[US] TrendNet TEW-811DRU AC1200 Router $20 till 7/20

[Jetster]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...71415-latest-_-WirelessRouters-_-33156451-S0M

And DD WRT firmware

https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

 

[newtekie1]

Just picked up two for use as access points at my office and home.

 

[Jetster]

I don't need a router but at that price I will later

 

[newtekie1]

My two got here today. Upgrading to DD-WRT was easy, just flashed the DD-WRT firmware right from the Trendnet web GUI. After that getting the thing to work as just an access point was a little tricky, mainly because I don't like DD-WRT because of its quirks. I didn't enable STP before applying the settings, which completely locked me out of the DD-WRT configuration GUI. Tomato is a little more forgiving than DD-WRT, and you can still get access to the GUI if you don't enable STP before switching to DHCP Forwarding.

Anyway, I was able to get it set up and working after doing a hard reset and starting over. It is definitely faster than the Wireless N access point I had for the upstairs of my house before. I also overclocked the CPU from 800MHz to 1000MHz, but I don't know if I'm going to leave it there, I might actually underclock it to 600MHz to save a little power.

Edit: I ended up underclocking the processor to 600MHz, and I think that is where I'm going to leave it, and I actually suggest everyone do so. After 1 hour of uptime at 600MHz the CPU is already at 90°C with basically no load.

 

[Jetster]

Good info. You sure got those quick

 

[xvi]

Really quick. Still waiting for mine. I picked one up for similar reasons. Something that was designed to natively support DD-WRT is a pretty big selling feature. I'm hoping most of the low reviews are just people complaining that DD-WRT is too complicated for them.

 

[newtekie1]

Good info. You sure got those quick

They shipped from Indianapolis and my Office is in the south suburbs of Chicago. Whenever anything comes from Indy I get it next day, it is really nice.

Really quick. Still waiting for mine. I picked one up for similar reasons. Something that was designed to natively support DD-WRT is a pretty big selling feature. I'm hoping most of the low reviews are just people complaining that DD-WRT is too complicated for them.

It definitely has some issue, but nothing that makes the product broken. It is a cheap router, and for a cheap router, I'm more than happy with it. The issues I've had so far:

1.) CPU runs extremely hot. When I first set it up I laid it on its side, after an hour the CPU temperature was over 90°C almost at 95°C. When I set it up on its end, like it is designed to be, temps went down to around 85°C. I'm still concerned about the longevity at these temps. But it has a 3 year warranty, so I guess this is Trendnet's problem more than mine. Wireless radio temps are fine though.
2.) Range is...meh... It only has two internal antennas. It covers the top floor of my house and a little of the level below it. For reference, my RT-AC66U covers from the basement all the way to the top floor.
3.) The thing is really light weight. This might not sound like a problem, but it is so light just the weight of the 4 network cables I have plugged into the back of it cause it to fall off the desk.

That being said this thing has some potential. I'm currently using it as an access point and as a gigabit network switch, so it actually replaced two devices in my office. Also, from the little I could find on the internals of this show that the antennas are not soldered to the board. They use the standard internal antenna connectors, so this is the perfect candidate to do an external antenna mod. I think I'm going to pick up these and switch to external antennas. I'll probably replace the TIM on the CPU too and see if that helps with temps.

 

[AsRock]

So the chips that got hot a naked ?, they have not covered them over with any thing like some company's do.

If so that's pretty sweet find some nice heat sinks or some heatpipes should do a good job of cooling it. The case looks pretty closed in so if those other changes been don't may as go all out and vent that thing just do it in the indented parts and should look pretty normal still.

Sadly will have to skip this deal , would of kept me busy for a few days hehe.

Some thing like these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Copper-...666?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item462feeef2a

 

[newtekie1]

There is a heatsink on the CPU, but I have no idea what kind of TIM it has under it. There are vents at the top and bottom.

 

[AsRock]

Pics not to clear on that on newegg, so it's a clip on type heat sink ?.

 

[OneMoar]

its a single core arm should be fine at 800mhz the dual cores are the hot running ones
its also only 2x2:2 radio
still for 20 bucks it would make a decent repeater

 

[newtekie1]

Curiosity got the better of me so I took one apart.

