@@oskar3514 Awesome! Thanks for watching Oskar. I'm eager to try it, because this could be the best competition as a home router to get comparable speeds to wired home internet. Especially for those where wired home internet is not an option, this makes 5G that much more attractive. With the ability to customize a 5G router (over telecom 5G routers that will barely give you any flexibility), I think custom 5G routers will become more popular.
@@francocastilloAR By least topical, so you mean functions or things you can do that aren’t in OpenWrt wikis or docs? I do hear you on that, I’m trying to find some of those myself. But if you do think about it, since it is basically Linux, you can do really whatever most other Linux distros can. Now that does come with a huge asterisk as there certainly will be things you can’t do, but there will be plenty you can, but will take more effort. A good example of this is I’m starting to slowly research how to attach a small LCD display or E Paper display, and show relevant network information like IP, WiFi info, and maybe down load and upload speed. From what I’ve seen so far, I’d just need the proper python libraries to interact with the screen. So if I can pull information out and pass it to a python library, and the screen device is recognized by the OS, well then it should be doable. I’d just need to be sure I can run python on my Raspberry Pi (or possibly other OpenWrt device). So this should be very doable and I think would be a great example of what you’re speaking to. I’m saying this because I have an idea of making a nice, clean cased, really polished OpenWrt hotspot running on a CM4 with the right carrier board and a 5G modem. This is gonna take quote a bit time but I hope to get there.
Thanks for watching RC | COWBOYS! Wow, now thats an awesome use case, one I certainly haven't imagined. I would love to see a project like that come into fruition using a Raspberry Pi, with 4G, for operations beyond VLOS. I have done some drone flying awhile back, including getting my Part 107 license! Sadly, I didn't continue it or use it to my expectations, but it sure was fun and I do enjoy flying time to time with my DJI Mavic 1st gen. Thanks for sharing and best of luck!
Your content is awesome as there is little to no information on how these are set up. May I suggest going in depth more on the command line commands to lock and change bands, how the PCIe and M.2 protocols and ports Dev/tty/usb... setup. I want to do videos on how to set these up and info for firmware updates, what to do when you are stuck with a firmware recovery screen and how to put routers into recovery mode. Another crutial thing is setup or bands, their hex decimal and command to program groups of bands. Another hot item is how to see the available towers in your area and how to select different towers. Their is reading material available on this available but can be confusing when you want to find info for the average Joe. I knew nothing about this stuff and am self taught as my internet option was DSL.
Thanks for watching Jeffrey! I do really appreciate the compliment. There really is not that much information, and for where you can find it, it's very fragmented. One thing my foray into cellular technologies has taught me is how difficult it is working at the level of AT commands. I'd certainly like to get more in depth with commands to lock and change bands, and other parts of the setup. For the PCIe and M.2 protocols, to my knowledge, at least in this case, they rely on USB protocols, as they are running over USB, where PCIe and M.2 are just the form factor for connectors. Since cellular chips are just their own form of mini computers with a serial interface, thats how you get to interact with them in terms of tty/usb. I did have to do a firmware update on mine, so thats something you can explore and I was able to find sierra wireless documentation that helped, at least on their forum. I have not tried to see the different towers you can connect to, but that would also be pretty cool. It's certainly confusing, and I need help in understanding it myself. I taught myself this as an option to create your own wireless hotspot, but also for the application of home internet usage, as carriers open up plans for cellular home internet with data caps that support it. I can't honestly guarantee that I will get to all of that, but I likely will mess with it once I get to a 5G video and get it working after I can afford the materials, since a 5G cellular modem purchased a la cart is very expensive, as much or more than an actual 5G phone itself. Nonetheless, I'm happy you got some great value out of this video.
There's so many ideas I keep finding with OpenWrt, it's really a marvel with what it's capable of. For IoT type hardware and networking hardware, OpenWrt is definitely the Linux Distro for the win.
I’m not sure what you mean Carlo. My 4G LTE modem isn’t a bot in this video. On the contrary it’s way more firmware involved than a bot would be. What are you referring to?
