whitslack
commented
9 months ago My adapter has a MAC address beginning with 90:de:80, which MACVendors says is assigned to Shenzhen Century Xinyang Technology Co., Ltd.
Open whitslack opened 9 months ago
whitslack
commented
9 months ago My adapter has a MAC address beginning with 90:de:80, which MACVendors says is assigned to Shenzhen Century Xinyang Technology Co., Ltd.
whitslack
commented
9 months ago This adapter feels extremely cheaply made, to the point that I'm not even certain that the "antennas" aren't placebos, but on the other hand it seems to have ridiculously good receive reception, to the point that it's successfully decoding beacons from neighbors' networks that I've never seen with any other adapter.
I've summarized the scan results of my own networks in the table below, comparing receive signal strengths with an old AR9271-based 802.11n USB stick against those with the Fenvi FU-AX1800.
Network | Freq. (ch.) | AR9271 | FU-AX1800
-------------------+----------------+------------+------------
garage (backhaul) | 2412 MHz ( 1) | -57.00 dBm | -49.00 dBm
privileged | 2437 MHz ( 6) | -56.00 dBm | -46.00 dBm
IoT | 2462 MHz ( 11) | -40.00 dBm | -40.00 dBm
garage (repeater) | 5765 MHz (153) | — | -95.00 dBm
Snuupy
commented
9 months ago I bought 3 (for tri-band) for a total of 25usd (aliexpress promo going on) to re-start my rpi portable travel router project, hopefully this will work (unlike those pesky ANDDEAR 7612U adapters that didn't work last time)
hopefully I can run 6ghz AP 80mhz too
MaxPower 100mA is great to see too so I don't have to worry about hitting the 1.2A limit, will report back in a few weeks when I get it
In my head the rpi4 could do: built in 2.4ghz, usb1 5ghz, usb2 6ghz, usb3 backhaul (on whatever the existing wifi frequency uses)
morrownr
commented
9 months ago @whitslack
it seems to have ridiculously good receive reception
My comment here is separate but somewhat related. I have done a few tests with my mt7921au adapters and other adapters. Maybe it is the part of the universe I live in or something I don't understand but even when I see the mt7921au adapters with the same or slightly lower signal reading, they do as good or better when throughput is tested in the same situation. Thoughts?
ridiculously good receive reception
Also on this topic. A few years ago I bought an Alfa ACHM. I used it for a few months and then one day I was doing a range test with several adapters. I had to redo things several times because I could believe how the ACHM showed range that was so much longer than the other adapters. The Alfa ACH was second place. Alfa does list these two adapter as "MAX Power" so I guess they are putting good quality anteenas and amps in them.
Keep that info coming. We are interested. Thanks.
morrownr
commented
9 months ago @Snuupy
MaxPower 100mA
That is hard to believe. Where is my usb power meter?
I have 2 adapters with the mt7921au chipset and I know how to torture an adapter and I just can't heat them up. How did Mediatek do this?
Snuupy
commented
9 months ago MaxPower 100mA
That is hard to believe. Where is my usb power meter?
I have 2 adapters with the mt7921au chipset and I know how to torture an adapter and I just can't heat them up. How did Mediatek do this?
I don't know if that MaxPower line is lying or not, I will order a cheap $2 usb tester on aliexpress, I am just reading what @whitslack posted under lsusb
mediatek for their phones has tsmc fabbed 4nm SoCs for their dimensity line which are also very power efficient and have high performance (comparable to flagship qualcomm snapdragon SoCs) so it would not surprise me if usb wifi adapters are made with the same/similar fab process for the transistors that are being used
SoCs for phones include: CPU, RAM, wifi card
maybe not leading edge, but 1 or 2 generations behind (since these adapters are so cheap after all, but I think the amount of silicon these usb sticks need is also much lower than a cpu, for example)
If we are getting better process nodes for denser/more efficient transistors by using more up to date lithography processes then of course we will get much better efficiency and lower heat. Have you ever used a AMD 7nm laptop compared to an intel 14nm laptop? The difference is huge in efficiency and performance.
wikidevi or techinfodepot don't always list the lithography process used but here is an example:
https://www.pcguide.com/news/mediatek-filogic-380-chip-promises-next-gen-wi-fi-7-connectivity/
Filogic 380
6nm
According to wikidevi:
7921AU ... Filogic 320
So if Filogic 380 which is wifi7 is using a 6nm lithography process
that leads to the question, what fab process is the filogic 320 using? likely much newer and several generations newer than whatever usb stick you have been using so far :)
Edit: I suspect filogic 330/320 uses 12nm lithography https://corp.mediatek.com/news-events/press-releases/mediatek-announces-filogic-connectivity-family-with-new-filogic-830-and-filogic-630-wi-fi-6-6e-chips because filogic 830/630 also use 12nm lithography
Edit2: @morrownr I did some more digging: according to https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/MediaTek#ac_.28Wi-Fi_5.29 the MT7610U chipset inside your AWUS036ACHM adapter is of the MT7615 generation/family of devices. If I look up https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/MediaTek_MT7615, it says
40nm low power process
TSMC 12nm is roughly equivalent to intel 14nm transistor density
now you know why:
so going from MT7610U -> MT7921AU is a 3 generation jump in efficiency/processing power
with each generation jump being a ~20-30% uplift, so 1.25^3 = 1.95x more efficient/processing power roughly
morrownr
commented
9 months ago Hi @Snuupy
Thanks for the info.