First, you have to remove these two screws. Then pry in between them with a plastic prying tool(I only had a metal knife, so I f'd up the plastic. Good thing this is the bottom.)

This is the inside. The CPU heatsink is the big one on the left, it a thin chunk of metal with a few fins. The other piece of metal is flat with no fins and cools the wireless radio.

Simply take out the 3 screws(3?) to remove the CPU heatsink. Here is the thing, it is stuck pretty good on there with double sided tape, you'll see that in a second. So it actually took a good bit of wiggling and pulling to get it to pop off. I didn't clean this up, this is exactly how it looks after popping of the heatsink. Yes, there is no TIM between the heatsink and the CPU...why Trendnet?!? Also, it does use standard antenna connectors, and they are placed right at the top of the router. So this looks like an easy external antenna mod.

This is the heatsink. Just a thin copper sheet attached to the metal heatsink. The white bit is not TIM, it is just think double sided tape that goes around the CPU core, it doesn't make contact with the core at all.

So I slapped some MX-4 on it and put it back together. We'll see if this helps CPU temps any. It was running at 95°C when I got home from work today with the room at 25°C, so I'll let it run for a while and post an update.

 

[OneMoar]

ouch what a dinky heatsink
I guess you could find a old heatsink off a nforce chipset or something and drill mounting holes

 

[newtekie1]

ouch what a dinky heatsink
I guess you could find a old heatsink off a nforce chipset or something and drill mounting holes

Yeah, it is pretty shitty. I'm thinking of picking up a pack of these. And sticking one on the CPU to see if it helps. If it does I'll probably thermal epoxy it on for good, because I don't trust thermal tape when mounted vertically.

Edit: The good news is that applying TIM seems to have helped. It has been running for an hour now and the temp is hovering around 80°C. That's down 15°C from where it was before the TIM.

 

[AsRock]

Sweet. that heat sink setup for some heat pipes and epoxy , anyways good start 15c surly help it some.

 

[newtekie1]

Yep, now been 2 and a half hours and temp is still sitting at 80°C. Amazing what a little TIM will do.

 

[suraswami]

nice, came to this thread to see what the deal is about, but found a nice mod thread

What's next newtekie? water cool that bad boy and OC the crap out of it? The service provider is now going to cry, you sucked all their band width

 

[Kursah]

Thanks for the sale post and info folks.

Going to snag one as an AP and switch for my home upstairs. Hoping to get extended AC where the Asus AC66R doesn't reach. Plus only needing to make one run up there makes it really nice too!

Planning on an antenna mod and adding some MX-4 to the hsf.

 

[Jetster]

We should do a mod contest and post pictures

 

[OneMoar]

Yep, now been 2 and a half hours and temp is still sitting at 80°C. Amazing what a little TIM will do.

my R6250 which is a 1GHZ Duel core went from 80c to 50 just by putting on fan on the backside of it

 

[phorce1]

So, do y'all think the magnetic field of a fan would affect the wireless if I were to use active cooling? I'm digging around in the junk boxes to see what heatsinks I can scavenge.

 

[xvi]

So, do y'all think the magnetic field of a fan would affect the wireless if I were to use active cooling? I'm digging around in the junk boxes to see what heatsinks I can scavenge.

I wouldn't suspect much of any interference. The noise would have to be pretty strong and pretty close to the 2.4 or 5.8GHz public bands.

So, are you going wireless? Need to transmit over the air? Would you say you're trying to be... Air Phorce 1. *rimshot*

Because.. because you're phorce1.. AIR phorce1? Like the plane? ...I'll show myself out. (Also, welcome to the forums!)

 

[Disparia]

With some TIM applied I got same results as above, about 80 degrees at 800Mhz. Looking through my box of heatsinks I found one thats almost the right size, might mod it if I'm bored.

Nice little router. My MyNet N900 has been unsupported by Western Digital for over a year now and because of it's chip none of the custom firmware work on it so I really needed to get something new in place.

 

[phorce1]

Are the heatsinks they stuck in there just rough cast aluminum? I've never seen that used before. I guess as passive sinks the extra surface area might help.

 

[phorce1]

So, are you going wireless? Need to transmit over the air? Would you say you're trying to be... Air Phorce 1. *rimshot*

New name for the repeater? ;-)