Purchased a couple of MC8775 on Ebay quite a while ago. Mounted each of them in an RB411U. One of them connects and establishes a 3G connection ok, but the other is stuck in state “Link established” showing a lot of “ConfReq” and “ConfNAK” messages with increasing IDs in log.
Anybody knows what’s the reason for this? OTB settings in RouterOS, apart from unchecking the “dial on demand” checkbox in the PPP connection.
I was thinking that the odd behaviour maybe can be cured with a firmware upgrade of the MiniPCI-e card.
This card is discontinued for years by Sierra I reckon, but I managed to find a .TAR file somewhere on the net, containing version 2.0.8.19 which appears to be the latest.
Or does anybody know of a newer version?
And what is the “official” and approved place to look for such?
Next problem is how to perform the FW upgrade.
Running 6.2 I see there is a setting /port/firmware which I assume is intended to specify location of firmware image files.
Documentation for ROS is very limited on this point:
Firmware
Sub-menu: /port firmware
This submenu allows to specify directory where drivers for 3g modems can be uploaded and used.
So I connected via ftp, created the folder “firmware” and copied the two .cwe files therein and rebooted, hoping for the magic to unleash..but nothing happens.
So what is the correct procedure for installing firmware on 3G MiniPCI-e cards?
And which HSDPA or 4G cards do you recommend these days?
you can’t upgrade sierra card firmware with RouterOS. The only way to upgrade the firmware I think is by putting the card into the Windows PC with 32bit OS.
Ok Uldis.
Now I’ve got my hands on a couple of the the MC7710, going to test LTE.
But rumors have it this won’t work in RouterOS unless the FW is up to the last, and my test confirmed this. No reply from card in serial-terminal.
I have signed in at Sierra and downloaded the latest FW:
Mikrotik are not being helpful when it comes to 3G/4G support, after all the claims and number of boards that have “3G support” I would have expected a lot better!
You’ll need the MC7710 card in a PC/Laptop with a mini-PCIe card slot.
I managed to get the firmware to update after manually installing the drivers for the MC7710 card.
Extract the .zip
Use device manager to update driver for the sierra wireless devices specifying the ~\FTS_SierraWirelessMC7710WWANDriver_3571A_1084241\Uncompressed_Drivers folder
But first of all I need to find a laptop with MiniPCIe slot that detects the card, right?
My experience, although somewhat limited, is that many laptops/BIOSes are very picky when it comes to MiniPCIe…often only one specific brand/model is supported.
Or am I wrong?
How about trying the MiniPCIe to USB adapter I linked to above, is there any chance it will work as a “generic” interface that I can get AT command access to, and subsequently being able to update the FW?
I did manage to get my MC7710 working. My laptop a Dell Studio 1555 was able to do the required firmware flash. I guess I was lucky that the driver I found did work in my laptop.
The RB912UAG-2HPnD I used needed a setting changed to power up the mini-PCIe slot instead of the USB port (both do not work at the same time!).
Go to Routerboard > USB > change type to “mini-PCIe”
This is now installed over 4KM from the mast with a high gain directional antenna with -85dB signal. Speedtest results are around 7~8Mbps download and 1.5~2Mbps upload. Far faster than the ADSL available in this remote location.
I did get a USB to Mini-PCIe adapter as well which only arrived yesterday. This worked well and I was able to flash the latest firmware onto an MC7710 … so no need to disassemble my PC to flash firmware onto Mini-PCIe devices again
