GL-AR300M is released, Atheros 650MHz CPU, 300Mbps wifi, 128MB flash, 128MB RAM,

alzhao · 2016-07-16T11:08:39.000Z

We are pleased to announce our new product release of GL-AR300M (M stands for Mini), a business grade Mini router with many features:

Atheros 9531 650MHz CPU
300 Mbps WiFi, excellent wifi performance
16MB Nor flash + 128MB Nand flash, space is not limited and read/write is very fast
128MB RAM
Reserved PCIe Interface for 5G wifi addon board.

By using 128MB Nand flash, it overcome the basic shortage of current routers, limited storage and writing speed is very slow. Here is a comparison between AR300M and AR150 related the nand flash.

Any operation related to flashing writing is accelerated. You don’t need a long waiting and you can install as many software packages as you can, like PhP, Python, Nodejs, which are all in our repo now.

FAQ:

1. Will there be external version? when?

Yes, there will be. It will take several weeks.

2. When will the 5G 802.11ac addon board available

Not sure. We have some samples under testing. There is two problems. First is the ath10k driver is not performing good. Second is we are looking for a way to cool it. We are willing to provide free samples for driver developers. If you are, please let us know.

3. Is it hot?

It is hotter than AR150, but it is still touchable. For 2.4G models, without heatsink should be fine. If we add 5G addon board, We do need a heatsink.

4. Is this CE/FCC certified? Will the firmware be locked?

It is under testing. Hope to finish soon. We will not lock the firmware for 2.4G models.

5. Will it be in other colors?

Now it is only black. We can change the color for bulk order only.

6. Can I compile my own firmware?

Yes, of course. Check the docs: Overview - GL.iNet Docs 3

7. How does the two flashes work together?

There is one 16MB Nor flash and one 128MB nand flash. We have separate firmware installed on each flash. The router will always try to boot from the nand firmware. If it fails many times it will boot from the nor firmware. You can check the free space to see which firmware you are using. Nand firmware will have more than 100MB free space.

8. Can I just use one flash without the other?

Yes. If you do need, you can have only 16MB Nor flash without Nand. But you cannot have only Nand flash.

9. Will AR150 be discontinued?

No. AR150 is low power consumption and reserved may GPIO for IoT applications, we will not retire it soon.

10. Will there be PoE (Power over Ethernet)?

No. There is no space on the PCB to reserve PoE interfaces.

11. Does it have two antenna or two radio?

It has two antenna, but only one Radio. If you need external antenna you need to connect two sticks. With the 5G addon board, it will be two radio.

12. Does it support Mesh?

Yes. It has ath9k driver and it support BATMAN and 802.1s. Mesh firmware required.

jedge · 2016-08-03T02:59:27.000Z

Just got my AR300M. What is the connector for the external antenna?

alzhao · 2016-08-03T10:52:09.000Z

What you got should be Internal antenna version. The connector is for Radio calibration, not external antenna.
If you need external antenna, you may need to solder your antenna directly on the PCB. Or you can wait our external antenna version, which will be available soon.

justin · 2016-08-13T12:56:40.000Z

Out of pure curiosity, what is the progress timeline like before the 5 GHz module is released? I understand its being held up by an ath10k driver issue, hopefully that gets fixed soon.

Will Gl-Inet make a slightly larger model that supports PoE? PoE is essential for the application that I need to use these routers for, it would be ashame to not be able to use these awesome new 5 GHz routers.

alzhao · 2016-08-14T23:25:06.000Z

@justin, thanks for your suggestions. I am thinking the same to make the router a little bit larger. ath10k seems working with the 5G modules and hope we can make it releasable soon.

james · 2016-08-22T13:50:24.000Z

I also require PoE for my application. I hope you will create a PoE version of this router, that still has I2C gpio pins (ideally with all gpio pre-soldered). Cheers!

alzhao · 2016-08-23T16:34:27.000Z

@james, we want to redesign the case, make it looks even better but a little bigger so that it can hold PoE modules and 5G modules etc. and have all the GPIO exposed. This will takes some months I think. So don’t expect it very soon.

james · 2016-08-26T12:40:37.000Z

Thank you for your prompt reply, I will just use a splitter in the interim. Cheers!