Use the app on the phone.
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This looks amazing upgrade to the Beryl, looking forward to the launch!!!
I don't understand why is micro SD card slot removed from recent models. It's kinda helpful to have expandable storage for SMB server.
Even leaving a bit trace on the PCB would be helpful and i can just add the slot myself.
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I would agree. I like to save data to the external drive. Stuff like vnstat db. I guess I'll have to do smb or USB
Use a thumb drive via usb port.
Until you found how easily to snap and break the USB port when a TRAVEL router has an USB sticked in all the time.
Not to mention how much pain in the ass is it to have TRIM working properly for USB drive (that requires all kinds of hack around udev rules to set unmap provisioning), as oppose to mmcblk (which basically "just works")
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Remove the thumb drive for travel. No need for trim, you not hosting a server for a million people.
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And, tbh, at the end: It's just a router, not a storage device.
You should keep that in mind.
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Now that's asking for even more trouble when I install more things into the USB drive and risk the router booting up without the USB drive. Say I have one of those bigger things that won't fit into the built-in storage easily, such as cloudlfared, or need storage for certain container.
Going through all those risk for what? Jumping through a bunch hops to use a more inferior solution rather than the easy and better way?
Let's say it makes technical more reason not to install the SD card slot. Else they would provide it.
I am pretty sure they are reading here and hear all the complains about the missing SD card slot in some devices.
Of course it would be cool to have a reason. No place on the PCB, more expensive, interference as writing over the SOC, need of the GPIO port for the display... There could be plenty of reasons.
Please be confident the reason is not just to annoy the users.
But for sure: You are missing it. Understandable. I hardly doubt GL.iNet will implement it afterwards, because of this discussion here.
Solutions are named. And you are not happy with it. So maybe you need to wait for the Slate 7 AX or Slate 8.
1 Like
Let's say it makes technical more reason not to install the SD card slot
I don't think this assumption is true. mmc driver is better in basically all aspect for storage compared to usb-storage.
No place on the PCB
For instance, judged from MT3000's picture, there are plenty of surface area for that: GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) - GL.iNet Router Docs 4
more expensive
I just checked mouser and the microSD slot costs as cheap as $0.218 at bulk for each. I'm sure it's even cheaper when sourced directly from shenzheng.
Even if say cutting this little bit of BOM, it's make at least some sense to leave traces out, which essentially cost nothing. GL-iNet has been a geek-oriented product and i love how it's conveniently leaving UART out (and SPI, I2C, JTAG for older models). It's sad to see it moving away from that and becoming just every other generic router brand.
interference as writing over the SOC, need of the GPIO port for the display
Nah. SD card uses the same underlying circuits as eMMC which every mid to high end SoC in the last few years have already support. There's a reason the driver for SD card is called mmc, as in eMMC. The signal are essentially the same except but width cut from 8bit to 4bit. It's another reason how it's technically more better. all the engineering efforts go into eMMC in the industry also directly benefits SD card. It runs cooler, has less overhead / latency especially at small size random I/O, more mature support for discard and wear leveling for longevity.
It won't functionally in conflict with essentially anything else unless there are built-in eMMC(s) that had already occupied the bus. As for physical GPIOs, i don't see how travel routers have so many peripherals that could have exhausted the native GPIOs.
2 Likes
USB thumb drives have grown to over 512GB in size and for what you are using it, you can get a cheap 64GB thumb drive that will get the job done. Router will boot just fine if you forget to plug in a thumb drive, all you have to do is power cycle it and you are up and running.
Another solution, and hear me out....make your own travel router. You can buy all the parts now days and put it together your self just they way you want it. Problem solved.
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I don't see how storage capacity is even relevant to this tread. additionally, i'm precisely putting my own router here.
If you compare the Slate 7 to the original Slate, the Slate 7 is significantly bigger and heavier than its predecessor. Unfortunately, it lacks an SD card slot and only offers only 2 Ethernet ports, down from 3.
As someone who travels full-time, I will stick with the original Slate until GL.iNet learns how to make a small router again
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I would love a WiFi 5 Brume spec'd device but with 4 cores and 1gb ram, 8gb emmc 
I don't need the WiFi 6 or 7. The WiFi 5 range and speed is perfect for a hotel / Starbucks / cruise ship etc.
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You mentioned storage and so I answered your question. Show us what your router looks like when you are finished putting it together. Cheers.
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any idea about a potential release date? March or April?
8gb emmc, just give me the m2 slot.
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That's not possible, router already has an m3.14 slot.
1 Like