1 uses the Armada XP MV78230 processor. If V2 uses the Armada 38x 88F6820 processor, wouldn't that be a step back? XP processors appear to be step up from the 38x processors.

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• May 3, 2015

• #14

Raptorex said:

WRT1900AC V1 uses the Armada XP MV78230 processor. If V2 uses the Armada 38x 88F6820 processor, wouldn't that be a step back? XP processors appear to be step up from the 38x processors.

Click to expand...

38x is a better chip... native SATA vs. SERDES that can be purposed - plus it has native USB3 - smaller package, and I believe it's on a smaller process node, which explains less cooling requirements.

By doing this, they pulled the Etron SATA/USB3 controller off the board, another cost reduction, and better performance to boot - sounds like a win/win to me...

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• May 3, 2015

• #15

So to recap the differences:

Armada XP > Armada 38x - add 100Mhz, minor speed bump
256MB RAM > 512MB RAM - still 16 bit bus
Etron USB3/eSATA > native on Armada 38x
Daughter Board for Radios > single board w/radios

This is a classic cost reduction, and optimization - nice effort, my guess is that with all these changes, they probably dropped 20 bucks off the HW, and that includes adding twice the RAM.

Now if the 1900acV2 maintains the RF performance of the V1, and the network/storage performance of the 1200acV1, then it's a compelling device.

 

N

nagle3092

Senior Member

• May 4, 2015

• #16

Anyone seen the V2 for sale anywhere besides the Linksys site?

 

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• May 4, 2015

• #17

Haven't seen any yet. Wen't to Walmart and Best Buy still only V1's available.

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• May 4, 2015

• #18

Used to be in the WRT54G days, one could tell by the package label on the UPC and leading values on the SN's which HW version it was...

 

daemoch

New Around Here

• May 11, 2015

• #19

SO....from someone who bought one a few weeks ago with the hope of modifying it and installing aftermarket firmware, should I be looking to 'return' my recent purchase to try to get the new one instead? I'm not really opposed to buying a second one later though either. I have 7-8 of the old WRT54G models that I still regularly deploy/use all running various builds of OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and Tomato.

 

R

Raptorex

New Around Here

• May 14, 2015

• #20

Just bought one from the Linksys website and returned it. I got v1 instead of v2 as advertised on their website.