Cisco Meraki MR16

multiple revisions of this device, use caution

abgn (AN600)
Meraki MR16 Cloud Managed AP (MR16-HW)
Homepage	Product page
Wikipedia	Cisco Systems
3rd Party Firmware
dd-wrt	Status Unknown
OpenWrt	Supported
Tomato any flavor	Incompatible
Gargoyle	Status Unknown
Platform
Brand • Model • Rev	Cisco Meraki MR16-HW
FCC ID	UDX-60012010
IC ID	6961A-60012010
Board ID	7016A0441001
Type	access point
CPU1	Atheros AR7161
CPU1 Type	MIPS 24K
CPU1 Speed	680 MHz 32-bit
Flash1 Chip	Macronix MX25L12845EMI-10G
Flash1 Size	16 MiB16,777,216 B <br />131,072 Kib <br />16,384 KiB <br />128 Mib <br />0.0156 GiB <br />
RAM1 Size	64 MiB67,108,864 B <br />524,288 Kib <br />65,536 KiB <br />512 Mib <br />0.0625 GiB <br />
RAM1 Chip	EtronTech EM6AA160TSB-5G
ETH chip1	Atheros AR7161
ETH chip2	Atheros AR8021
Ethernet Port Count	1-1GbE-LAN
Wired Standard	IEEE 802.3i/3u/3ab
802dot11 OUI: 00:18:0A (9 E, 7 W), 00:03:7F (2 E, 10 W) Ethernet OUI: 00:18:0A (9 E, 7 W), 00:03:7F (2 E, 10 W)
Stock bootloader	U-Boot
Expansion IF types	none specified
PoE	802.3at, 802.3af, standard
Power	12 VDC, 1.5 A
Connector type	barrel
Serial Port (UART)	yes, 4-pin header, populated, 3.3V TTL, (115200 8N1), JP1
Additional chips 802.3at PoE Interface and DC/DC Controller;TI;TPS23754;;1; 2.4GHz Power Amplifier IC;Microchip;SST12LP15B;;2; 4.9 to 5.9GHz Power Amplifier IC;Microsemi;LX5530;;2; 1.5/2.5A Dual Synchronous Step-Down Converter;TI;TPS54291;;2; 1-Channel Photocoupler;LiteOn;LTV-817;;1; 150V N-Channel MOSFET;Vishay Siliconix;Si4848DY;;1; 400V 30A Single-Phase Bridge Rectifier;Vishay Silicon;B4S;;2;
Other
Manuf/OEM/ODM	Senao
3rd Party Firmware Support	OpenWrt • (List | Dev | DLs)
Retail
Availability	End of Life
End of Life date	2014
FCC approval date	15 November 2010
ASIN	B01M8K3VO1
Country of manuf	Taiwan
Radio 1
Chip1	Atheros AR9220
Wireless interface OUI	00:18:0A, 00:03:7F
Antenna Connector Type	U.FL
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11a/n
802.11n	up to 300 Mbps
802.11a	up to 54 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	5 GHz
Radio 2
Chip1	Atheros AR9223
Wireless interface OUI	00:18:0A, 00:03:7F
Antenna Connector Type	U.FL
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11b/g/n
802.11n	up to 300 Mbps
802.11g	up to 54 Mbps
802.11b	up to 11 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	2.4 GHz
CPU1 brand Radio1 chip1 brand Radio2 chip1 brand Cisco Meraki MR12 Atheros Atheros Cisco Meraki MR16 Atheros Atheros Atheros Cisco Meraki MR18 Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Atheros Cisco Meraki MR24 Applied Micro Atheros Atheros Cisco Meraki MR26 Broadcom Broadcom Broadcom Cisco Meraki MR32 Broadcom Broadcom Broadcom Cisco Meraki MR33 Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Cisco Meraki MR34 Freescale (NXP) Broadcom Broadcom Cisco Meraki MR45 Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Cisco Meraki MR55 Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm Cisco Meraki MR74 Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Cisco Meraki MS120-8 Marvell

For a list of all currently documented Atheros (QCA) chipsets with specifications, see Atheros.

For a list of all currently documented Cisco device with specifications, see Cisco.

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 5GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.),

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.) = AN600 class

Overview

This device has one Gigabit Ethernet port with PoE capability.

Default settings are per the FCC manual.

Links of Interest

• Meraki MR16 on OpenWrt wiki

CPU: Atheros AR7161 @680MHz

Wireless: Atheros AR9223 2T2R 802.11bgn

Wireless: Atheros AR9220 2T2R 802.11an

Ethernet ports: Atheros AR8021-BL1E 1x GbE

Flashing

Flashing OpenWrt

On the OpenWrt ToH (techdata entry)
On the OpenWrt Wiki
OpenWrt Target: ar71xx-ath79
OpenWrt Subtarget: generic
OpenWrt Package architecture: mips_24kc
Support started version: 15.05
Current supported version: 23.05.5

Please insert instructions here

Pictures

User Images

• 

  Board Top

• 

  Board Bottom

Notes

• Notes about RF chains, from a quick conversation, 2020-07-20
  • Yeah, I took a multimeter and looked for contact points [to poke around at the RF chains on the board and see what's attached to what by default.]
  • There are plenty of via's for electrically connecting certain parts of the folded antennas with the input and output chains of each chip
  • each chip has 4 chains -- 2 in, 2 out
  • those 4 chains get multiplexed into [many outputs].
  • there are two PIF antennas on the board for each radio for early testing (the 5GHz ones are hidden in the top and bottom corners of the [rightmost partition of the] the radio shield [where the 5GHz AR9220 lives], the 2.4GHz radio has one antenna peeking out near the top [left] and the other is near the bottom hidden beneath the [leftmost partition of the] shield)
  • there's a pad near the radio chip to electrically attach it to the PIF antennas, but they are not connected
  • I was able to trace the center (hot) contact of each of each UFL antenna back to both radio chips
  • so they are hard-wired to the radios. In addition, thankfully I was able to verify that they don't connect to the antennas in any other way. They were planning to and in fact you could remove the U.FLs if you wanted to and just solder on some zero-ohm resistors
  • basically most of the resistors and capacitors under and around the radio chips are for antenna development, and most are not needed
  • there are plenty of blank solder pads -- copper spots -- and some solder pads that have copper. All of those are 'switches' that you can add 0-ohm resistors to to active different antennas onboard but right now the chains end in U.FLs
  • One way to improve radio performance [by giving the 2.4 and 5GHz chains different physical fronends] would be to use a handful of 0-Ohm resistors and 4 U.FL headers and reroute the radios separately to separate antennas. There are pads for 2.4 and 5GHz U.FL pads but no headers for them.
  • back in Mar 2018 or 2019 I remember [Tomesh] did a thing where you tested long-range Merakis with that 5GHz directional anntenna [the Librerouter prototype antenna]. You attached it I think to the U.FL headers. that worked OK right? [a 100M test was done under OpenWrt, 5GHz 11n HT40, resulting in ~100Mbps transmission rates]
  • .... but I was worrying that like certain types of TP-LINK routers whether there was an electronic multiplexer for turning on / off the radio amplifier chains
  • turns out there's not. it's all soldered on [in the MR16].