@@Xayuap haha only if I was that good to make a comment-responding bot 😂. I’ve personally responded to each of these comments, and I genuinely thank everyone for watching. Its not too much where I can’t keep up with them. But if it were more than it is now, then I definitely couldn’t keep up. I do appreciate your compliment and I have more videos coming soon! In particular, another cellular build with a carrier board and cm4. Just got the board yesterday from Ali Express, but I have lots of testing to do to make sure it’ll work the way I expect it to.
Thanks for watching and being a viewer Abdalrahman! I truly appreciate the compliment 😊. Plenty more videos to come! Nice cockatiel picture by the way. I’m a fan of them, as I used to have one in high school.
Thanks for watching @hedibalma3493! I appreciate it. So to connect to the internet from the ethernet port, at this point, you could use it like you would any LAN port. By default its configured to be a LAN port in any OpenWrt installation. In this setup here, its a LAN port so just plug in whatever device, and it will be connected to the internet. Simple as that.
Thanks Gerald! and thanks for watching. So technically I don't know what the best LTE modem is for an RPi, but you should have little trouble getting many LTE modems to work since there is likely a Linux driver available for them that you can utilize. From my personal experience, Sierra Wireless modems tend to be open source and OpenWrt friendly with a good community and good documentation. I would consider that brand. Thats the a reason I went with them. Let alone, if you can afford a 5G modem, I'd recommend using that for faster speeds. Otherwise, you can find good deals on used LTE modems on ebay, as that's where I purchased mine and used for this video.
@@DevOdyssey do you have a link to the sierra wireless LTE module? I think you need at least a raspberry pi 3. Raspberry pi zero would not work i guess
@@Gerald-iz7mv Sure! This is the link to the module I used specifically. source.sierrawireless.com/devices/mc-series/mc7455/#sthash.M5x0JmIt.dpbs You could use a Raspberry Pi 3 and maybe a zero? So long as you can connect to the module over usb and get enough power to it. Though form factor wise, it probably wouldn’t look that good anyway, or be easy to handle, but possible. It would look ridiculous as the Pi zero would be around the same size as the modem itself. Not even including the mounting for the modem. The drivers would be likely be available on the Pi zero I imagine.
Great video! -- man seeing Hayes AT commands was a blast from the past -- the ghost in the machine. I'm antiipating this type of modem will be much more satisfying than hot-spot sharing over an iphone. I was thinking about setting up a Pi as a remote secuity device using a cellular modem.
Thanks for watching and the compliment Big Wave Dave! I genuinely appreciate it. As I was testing this out and doing my own research, I did stumble across the name Hayes to see its basically the baseline of all AT commands, of which then vendors add their own AT commands on top of that from what I've seen. It's pretty neat to see this tech come into the light as a blast from past, and how it's still in use, but hidden in deeper layers that are obfuscated with higher layers of code. This was my first interaction with it, if you don't count the video I did on 3G. In many ways, using these commands is really the only way to get what I want to get done, with regards to 4G internet connectivity, though I know I've only scratched the surface since theres GPS, carrier aggregation, etc. This modem is definitely more satisfying than your typical hot-spot sharing over a phone. A lot more technical too, with a lot more features, but for me, I'd definitely say a lot more satisfying. I would recommend you try out your use case as remote Pi for security monitoring, and I'd love to hear how it all works out for you! There's much more I want to explore in this realm, for me the hurdle is working with AT commands and my carrier to get the features I want working. It's all a labor of love. You'd probably be interested to hear that there is now custom Linux firmware from pine64 that you can flash your modem with, allowing for even more customizations, and possibly ease of use, that you wouldn't get with the manufacturers firmware. Check out the link below if you're interested. hackaday.com/2022/07/12/open-firmware-for-pinephone-lte-modem-whats-up-with-that/
@@DevOdyssey Hackaday's the best! - Hayes made the OG command set with their 1200 BAUD modem. However the very first telephone modems were not Hayes, but rather "Bell 103" where "Bell" is "Bell Telephone System". We started with 110 BAUD and shortly thereafter we went to 1200 Baud! Before smart modems, we would have to dial the phone then switch over to the modem manually. Using AT commands was a huge improvement. Later US-Robotics drove the baud rates up to 9600, then later 56K BAUD which folks said was impossible over POT'S wires. Keep up the good work!
