I just want to share my frustration with the CCR2004-16G-2S+PC. I was super excited about it when I first saw it on the YouTube channel and now I have one. Currently I have a RB5009 running some containers and working as main home router, but I would like to have a second SPF+ just to connect another switch with a 10G uplink so I bought this CCR2004. I just was half way of replacing the RB5009 with this new, awesome and powerfull router when I realized that it only had 128MB of storage and absolutely NO usb ports to add some memory for the containers. I removed the top cover to check if there is any slot for an SD card, but no, nothing. All I saw is a place on the motherboard where the USB port should be, and there is enough space to fit it! The question is WHY? Why did you removed the USB port and took all this beautiful container features???
At least it is better than the sdcard slot on the ccr1009 and ROS7 where it just does not work anymore. Clearly defined expectations/features are better than empty promises.
You can replace the stock, noisy fans with Noctua fans. I’ve done that for the CCR2004’s in my home office lab. They’re super quiet… until I ramp up the CPU.
(And I bought that 16G-2S+ RM model specifically because of the USB port—for containers.)
Yeah, this really sucks. On cheap board I might understand some cost cutting reasons to save the last $1… but this is almost $500 router.
I haven’t opened it, but maybe there is USB header inside? Or unpopulated USB connector? I can’t find high res image of the PCB anywhere.
Well, as I said, there is a usb header inside waiting to be soldered, but there is a chip missing. The trace from USB go to a pad where some chip should be placed. There is another header for ASM1042A, which is a USB to PCIe3.0. This is really frustrating.
Can’t see all PCB traces on the photo, but it looks like all traces from ext connector go to the ASM1042A. The L2001 are just interference reduction chokes and D2001 are ESR protection diodes. U2002 is clearly SPI flash for ASM configuration. Area around U2003 is DC-DC switching converter (probably just for USB 5V supply).
But all traces are going to ASM, there are none going to the CPU itself (unless there is another connector/header somewhere for that).
I really hope that they will release a version with USB. But for now I think that these traces and the pcb layout was borrowed from the biggest version of the router.
Also it’s still possible the PCIe bus is disabled somewhere in firmware or bootloader etc.
Still would be interesting hack. I thought about it some more and cleanest way would be to make mod board that on one side fits the ASM pinout (with small pads with golden plated castellated edges for needed pins, so they can be soldered nicely) and then is longer on the opposite side with micro-usb-3.0 connector on it to connect mining riser with regular USB 3.0 micro to type-A cable. Could attach it on multiple spots to grounding points so it’s also mechanically stable (just like some high quality mod boards for gaming consoles etc..). And it’s easy to do length and impedance matching on the PCB unlike some questionable wire mess.
Marketing guys: Oh, we have this cool docker feature that everybody can use.
Sales guys: Oh, we make a smaller model but the only thing we do is shorten the case and remove the usb port! We make two versions the small one and the usefull one
I don’t know what could be the motivation. They can always say that they dropped down the clock speed a little bit and there is not enough power for USB. Such a disapointment.
Actually the reason was CoVID: the IC could not be sourced any more and the design of the PCB could not be changed. (PCBs take long to get them maufactured, so they can´t be easily replaced to accomodate another IC.)
That was probably the reason according to what I read in the forums and what I hear from other vendors as well.
Well, yes, the board still the same, they do manufacture and sell the full ccr 2004, so wha is the reason to not solder the usb on that board? If they have components for the big board, then they should have enough for the small one as well
Some thing with which i wil play in free time - ramdisk. Looks like nice thing to boost my RAID in my other RB1100Dx4 - Dude Edition.
Anyway. I do not know your requirements for storage, but if you have stable power supply - you can use ramdisk option. This device have 4 GB od RAM, so you can assign 3 GB to ramdisk. Some kind of porn - but if you using Mikrotik you must to like it.
