I recently got some new toys to play with, one of them being the GL.iNet GL-M300N-V2 mini (read that as ultra-small) smart router. The “Mango” is indeed very small, and for the price packs some pretty decent hardware specs, not to mention that it’s running a (slightly modified – with good additions I’d say) OpenWrt release, meaning it has access to the entire OpenWrt library of packages (if you find the space to install them in – more on that later).
The case is only held in with plastic clips, no screws, so it can be taken apart quite easily with a spanner/wedge tool designed for mobile phones. After removing the bottom cover we’re mooned by the bottom side of the circuit board, of course.
Take note the flash chip is here meaning we don’t have to completely disassemble to mess with the firmware in a hard(ware) way. There’s also some access to the serial UART pins from the bottom. The board has MT-N300-V2_PCB_V1.2 etched on it so I’m guessing the device went through several hardware revisions already (beside being a V2 to begin with).
The board is not held inside in any way so it can also be removed easily by tilting it slightly with the same spanner tool. On the top we find the MediaTek MT7628NN SoC, (NN being a trimmed down version of the AN), the RAM chip, the serial pins header (with some populated pins and some extras), another larger header (maybe a JTAG?), the leds and…
Adding external antennas to the GL-MT300N-V2 “Mango”
Well, not really. They are connectors, but they’re not the regular IPEX/U.FL. They’re “SWD type switches” manufactured by Murata, basically to allow attaching external test probes to the antennas circuit (while also disconnecting the on-board antennas) and act as a simple pass-through when no probes are attached.
GL.iNet did leave us the antenna holes in the top cover, but they added some plastic protection grills which do need to be removed. The holes are already the exact size of the regular (RP-)SMA connectors, but they lack the anti-rotation inserts so the connectors will require more serious tightening to prevent rotation later.
I used the shortest pigtail cables I had because there’s not much room inside to stash extra cabling. Also pay attention to where the cables route during re-assembly to avoid pinching or forcing them to break.
And done, the “Mango” with fresh (color unmatched and disproportionately sized) antennas in all its glory.
I’m sure I’m messing some built-in antenna/signal calibration by replacing the antennas, but that’s fine by me. Now it can eavesdrop on more of the neighbour’s wireless networks than it was seeing with the on-board antennas.
Now to do something about that limited storage space…
Thank you very much for this helpful write-up!
I’m trying to use one of these (and another Wifi bridge) to boost a Wifi network about half a mile. I have some Yagi antennas on the way. I only want to hook one up to the Mango, and use the PCB antenna to pick up the “local” network (and likewise with the other bridge at the other end).
Are the antenna ports interchangeable, or is one dedicated to each of the two networks being bridged? If the latter, is there a way to find out which SWD switch to replace with a U.FL in order to achieve this? Thanks for reading!
I’m far from being in any way knowledgable in the field or wireless communications, but from what I’ve learned so far (and what others are saying too), there’s no way to select specific antennas for specific functionality, at least with such medium/low cost solutions.
The MT7628(NN) chipset used in MT300Nv2 is a 2T2R solution, meaning it can and will use both antennas (when available) simultaneously for communication. If you set up more than one wireless configuration in software (one AP and one as station connected to a remote AP), the software will simply be using the hardware capabilities and antennas in a time-shared manner.
I doubt using different types of antennas with different directionality at the same time will yield stable results.