@@bigwave_dave8468 Thanks for sharing the history lesson! I do find it fascinating how technology grows and changes over time, and in many respects, how it doesn't even change, but rather, new layers of obfuscation are written over it, for the sake of ease of use. I appreciate the support! Looking forward to hopefully getting a custom 5G router video out there 😊
Thanks for watching @miletony2069! Great question. I actually activated it on my hotspot that I bought from Verizon, but once I did that, I didn't have problems using with the cellular modem I bought for this video, the Sierra Wireless MC7455. I did get emails when I transferred the SIM to different modems, but otherwise nothing actually preventing me from connecting to the cellular network.
Thanks for watching DonRoberto! I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but yes you can. The 4G connection allows you to connect over the internet, just like DSL or cable. So you can connect to the VPS via a VPN connection, if you are trying to tunnel your internet connection through the VPS, say for changing your public IP, or create a local are network / LAN connection for VPS maintenance, or other use cases. You can then set up a WiFi signal over the built in WiFi chip on the Raspberry Pi 4 board, that allows other devices / mobile devices, to connect to the Raspberry Pi, and send those connections to the VPS over the VPN. So it's certainly possible, but the set up and configuration will vary depending on your use cases.
Hi, great video. I got a problem. I installed all the package, checked more then once, but I can t get confirm the interface qmi_wan and if I try the AT command AT!LTEinfo? I get an error. Can anyone help me or direct me to some info. I searched but couldn t find much.
Thanks for watching and the compliment Robert! So when we get into AT commands, those tend to be very vendor specific, and they will vary depending on who made the hardware. They should have AT command reference documentation somehow out on the internet. That being said, what is the make / model of the cellular modem you are using? If its not the Sierra Wireless MC7455 AirPrime, or another Sierra Wireless modem, then its likely the AT!LTEINFO command will not work for you. However, I we can do some other troubleshooting before using AT commands. Do you see the interface show up in LuCi? If you're in a terminal, you can also type the 'ip a' command to see if the interface shows up. Lastly, you can also ping through interface (if it shows up), such as ping -I wwan IP_ADDRESS_HERE (at 11:49) and if you get responses, you know the cellular modem is working. If all of those fail (pinging doesn't work, interface doesn't show up), then I'd start looking into the AT commands.
Ah sorry for the confusion! So the 3G video I made first because I couldn’t get 4G working. I purchased the SixFav 4G LTE kit which came with the Telit modem, and I used their pay per go cellular network. My ultimate goal was to use my unlimited Verizon network, but the Telit modem simply didn’t work. So I bought the Sierra wireless modem, and after hours and hours of tinkering, I got it working. So you might be able to get it working with 4G. You’d just need to refer to the Telit modem documentation, put the modem in QMI or MBIM mode, and make sure your cellular service provider supports the Telit modem. I have only gotten QMI to work so I’d start with that if I were you. Best of luck in your debugging!
Thanks for watching Kurt! Since this module is GPS capable, it should be possible to utilize it. The difficulty here lies in knowing how to interface with the modem, to take that data, and then present and use it in a meaningful way. You can use the QMI or MBIM protocol to obtain this data (would be easier than direct AT commands) and do whatever you need with it. So in theory it's certainly possible, but I'm not sure all of what you'd need to do. So long as GPS is working with your carrier, then you can track it. Now getting that data, would be another story, and I'd imagine over some web interface. Nonetheless, requires a bit of brainstorming to get all the right pieces and parts together.
Hi Pedro, Thanks for watching, and thanks for the compliment 😊. So I do plan on eventually doing just that (creating a 5G connected Raspberry Pi). As of now, you can pre-order a 5G Pi Hat from SixFab here: sixfab.com/product/raspberry-pi-5g-development-kit-5g-hat/ The biggest issue for me is the cost, as 5G modems get expensive very quickly, especially on the category rating of the modem. As a result, I'm not sure when I will get to it. The good part is the protocols mentioned in this video are the same for 5G, and most of the enhancements for 5G are hardware based and radio (frequency) based. So once I do get a 5G modem, and the antennas, I should be able to connect to 5G without issue, and then I can fine tune it as need be with any 5G specific configurations / features.
