MikroTik

Hi,

I recently upgraded my hAP ac2 router to hAP ax2 since i love how it looks and also wanted to upgrade to WiFi 6. I did not read the full specs and discovered during the unboxing the lack of USB port witch for me is very important since i live in an area with lot of new building constructions and they cut the fiber very often while working on the street. With AC2 was very simple to connect my phone and to share my 5G connection using the LTE interface, now i cannot do this anymore. I read the specs of the processor and notice there is one USB2.0 and one USB3.0 interfaces available so i decided to void the warranty and open the router to see if there are some pads available for one of these two connections. I was very happy to see exactly near the edge button the pads of a USB3.0 connector witch i identified to be the Amphenol GSB31D12021HHR so i purchased this connector and i install it. I look for other missing parts on the pcb (fuse / current limit IC, ESP protection or USB filters) but i did not manage to identify any of these. I then connect my phone and notice there is no voltage output on the USB port so i open the router again and do measurements with my multimeter. I notice the main power supply did not even had 5V but 4.2V, i believe this was made to optimise the conversion efficiency of lower voltage PS's since no other component required 5v. I decided to use this 4.2V line since my phone battery was already at full capacity so i solder a tiny wire, the phone notice the voltage and show the charging message but no data connection was available so clearly the data tracks did not go to the CPU.

I want to know if Mikrotik is willing to provide some info regarding this missing USB port since no matter how much time i will invest if the USB port is blocked in the firmware or the USB data lines under the CPU are not exposed to any pads to be able to connect them (by soldering the missing parts or directly with wires) it will be impossible. On the ac2 i notice there is an SOT-23 current limit IC and two 0201 resistors on the data lines that i was unable to locate on the ax2, and i will be very happy to know the location of these on the ax2 (if they exist).

DISCLAIMER: i don't recommend to perform this operation if you are not experienced with electronics and micro soldering, if you don't know what you are doing most likely you will destroy your device.

I have the same issue. I was excited to upgrade from the ac2 to the ax2 for WiFi 6, since they share the same form factor. However, the ax2 completely lacks a USB port. How can I connect an LTE modem to it now? The AX3, including its antennas, is four times larger, and the antennas keep unscrewing on their own...

I too use the ac2's for LTE sometimes too, so the ax2 is a bit of disappointment on there.

In one of their YouTube videos it was suggested the newer ARM/AX chipsets run very hot. Apparently USB added even more heat, too much so to use apparently The ax3 does have more room to breathe.

But with you the ac2/ax2 form factor in preferable in nearly all cases. My hope is the come out with a wAPaxR at least, that get LTE in a smaller form factor, and AX.

With no reply from support i spent yesterday another few hours trying to see where the USB tracks are going, but with no luck. I probe all missing components pads that i was able to observe. I still took revenge and replaced the EMMC memory chip to upgrade the storage from 128MB to 1GB (maximum possible), so now i must be able to run containers.

Interesting topic:
AX3 has the USB port but it's almost twice the size (plus the BIG EARS).
On the heat argument (I'm not an expert in thermal design) the case of AX3 has quite a bit of openings. From the looks of it less then AX2 (that one really has big openings) but it is distributed over a much wider casing (so might be equal or even better ?).

Hi guys, please do not make your life miserable and buy AX3. AX3 has at least 2 times bigger heatsink and 1,8Hgz instead of 864 in AX2. For good performance of samba do you also need powerful CPU....

I barely feel it hot, anyway is sad to have locked capabilities with no way to enable them. AX3 was a no go from my wife because of the big antennas (looks bad in the middle of big white empty wall). On the other hand AX2 looks like a router from the future and has all the needed capabilities except the USB port.

Update: i notice a teardown youtube video that lack some thermal pads and a metalic braked that mine has. Probably there was a thermal issue at radio amplifiers level.

I still took revenge and replaced the EMMC memory chip to upgrade the storage from 128MB to 1GB (maximum possible), so now i must be able to run containers.

Hello!
Can you make some photos and explain in detail this process...???

With no reply from support i spent yesterday another few hours trying to see where the USB tracks are going, but with no luck. I probe all missing components pads that i was able to observe. I still took revenge and replaced the EMMC memory chip to upgrade the storage from 128MB to 1GB (maximum possible), so now i must be able to run containers.

Hello!
It is interesting thing, could you please add more details? Could it be done by regular an iron or hot dryer should be used here?

Thanks

I can't believe a usb port can cause much heating issues

For mikrotik guys: if your marketing team is forcing you to do that, blink "USB" in morse code in your next video

I hope and pray Mikrotik NEVER abandons the AC2-AX2 form factor because 90% of my installations are successful due to the small form factor. Personally I dream of an AX2-2024 with USB and LEDs for the front WiFi interfaces close to the Ethernet ones, I would buy them by the bucketload

I still took revenge and replaced the EMMC memory chip to upgrade the storage from 128MB to 1GB (maximum possible), so now i must be able to run containers.

Hello!
Can you make some photos and explain in detail this process...???

I purchased this EMMC module https://ro.mouser.com/ProductDetail/757-TH58BYG3S0HBAI6 and using hot air i remove the original, clean the pcb pads with wick and flux then solder the new chip with hot air and low amount of flux.

Beautiful work!
Are you saying that after replacing the memory chip you didn't lose your license and you didn't have to modify the bootloader to install the new amount of memory?
Were you able to start the USB socket?

I did a netinstall, the license was preserved but I had a backup of the license key just in case. USB is mounted, wired to 4.3 voltage line (instead of 5V) but it is not working

On older versions of devices, and perhaps it was related to ROS 6. SoftwareID is linked to the serial number of the device and to the serial number of the memory chip. When the memory chip was replaced, the SoftwareID was different and the license key stopped working.

PS It turns out that in AX2 bootloader and license remain apparently in SPI Flash, and a separate NAND chip is used as HDD, the size of which ROS determines automatically.
Thank you very much for the information.
To activate USB it is possible to download a dump from SPI Flash with a programmer, change the configuration value and download it back. At least in the past in this way increased the size of RAM

check it now.
so AX2 neither USB port nor more NAND space. Keep an AC2, adding en new AX3000 WiFi router as a AP is the best choice.
Less cost, best performance.

One thing to consider since this thread was started, is there is now the L23 routerboards:
https://mikrotik.com/product/l23ugsr_5h ... -downloads

Now it is not USB 3.0 nor built in antennas, and you'd need a case... but does have same AX drivers without soldering or mucking with bootloader. Not saying the L23 solve everyone needs here (and I enumerate my complaints about the L23 here: viewtopic.php?t=207386&hilit=l23) — but it might fit some use cases for modifying an hAPax2 since it's roughly same form factor.