TUF AX4200 radio/antenna info

[jmt]

Hello, newbie question from a new owner of a TUF AX4200. Getting quite amazing 5GHz coverage all over my 3-story wooden home
2,4GHz coverage is somewhat lower than expected and I would like to fine tune the angles of my antennas to improve the situation if possible (using Android wifi analyzer, channel selection is taken care of, I am very happy to live in a non-congested area).

Have been looking for info about the radios/antennas, but have not been able to find any info regarding the radios sharing all four antennas or not, anyone here in the knowing?

-Regards from Norway

 

[jmt]

Did some antenna angle tweaking on the assumption that all 4 are used by both the 2,4GHz and 5GHz bands. Top notch coverage in entire house now, extremely satisfied. What a great router!

 

[Tech9]

Have been looking for info about the radios/antennas

This router is built around MediaTek MT7986AV CPU and MT7976DA radios in 2x2 2.4GHz and 3x3 5GHz configuration.

You'll be perhaps happy to know this hardware has active OpenWrt development as 3rd party open-source firmware option.

[OpenWrt Wiki] ASUS TUF-AX4200

openwrt.org

What a great router!

Good to hear it works as expected for you. Enjoy!

 

[jmt]

This router is built around MediaTek MT7986AV CPU and MT7976DA radios in 2x2 2.4GHz and 3x3 5GHz configuration.

You'll be perhaps happy to know this hardware has active OpenWrt development as 3rd party open-source firmware option.

[OpenWrt Wiki] ASUS TUF-AX4200

openwrt.org

Good to hear it works as expected for you. Enjoy!

Thanks! The open-source firmware option is very interesting

 

[jmt]

He who googleth findeth! Found this picture showing the antennas wired to the main board
Antenna layout looking from behind, left to right:
Antenna #1, grey wire, 5GHz
Antenna #2, white wire, 2GHz
Antenna #3, black wire, 5GHz
Antenna #4, blue wire, combo 2GHz/5GHz

 

[tiomiguel]

I have read in some forums this TUF-AX4200 and Rt-AX59U are not real 3x3 in 5 Ghz anyone knows why?

 

[tiomiguel]

FCC ID: MSQ-RTAX5S00 (TUF-AX4200)
Power: 12 VDC, 2.5 A
CPU1: MediaTek MT7986AV (2.0 GHz, 4 cores)
FLA1: 256 MiB (Winbond W25N02KVZEIR)
RAM1: 512 MiB (Nanya K4A4G165WF)

Expansion IFs: USB 3.2
USB ports: 1
Serial: yes

WI1 chip1: MediaTek MT7986AV
WI1 chip2: MediaTek MT7976DA
WI1 802dot11 protocols: bgn+ax
WI1 MIMO config: 2x2:2
WI1 antenna connector: none
WI2 chip1: MediaTek MT7986AV
WI2 chip2: MediaTek MT7976DA
WI2 802dot11 protocols: an+ac+ax
WI2 MIMO config: 3x3:2 WHAT IS THIS????????????????
WI2 antenna connector: none

ETH chip1: MediaTek MT7986AV
ETH chip2: MaxLinear GPY211C
Switch: MediaTek MT7531AE
LAN speed: 1GbE
LAN ports: 4
WAN speed: 2.5GbE
WAN ports: 1

 

[ColinTaylor]

WI2 MIMO config: 3x3:2 WHAT IS THIS????????????????

3 transmit chains, 3 receive chains, and 2 spatial streams.

 

[tiomiguel]

Anf what is the meaning of this, exactly? Is a marketing question or is a real improve? If I hece a road with 3 rails but only 2 cars at the same time...

 

[ColinTaylor]

Anf what is the meaning of this, exactly? Is a marketing question or is a real improve? If I hece a road with 3 rails but only 2 cars at the same time...

Trying to explain how MIMO works is beyond the scope of a single forum post. I suggest you search the internet for a detailed explanation in your native language.

But the short answer is, yes it should be an improvement over what went before because it allows multiple devices to transmit and receive simultaneously rather than having to wait and take turns. The fact that the TUF-AX4200 is "only" :2 is unlikely to be an issue because most clients are either x1 or x2 devices.