I hope to see you turn an old PC into something else like; > A custom router with PFsense/OPNsense > A multi-purpose Server with capabilities like: VPN (OpenVPN/WireGuard) Media (JellyFin/Kodi) File-Sharing/SeedBox Mail-Server Or you can do that with a Raspberry-Pi
Thanks for watching Fine Wine 2.0! It's ironic you say that, because I've been collecting a few old "home" PCs (towers, desktops), for use as a home firewall solution like OPNSense or PFSense. It would ideally be a dedicated network device, that would include VPN functionality, RADIUS, VLANs, IDS/IPS, etc. I also bought a generic intel electron based SBC so I can specifically do this, but with the benefit of 4 ethernet ports already there. With an old PC, I'd need to use a PCIe network card with additional NICs, ideally 4 and all gigabit. As or the media, file sharing, and mail server, I'd generally put those on their own dedicated hardware, or dedicated VM, if the old PC had enough RAM, CPU performance and disk space, where I'd put a hypervisor on it, such as Proxmox. I'm also not sure if Media, File-Sharing, and Mail Servers are available as plugins / packages on OPNSense / PFSense, but even if they were, I feel thats better ran on dedicated hosts. Now wouldn't it be awesome if you could do this all on a Raspberry Pi? Well, you can install a hypervisor on Raspberry Pi, but it's hardware would limit you in terms of the performance you'd want. Also, there are beta (or alpha) build of OPNSense that you can install on Raspberry Pis, but its not slated for general release until next year I believe. Not sure about PFSense, but likely, someone has already ported it to a Raspberry Pi. Again, just not sure of it's stability in a production sense. They are getting there though, and I look forward to using OPNSense/PFSense on a Raspberry Pi. FreeBSD already runs on Raspberry Pi, so its just a matter of continuing the development for network utilities based on FreeBSD. In general, intel is best in terms of supportability. When I get to tinkering around with it more, you'll see my video(s) on it 😊
@@DevOdyssey Can you tell the pros & cons if OpenWRT & DD-WRT ??? & which one is better?? (if at all) I'm talking features, how much of it is proprietary ease-of-use, devices etc.....
@@AcidiFy574 In all honesty, I can't provide the most unbiased comprehensive list of pros and cons for OpenWrt and DD-WRT, as I'll have a pretty large bias to OpenWrt, granted my experience is basically exclusively in OpenWrt. But, with that said, I think it depends on your scenario. If you want the short of it, I think OpenWrt is better. But again, depends on your needs. OpenWrt has way more features than DD-WRT, and seems to be more actively developed than DD-WRT, to my knowledge. OpenWrt and DD-WRT should be all open source, given their licensing model are both GPLv2, with no proprietary software. However DD-WRT does have a professional version, while OpenWrt does not and all features are fully open. Ease of use - personally, I like the LuCI layout with OpenWrt, its certainly more modern that DD-WRT. However, I think DD-WRT may be a tad easier given its user interface seems a little more intuitive. Though I did have some trouble implementing features like VLANs in DD-WRT. I think OpenWrt has more of a learning curve, but once you get past that, you're pretty set in terms of using OpenWrt. If we account for install as well, I think both installs can be somewhat difficult, depending on your router. If you use a Raspberry Pi, its easier since you just have to flash a memory card, which I'm not sure if DD-WRT supports it. DD-WRT has a more difficult install with different packages that can be very confusing. Lastly, I think DD-WRT supports more routers than OpenWrt. But if you are willing to get your own single board computer, and flash OpenWrt onto it, you'd get an amazing feature set. DD-WRT does seem to support x86, but with caveats, a big one being USB support. OpenWrt fully supports x86/x64 platforms. So in this capacity, you aren't too limited by hardware, as you can build your own (or buy prebuilt one) The community to me seems more active in OpenWrt versus DD-WRT. So overall, it really depends on your needs and use cases. The reason why I go with OpenWrt and have made mostly videos here is because of the support, the community, and to an extent, it's popularity. It's become my preference in terms of linux based routing firmware. DD-WRT can provide you with the features you need, with a router you may already have thats supported (and maybe not supported by OpenWrt), and still better than stock router firmware. Might be easier to use than OpenWrt for some people. If you don't need bleeding edge features either, DD-WRT might be a better choice. However at the same time, since I feel OpenWrt is updated more frequently, you are likely to get more security updates too, which is very important for a network edge devices. Some of the statements in here about DD-WRT are based on assumptions, or limited knowledge with DD-WRT, so feel free to do your own research. In my opinion, I'd go with OpenWrt any day over DD-WRT (I'm pretty sucked into it at this point).
