Aimesh on RT-AC56U

[netmind]

@Special - thanks very much for posting this! It's a couple years on now but still doing good out there. My AC56U is getting an extension on life!

Btw - did you ever make any progress with resolving the Lan1=WAN issue?

In case others are wondering, I have added the AC56U as a node to AIMesh 2.0 routers without any observed issues so far.

 

[Special]

No progress, I tried some things a couple years ago with no luck and haven't tried since.

It's good to know theses routers still have life and people are still using them.

 

[netmind]

I thought maybe I had figured out the port order needed and in my excitement to try it, I tried to flash the cfe without first doing a full reset. I know stupid.... but I was in a hurry/excited .

vlan1ports=4 3 2 1 5*
vlan2ports=0 5u

Well the mtd-write command returned a permission denied error. So I used the "dd" command instead, which gave a really strange out of space error. After the fact, I suspect this is b/c I had done the original 68U flash with default admin, but then afterwards had changed the logon username to something else for security (ie diff user/permissions?).

Long story short, I think cfe write failed and bricked the N56. Since the led's are still mucked, I can't tell much other I can't get a ping and haven't been able to get asus recovery tool or mini-cfe-web to work.

Any suggestions on how to unbrick is welcomed. Lol

Since the CFE/bootloader might be wacked, will I need to go the usb ttl cable route?

 

[ama55]

@Special - many thanks for detailed manual. I have upgraded my AC56U into AC68U at once without any issue. At present it successfully works as an AiMesh node:

 

[pehuang]

Just wanna share my AC56U->AC68U mod experience below :

0. Highly recommend that you had the thermal mod done on your AC56U. I prefer no fans so just use copper sheet and repaste it. The temperate downs about 15~20'C. I did it on every ASUS router I have.

1. Make sure you write down all three MAC addresses. (router / 2.4G / 5G)

2. Find the CFE_All.zip from Google. I got the AC68U CFE from it.

3. Dump the CFE from AC56U for backup. The file size of mine 1.0.2.7 is 512KB - so I pick up the same size AC68U CFE to use.

4. Use CFE editor to open AC68U CFE and modify all MAC MAC addresses as AC56U. Regarding CFE editor I use the advanced mode on right and you may easily compare it from your AC56U CFE backup.

5. Just follow the previous steps copying modded CFE to router and then clean it up.

My result :

It works well. The Ethernet ports are all reverted as mentioned before. Only power LED lit. All USB ports work as well. The idle tempature seems a bit higher?