Show pagesourceOld revisionsBacklinksBack to top × Table of Contents Mercury MAC1200R v1 Supported Versions Hardware Highlights Installation TFTP method Hardware Detailed hardware Serial Bootloader U-Boot bootlog External links Tags Mercury MAC1200R v1 The Mercury MAC1200R v1 is a wireless router with dual wireless radio (802.11a/b/g/n and 802.11ac) based on the Atheros AR9344 SoC and five fast (not GBit!) Ethernet ports. This device can be found at AliExpress for about 30€. Supported Versions BrandModelVersionCurrent ReleaseOEM InfoForum TopicTechnical DataMercuryMAC1200Rv1.119.07.10https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=54811View/Edit data Support for 802.11a/b/g/n radio (ath9k driver) is mature but 802.11ac radio only (ath10k driver) supports AP and STA modes. Hardware Highlights ModelVersionSoCCPU MHzFlash MBRAM MBWLAN HardwareWLAN2.4WLAN5.0100M portsGbit portsModemUSBMAC1200Rv1.1Atheros AR9344560864Atheros AR9340, Qualcomm QCA988xb/g/na/n/ac5-- Installation ModelVersionCurrent ReleaseFirmware OpenWrt InstallFirmware OpenWrt UpgradeFirmware OEM StockMAC1200Rv1.119.07.10https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/19.07.10/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-19.07.10-ar71xx-generic-mc-mac1200r-squashfs-factory.binhttps://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/19.07.10/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-19.07.10-ar71xx-generic-mc-mac1200r-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin → Install OpenWrt (generic explanation) Installing OpenWrt from the factory firmware is not possible right now; TP-Link started to use a new firmware format with RSA signature in China. It is possible however to do it from U-Boot via TFTP. TFTP method To upload the firmware via TFTP you need a TFTP server running on your computer configured with the IP address 192.168.1.100/24. Place the firmware image (openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mc-mac1200r-squashfs-factory.bin) in the root folder of the TFTP server. Connect your computer to the serial TTL port of the router and to one of the LAN (blue) ports. Power the router on and enter the bootloader menu by quickly typing “tpl” when you see Autobooting in 1 seconds. Type the following commands to load the firmware file to the router's RAM, erase the flash sectors, copy from RAM to flash, and boot the new firmware: tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mc-mac1200r-squashfs-factory.bin erase 0x9f020000 +0x3c0000 cp.b 0x81000000 0x9f020000 0x3c0000 bootm 9f020000 You could also type reset to reboot the device). See the log below: Autobooting in 1 seconds db12x> db12x> db12x> tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-firmware-for-mac1200r.bin eth1 link down enet0 port1 up dup 1 speed 1000 Using eth0 device TFTP from server 192.168.1.100; our IP address is 192.168.1.111 Filename 'openwrt-firmware-for-mac1200r.bin'. Load address: 0x81000000 Loading: ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ################################################################# ############################## done Bytes transferred = 3145732 (300004 hex) db12x> erase 0x9f020000 +0x3c0000 Erasing flash... ............................................................ Erased 60 sectors db12x> cp.b 0x81000000 0x9f020000 0x3c0000 Copy to Flash... ............................................................done db12x> bootm 9f020000 Hardware Detailed hardware Instruction set MIPS Vendor Qualcomm Atheros bootloader U-Boot System-On-Chip Atheros AR9344 rev 2 CPU @Frq MIPS 74Kc V4.12 @560 MHz Flash size 8192 KiB Flash Chip Spansion S25FL064K RAM size 128 MiB RAM Chip ? Wireless No1 SoC-integrated: AR9344 2×2 MIMO 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz) Wireless No2 On-board chip: QCA9882 2×2 MIMO 802.11a/n/ac (5 GHz) switch AR934X built-in 10/100 switch w/ vlan support USB No Serial Yes Serial The serial port of the MAC1200R can be accessed using the TTL pins shown in the image below. A voltage level converter (such as a CP2102 TTL-USB dongle) is required. With the Atheros logo the right way up and the leds to the back, counting from the Atheros SOC left to right, the pinout is TX, RX, GND. Also see the image (which is upside down): The communication settings are: TTL voltage, 115200 bps, 8N1. Bootloader The device uses U-Boot as the bootloader. To access the bootloader menu via the serial TTL port, type “tpl” when booting (when the “Autobooting in 1 seconds” message is shown). U-Boot bootlog U-Boot 1.1.4--LSDK-10.1.389 (Apr 9 2014 - 15:23:02) U-Boot DB120 Wasp 1.2 DRAM: 64 MB Flash Manuf Id 0xef, DeviceId0 0x40, DeviceId1 0x17 flash size 8MB, sector count = 128 Flash: 8 MB Using default environment In: serial Out: serial Err: serial Net: ag934x_enet_initialize... No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address wasp reset mask:c02200 WASP ----> S27 PHY s27 reg init : cfg1 0x80000000 cfg2 0x7114 eth0: ba:be:fa:co:ff:ee athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 4 :1000 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 4 :10 eth0 up WASP ----> S27 PHY s27 reg init lan ATHRS27: resetting s27 ATHRS27: s27 reset done : cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7214 eth1: ba:be:ca:fe:ca:fe athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 0 :1000 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 0 :10 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 1 :1000 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 1 :10 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 2 :1000 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 2 :10 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 3 :1000 athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 3 :10 eth1 up eth0, eth1 Setting 0xb8116290 to 0x28502d0f Autobooting in 1 seconds ## Booting image at 9f020000 ... Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK Starting kernel ... External links Manufacturer's site: http://mercurycom.com.cn/Product/detail?pd=125 (in English with Google Translate). OpenWrt forum: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=54811 OpenWrt ticket including the original patch for Barrier Breaker 14.07: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/18605 Article at ComputerSolutions.cn: http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2014/12/flashing-a-mercury-mac1200r-wifi-router/ Tags How to add tags AR9344, FastEthernet, 2NIC, 2WNIC, 5Port, MIPS, MIPS32, 74Kc, 128ram, 8Flash, qca9880, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a, simultan, ath9k, ath10k This website uses cookies. By using the website, you agree with storing cookies on your computer. Also you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree leave the website.OKMore information about cookies ar9344 fastethernet 2nic 2wnic 5port mips mips32 74kc 128ram 8Flash qca9880 802.11ac 802.11n 802.11g 802.11b 802.11a simultan ath9k ath10k Last modified: 2018/06/02 05:01by tmomas