@@DevOdyssey I heard that OpenWRT is basically fully libre/Free-software (100% FOSS) while, DD-WRT isn't BTW, is the OpenWRT community friendly to noobs like me😅?
@@AcidiFy574 Yes OpenWrt is for sure, no paid tiers, all open, and you can create with it whatever you can imagine! Though, writing open source drivers for proprietary hardware can be limiting, especially from a licensing perspective. Just see why Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W isn't fully supported by OpenWrt. It's basically because the OpenWrt developer community can't release the wireless driver for the Broadcom wireless chip without approval from Broadcom themselves (licensing issue). It's sad when these things get in the way. Yes, in my opinion the community is noob friendly, I was a noob once too. Heck, I don't eve consider myself that experienced, I just have a knack for figuring things out 😊. All I will say is if you're looking to ask questions in the forum, do as much research as possible, before you ask. Chances are, your question is answered. If it wasn't, present your research, findings, and troubleshooting steps you took in your forum post. You'll be respected more for it and it'll be easier to get to a resolution for your problem quicker.
Hi ran across your video in my research, I have a RP4 8mb (I'm a beginner newbee) and I use T-Mobile's Home Internet, their "Gateway" with router turned on has limited options. This cellular service for me provides fast internet but with limitations, one is no network printer and gaming in multiplayer as no static IP address can be established. Would OpenWRT be a good candidate and can you see any pro's and con's with T-Mobile Service (and Verizon has also came out with their version of home internet).
Hi Mark, thanks for watching! Definitely, OpenWrt would be a great candidate as a replacement for your T Mobile Home Internet Gateway, and their software they run. It's likely based on open source software anyway, but with limitations in place. With OpenWrt you can certainly attached a network printer, and do gaming with static IP addresses for your game devices. Quite honestly, it surprises me you have those limitations on T Mobile's Gateway router. If you want the easiest solution, I'd recommend buying another home router, and plugging in an ethernet cable from the WAN port of the new home router, to the ethernet port on the T Mobile Gateway. However, this hinges on if the T Mobile Gateway has a feature called bridge mode, where you effectively pass your public IP address to the new home router you'd purchase. This basically makes the T Mobile Gateway only act as a cellular modem, and disables router functionality. You'd want to bridge as well, because ideally for gaming scenarios, you don't want to double NAT, as that can cause issues for some games. Otherwise, you could go with a more complex solutions by making a cellular router of using a Raspberry Pi and OpenWrt, with T Mobile's cellular network. As you can see from the video, it will take effort along with trial and error, but likely it should be possible. Thats really the biggest con you have, other than managing very technical settings, that can improve or break your cellular network speeds if you know / learn what you're doing. In addition, in this scenario, you'd probably want some outdoor antennas to improve your cellular network speeds, as I talked about at the end of the video. Lastly, a DIY option like this will likely cost more, as it won't be subsidized by a T Mobile cell contract. As for the pros, it all comes down to flexibility. More options, more choice, all which lead to more power and control over your home network. So depending on how deep in the weeds you wanna go, doing a custom setup could be great (and fun) at the same time, or a headache. If you're just looking for a reliable solution, with less configuration and setup, I'd go with buying another router for your home network needs, and using the T Mobile Gateway exclusively as a cellular modem.
Hi Vyacheslav, Yes you should expect similar results using the same hardware, but your speeds will vary depending on your connection to the nearest cell tower and carrier, assuming they support this modem.
That sierra website is buggy as hell. The chat bot prevents me from checking out any products. Im glad they are so upfront about their inabilities. Any other recommendations?