I finally found my usb power meter! Here are the readings:
Adapter: Alfa AXML 270-300 mA when running iperf3 55-60 mA when idle
When surfing, the numbers sometimes got up to around 100-120 mA but surfing is not really so stressful.
Those are good numbers for those needing to limit power usege and will certainly be welcomed by the RasPi users but it seems to indicate the 100 mA figure provided by lsusb is not entirely accurate. The thermal readings I have seen with my 2 adapters that use the mt7921au chipset are very impressive. I test with extended periods using iperf3 and I have seen no thermal problems at all. This is the same test that will allow adapters with some chipsets and limited ventilation to cook an egg.
Snuupy
commented
9 months ago for the power meter does data transfer as normal? or do you have to get a specific model?
looks like with 1.2A we can get 3 or 4 simultaneous adapters :D
Anthony96922
commented
9 months ago I have two of these and both work on my Raspberry Pi 4.
Here is one taken apart:
Closeup of the chip:
List of all AC caps from my version of iw:
...
VHT Capabilities (0x339071b2):
Max MPDU length: 11454
Supported Channel Width: neither 160 nor 80+80
RX LDPC
short GI (80 MHz)
TX STBC
RX STBC: up to 1 stream
SU Beamformee
Compressed Steering Number of Beamformer Antennas: 4
Number of Sounding Dimensions: 1
MU Beamformee
Max A-MPDU Length: 1048575 (exponent: 7)
VHT Link Adaptation: No Feedback
RX antenna pattern consistency
TX antenna pattern consistency
VHT RX MCS set:
1 streams: MCS 0-9
2 streams: MCS 0-9
3 streams: not supported
4 streams: not supported
5 streams: not supported
6 streams: not supported
7 streams: not supported
8 streams: not supported
VHT RX highest supported: 0 Mbps
VHT TX MCS set:
1 streams: MCS 0-9
2 streams: MCS 0-9
3 streams: not supported
4 streams: not supported
5 streams: not supported
6 streams: not supported
7 streams: not supported
8 streams: not supported
VHT TX highest supported: 0 Mbps
VHT extended NSS: supportedI guess we know the foldable antennas aren't placebos now! 📶 Thanks for the info, @Anthony96922!
kasinjsh
commented
9 months ago Hi.
I'm looking into buying this for my (ax) penetration testing needs on irregular basis, learning mainly so 2dbi antenna will be fine, but I'm wondering about modes needed for that, driver issues or hardware faults at this point on this unit. Have you tested monitor mode, injection and stability whit airodump-ng?
Anthony96922
commented
9 months ago It appears to support monitor mode based on the output iw list.
morrownr
commented
9 months ago @kasinjsh
I have two adapters with the m7921au chipset. I have done basic monitor mode, injection and deauth testing and did not see any problems. I remember some reports from around July to September of 2022, not long after the adapters with this chipset start to ship. I remember one guy that does a lot of monitor mode work that said the driver works well in monitor mode. He said that it worked well in 6 Ghz.
A lot of Linux users now have adapters with this chipset and I am not seeing any complaints about monitor mode.
kasinjsh
commented
9 months ago Tnx both, I already ordered this unit as it was in "super deal" and "3 units left" state, for 13eur not that much to loose.
PS: Great repo, lots of useful information about this topic. If this chipset is very good will order some hi gain, better quality unit.
morrownr
commented
8 months ago @kasinjsh
Great repo, lots of useful information about this topic.
Thanks. Something like this site needed to happen and I get a lot of help from users. If you have time to do a review once you have used this adapter, people would appreciate it. I'll put it with the posting in the Plug and Play List.
If this chipset is very good will order some hi gain, better quality unit.
The Alfa adapters in the Plug and Play list for this chipset both have removal antennas which opens up some options. We don't have a Alfa "MAX Power" adapter yet but hopefully one comes. We do have at least one, maybe two additional chipsets coming for USB adapters at some point in the next year. The new Mediatek mt7925 chipset driver is starting to go into the kernel with kernel 6.7. It is a full up WiFi 7. Another driver in the kernel before product is available. Woo Hoo! We could get the mt7922au chipset before that. It is WiFi 6e like the mt7921au but has 160 Mhz channel width capability. USB Wifi just keeps getting better on Linux.
kasinjsh
commented
8 months ago @kasinjsh
Great repo, lots of useful information about this topic.
Thanks. Something like this site needed to happen and I get a lot of help from users. If you have time to do a review once you have used this adapter, people would appreciate it. I'll put it with the posting in the Plug and Play List.
If this chipset is very good will order some hi gain, better quality unit.
