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Fri, Apr 19, 2024
Parent Category: Networking
Category: ASUS

ASUS Lyra AC2200 Tri-Band AiMesh

Qualcomm IPQ4019 SoC 717MHz (4 cores), 128MB Flash / 256MB RAM
MIMO 2x2:2 / 2.4GHz~400Mbps + 2x5GHz~1734Mbps
Gigabit Ports : 1xWAN / 1xLAN

What am I doing with this old discontinued toy foot-in-mouth ...

Product Photo

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Product information & reference:

I almost forgot this ASUS Lyra which has been lying around for a long time from ASUS Malaysia since 2018 tongue-out, only pull out recently to play around with the AiMesh and ...

First of, I'm not really a mesh fan for residential radio-ing. Dealing with 1 radio already headache enough, create mesh with more radios may not neccessary means better throughput, some might ends up more mess yell

Instead of making/improving good/stable/strong radio, these day manufacturers are selling/promoting more devices/radios for home mesh networking.  While some may tend to believe more is better, unless really necessary, I personally tend to stick with 1 solid radio whenenver possible.  If situation which require to deploy mesh network, I'll prefer to have :

  • dedicated backhaul path between radios;
  • if possible, run cable to connect backhaul instead of wireless;
  • use identical radio chip make/model with stable/tested mesh firmware, avoid mix-n-match chips/firmware

It's been years now that I believe most manufactures should have more stable mesh firmware implementation, part of the reason I pulled out this old toy to test the AiMesh function.

Generally, my house has 2 weak/blind spots :

  • wet kitchen back area
  • upstair guest room's toilet

Most of wireless radio (2.4G & 5G) I've used either become very weak or even lost signal completely at the above area, especially the upstair toilet area once the door is closed.

Setup AiMesh / Add Nodes

Basically, I setup a base unit as AP first, then add the node by pressing the "Pairing" button on device, then click the "Search" to find AiMesh node :

  • flashed all 3 units to current latest official firmware, perform factory restore;
  • setup 1 unit as AP with static IP, leave wireless channel to auto especially the 5G-2;
  • then add 1 node at a time in close range before placing at the desire weak location.

IMG_20200714_012439-pairing.jpgIMG_20200714_012533-add-node.jpgIMG_20200714_015954-Success.jpgIMG_20200714_021640-add-2nd.jpgIMG_20200714_022116-success.jpgIMG_20200715_005103-Hall.jpgIMG_20200715_020515-Kitchen.jpgIMG_20200715_022021-Upstair.jpg

I was unable to add node during first round setup, probably due to I always set the wireless channel manually.  I perform another round of Factory Restore, leave the wireless channel to auto, then able to add the other 2 nodes successfully.  After that I manually change the wireless channel again while still leave the 5G-2 auto for the AiMesh to decide it's backhaul channel path.

Wireless Performance

Let's see how the Lyra wireless performance both as standalone AP and AiMesh on current latest stock firmware :


OpenWRT - Lyra

Yes, this Lyra is OpenWRT-able, the main reason I play/test this old toy laughing 
The Lyra is known to operate very hot on stock firmware, but somehow the temperature is not that hot after flashing to OpenWRT, strange though ...


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