Thanks for watching @user-otzlixr! The website seems to be okay for me, but now it seems like they redirect to their generic IoT page and not the actual modem itself, which is unfortunate. It's certainly still a good modem, even though it has aged. I actually can't seem to find the page anymore, maybe because they're not supporting it anymore, which also is a shame. If you click on the Module Finder in the modules drop down menu at the top, you should be able to search for other modules, but you won't be able to find this one anymore. Anyway, I'm sure many of those other modules will work fine on a Raspberry Pi, so long as you get your connectivity working (in terms of hardware, like USB3, PCIe, or M.2). M.2 probably makes the most sense as a connector, and then you can use a special carrier board to connect that over a USB3 port on the Pi. I haven't used any other Sierra Wireless modules, so I can't speak from experience, but given I've used one, I feel like I could get others working, so long as the carrier supports them. The only other module I have used is a Quectel EG-25G running in QMI mode. All I needed was their AT documentation and I was able to get it working in a similar manner to the steps in this video.These modules are used often and pretty plentiful, so I'd give it a shot, unless you want to go to 5G, then you're gonna need a more powerful and up to date module.
any new videos in the making?? BTW, just like how some routers like tgat of TP-Link, NetGear or Linksys have companion apps so that we can control the routers via phones does OpenWRT or DD-WRT have such apps ?? would be kinda nice to have them
Hi again FineWine 2.0! Yes, I am finishing up an edit for a video around OTG port on a Raspberry Pi and using it with OpenWrt. That should be coming out soon. Doing a quick search, I do see there is one iOS app for OpenWrt called, OpenWrt Tool 15. Not sure how good it is, doesnt have great rankings in the app store, its only for iPad, and it seems to last work with OpenWrt 15, which is pretty behind the current version of 21.02. apps.apple.com/us/app/openwrt-tool-15/id1245196214 Looks like there is also an instructable to build an app for iOS/Android, but I can't seem to tell how old it is or what versions of OpenWrt it works with. www.instructables.com/AndroidiOS-App-to-Access-Your-OpenWrt-Router-Remot/ Lastly, this question does seem to have been asked in the OpenWrt forum. forum.openwrt.org/t/how-to-change-configuration-files-from-ios-android-app/93342 Hope this helps and happy learning!
For the SIM card what kind of plan is on it . Is it a prepaid plan or a plan on a contract. Is it possible for me to use the sim in my phone that is a contract plan or does it have to be a prepaid plan???
Thanks for watching deucekiller022! In this video, I was just using my Verizon plan (contract) that has unlimited data on it. Though, I'm pretty sure it probably gets throttled after using so many gigs (probably 15 GB), and then my speeds would drop once I consumed that many gigs. But the plan shouldn't matter, prepaid or contract. You should be able to use the SIM card on your phone, plug it into this set up, and get onto the internet. It is possible that you might run into some issues, where your carrier has seen that your SIM card is not in your phone anymore, and the SIM is using a different modem. That could result in being blocked by your Cellular carrier, but this is likely dependent on who your carrier is. I haven't tested this out but in theory it should work. The issue lies in what detections and controls your carrier has for moving your SIM card to a new modem. If you do try this out, I'd be curious to know how it works out for you.
I know the video is a bit old, moreover it’s not a help forum, but I stuck for month. Everytime I launch a speed test it works great for the download part but stop after 2s on the upload part, and my rooter doesn’t work anymore, I have to reboot openwrt to make it work again. I tried a lot of things but it keeps happening. Now I juste let it like that and when I use too much upload I have to reboot it. Have you an idea where I miss configured something ? Or maybe it’s a ISP limitation ?