The Alfa adapters in the Plug and Play list for this chipset both have removal antennas which opens up some options. We don't have a Alfa "MAX Power" adapter yet but hopefully one comes. We do have at least one, maybe two additional chipsets coming for USB adapters at some point in the next year. The new Mediatek mt7925 chipset driver is starting to go into the kernel with kernel 6.7. It is a full up WiFi 7. Another driver in the kernel before product is available. Woo Hoo! We could get the mt7922au chipset before that. It is WiFi 6e like the mt7921au but has 160 Mhz channel width capability. USB Wifi just keeps getting better on Linux.
As I will be using it for penetration testing and stuff like that I would not be able to comment on regular daily usage. But I can do speedtests and overall impression review, I have ax APs at home.
I would not rush to buy wifi7 at this point as standard is not finalized, but good to see timely development from vendors.
morrownr
commented
8 months ago But I can do speedtests and overall impression review, I have ax APs at home.
Anything you can add is appreciated.
I would not rush to buy wifi7 at this point as standard is not finalized, but good to see timely development from vendors.
I don't think we will have the opportunity to rush out and buy new WiFi 7 USB adapters very soon as USB adapters always come after other products such as cards but we are likely looking at a situation like with the mt7921au chip in that the the driver will be in the kernel for a few months before the prodducts hit the shelves. I think the first time that ever happened was with the mt7921au. I've used usb wifi adapters for many years on Linux and it is the first time I remember it happening. Thanks Mediatek for making it happen.
araknafobia
commented
8 months ago I asked in another issue but just in case I will mentioned here as well.
What is the maximum speed you guys managed to reach with the device? I got mine delivered today and I can't get it above 30 mbit/s. It almost feels like it's capped somehow!
I am connecting to 5Ghz channel I am sure because I have different WIFI names for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
Just in case it useful here is my system information:
[code]
System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-1024-oem x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.8 tk: GTK 3.24.33
wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: B450M DS3H v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Gigabyte model: B450M DS3H-CF v: x.x serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: F41 date: 07/22/2019
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard ERGO K860 serial: <filter>
charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech MX Vertical Advanced Ergonomic Mouse
serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB
L2: 3 MiB L3: 32 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3355 high: 4043 min/max: 2200/4208 boost: enabled cores: 1: 4016 2: 4027
3: 4041 4: 4043 5: 2022 6: 2024 7: 3976 8: 4004 9: 4038 10: 4029 11: 2021 12: 2020
bogomips: 86240
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Baffin [Radeon RX 460/560D / Pro 450/455/460/555/555X/560/560X] vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: amdgpu v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: DP-1
empty: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:67ef
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu,ati
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 96
Monitor-1: DisplayPort-0 mapped: DP-1 model: BenQ EW2780U res: 3840x2160 dpi: 163
diag: 685mm (27")
OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 560 Series (polaris11 LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.49 6.1.0-1024-oem)
v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / 560/560X] vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aae0
Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 08:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.1.0-1024-oem running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169
v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: MediaTek Wireless_Device type: USB driver: mt7921u bus-ID: 1-6:2 chip-ID: 0e8d:7961
IF: wlx90de80d684ad state: up mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: br-4f16bc2b10a7 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: br-82bd4ccc4401 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-3: br-9daee90625ab state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-4: br-e52e5db09ad6 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-5: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-6: wg-mullvad state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 3-2:2 chip-ID: 0a12:0001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
sub-v: 22bb
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 1.02 TiB (55.9%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WDS200T2B0B size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
serial: <filter>
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 457.28 GiB used: 315.96 GiB (69.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 279.33 GiB used: 8.9 MiB (0.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 10 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
Device-1: 1-6:2 info: MediaTek Wireless_Device type: Network driver: mt7921u rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0e8d:7961
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
Device-1: 3-2:2 info: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: Bluetooth
driver: btusb rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 0a12:0001
Device-2: 3-3:3 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID
driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 046d:c52b
Device-3: 3-4:4 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID
driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 046d:c52b
Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: 28.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 38.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1434
Repos:
Packages: 3343 apt: 3297 flatpak: 46
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ jammy main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/apandada1-xournalpp-stable-jammy.list
1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/apandada1-xournalpp-stable-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/apandada1/xournalpp-stable/ubuntu jammy main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome-beta.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jcfp-nobetas-jammy.list
1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/jcfp/nobetas/ubuntu jammy main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lutris-team-lutris-jammy.list
1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/lutris-team/lutris/ubuntu jammy main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb https: //mirrors.evoluso.com/linuxmint-packages/linuxmint-packages vera main upstream import backport
2: deb https: //mirrors.evoluso.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb https: //mirrors.evoluso.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb https: //mirrors.evoluso.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plexmediaserver.list
1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/plexmediaserver.gpg] https: //downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public main
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/team-xbmc-ppa-focal.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-mozilla-daily-ppa-focal.list
1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jammy main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
Processes: 385 Uptime: 13m Memory: 31.28 GiB used: 3.62 GiB (11.6%) Init: systemd v: 249
runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12/9 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13
[/code]
panecki
commented
3 months ago Hi, does anyone have an FCC ID or schematic?
Manufacturer's product page: https://fenvi.com/product_detail_44.html
Purchased from: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005935638503.html
After loading the
USregulatory domain:Relevant excerpts from kernel log (Linux 6.1.52+):