2 ms·

actually procuring cards not hard. i bought a bunch of times in the past compex cards with atheros chipsets from https://www.shop.compex.com.sg/products https:/

by tguvot 4y ago

actually procuring cards not hard. i bought a bunch of times in the past compex cards with atheros chipsets from https://www.shop.compex.com.sg/products https://www.shop.compex.com.sg/products and it's alter ego https://www.524wifi.com/ https://www.524wifi.com/ . But I eventually gave up on going this route due to reasons that you described. Also it was turned out to be much more expensive to DIY compared to buying wifi ap and flashing it with openwrt. So now I run as router/everything x86 with a bunch of 10g/sfp ports and a couple of r7800 flashed with openwrt as purely AP

rektide 4y ago
Compex's march upwards in price has been absurd. The 3x3 wifi-5 cards were like $75 originally. I don't know how much Qualcomm is to blame here but all one can get a 4x4 cards now and they're almost all well over $200. With absurd constraints that make them hard to use in a normal system (weird shape, weird power needs). It's also just so so striking to me that it's been most of a decade with Compex as the only company making add-on cards. There are some clones (Wallystech), but there's just like no market here. Qualcomm clearly Does Not Give A Fuck about selling chips to anyone else. No one else cares about add-on cards. The whole access-point market perpetuates on the vastest wave of apathy & disregard.
- tguvot 4y ago
  Don't forget that they don't really make those cards for "us". Their target market iirc is industrial systems/whatever. Probably if you buy a lot of 1000 cards price point is different than in online shop. > With absurd constraints that make them hard to use in a normal system (weird shape, weird power needs). hahaha. i had one AP built with pcie > minipcie attached to custom bracket to hold extra large card. and 5v stolen from sata port. when it came time to rebuild it, i just gave up and went the route i described above.

by tguvot 4y ago

rektide 4y ago

Compex's march upwards in price has been absurd. The 3x3 wifi-5 cards were like $75 originally. I don't know how much Qualcomm is to blame here but all one can get a 4x4 cards now and they're almost all well over $200. With absurd constraints that make them hard to use in a normal system (weird shape, weird power needs). It's also just so so striking to me that it's been most of a decade with Compex as the only company making add-on cards. There are some clones (Wallystech), but there's just like no market here. Qualcomm clearly Does Not Give A Fuck about selling chips to anyone else. No one else cares about add-on cards. The whole access-point market perpetuates on the vastest wave of apathy & disregard.

tguvot 4y ago
Don't forget that they don't really make those cards for "us". Their target market iirc is industrial systems/whatever. Probably if you buy a lot of 1000 cards price point is different than in online shop. > With absurd constraints that make them hard to use in a normal system (weird shape, weird power needs). hahaha. i had one AP built with pcie > minipcie attached to custom bracket to hold extra large card. and 5v stolen from sata port. when it came time to rebuild it, i just gave up and went the route i described above.