Thanks for watching @gabius_times386! It's aged a bit, but still relevant in the world of mobile networking, for anyone who's still working on custom cellular solution. First, I do appreciation the due diligence you've done. While yes its not a help forum, its still a place to share what you're experiencing, and of course I'll do my best to help. So I have to say, you're running into the exact same issue that I had. I assume you are running the same set up I had in this video, even the hardware and maybe even Cellular ISP (Verizon), which to that point, would make sense you've experienced the same issue as me. However, I went on to test this issue even further, and moved to another modem, a Quactel EG25-G, and still ran into the same issues. Heck I even got an outdoor antenna for it (omni), and it still seems to be finicky with speedtest. The only think I really didnt change was the Cellular ISP, stayed Verizon, and the protocol for connecting, QMI. Given that, I have a feeling that the issue is between QMI and the modem. When I ran the speedtests, I'd disconnect too, and would have to reboot. I dug into it even further to see often that this process would disrupt the modem connection somehow, where the modem would get assigned a new public IP address, but, that IP address wouldn't make its way to the network interface. I feel like the speedtests would cause a hiccup and the modem would simply reset itself, but the new pubic IP would not make its way to the interface, creating a routing issue and of course, loss in connection. Given that, I honestly never completely resolved this issue, but I feel I mitigated it well. What I did was look into ROOter, which is based on OpenWrt, but built with a focus on Cellular networking, for cellular modems. I looked at what they may be doing, and found the have their own gcom script and bash script to handle this (gcom is basically a script for running AT commands). I took this, and tweaked it a bit for my own use case, and then set it up to run as a cron job every 5 minutes to basically check if connection was still running (i.e. using ping), and based on that, I'd do nothing, or I'd reset the modem, or restart the router. www.ofmodemsandmen.com/firmware.html Now I can't completely recall if I had this issue using the ROOter firmware. I feel like I still might have, but its been awhile so I'd have to check again. Given that my usage of my Cellular network is for out of band access to my home network, I'm not really using this for heavy internet traffic for my devices, at the moment, but this could become an issue again for me in the future, which I hope not. I might also reach out to the creator of the project to see if he's experienced this scenario. Anyway, I downloaded the version for Raspberry Pi, which from there, I dug into the scripts and found what I mentioned above. I'll share this information in one of my gists, but in the mean time, you can explore the ROOter firmware and find it. EDIT: Scripts can be found below. Tweak them to whatever works for you, including AT Commands. gist.github.com/odevodyssey/52ff8daf2ea8aa40ecee4c798789b7ca Hope they are useful!
@@DevOdyssey thanks a lot for your answer! I planed to try with a different ISP, so maybe it will change :) A pretty long and good answer, thanks again for the time you spent!
@gabius_times you’re welcome, I try to be very thorough, often times to a fault 😅. Let me know how it works for you, I’m curious to know as I may have to explore another ISP as well if this change the issue.
@@DevOdyssey i will try your « patch » but I don’t really want to have a router rebooting each time a send too much data… I don’t think it’s isp related, I live in Switzerland so, it’s an other isp. I tried using modem manager instead of qmi, it was working great for 30 min, then the same problem came back to kill my joy. I’m still investigating and will post what I found, and if your patch works for me (if I manage to install it)
@@gabius_times Thats understandable, I definitely don't want the behavior either, though I haven't tested this thoroughly enough to know when it happens. So far, it seems to have happened when running speedtests, but not sure if it happens under different network conditions. Likely its not ISP related, but can't say I eliminated that option. Given your experience on a different ISP, its probably not ISP related. Interesting the same thing happens with modemmanager, but not surprised either given it used QMI in the same way I do in this video, so I'd almost expect it. Hopefully my script helps and if not, might have dive a bit deeper, and get additional help.
Awesome! I would like to use a Ubiquiti Litebeam Antenna instead that little one.. I need ETH receptor instead the one you use in your module.. Can u tell me how?
@@zanta_ Thanks for watching Sé Rah! So the Ubiquiti Litebeam Antenna are pretty neat devices. They work as a Wireless bridge, or Point to Point connection that basically helps you wirelessly beam your network across long distances, as opposed to running a long ethernet cable. That being said, these devices are not intended to connect to 4G LTE signals, let alone any cellular signals from a cellular carrier. They transmit in the 5Ghz range, which is not used by cellular carriers. Therefore your use case will not work. However, you could connect the ethernet port from the Raspberry Pi, to the ethernet port on the LiteBeam, and that way, it can transmit your cellular internet over a long distance, to the receiving LiteBeam wherever you place it. You can set up a local network on the Raspberry Pi, and associate that network with the ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi, basically the default on an OpenWrt installation. But in this scenario, the Raspberry Pi is acting as the router, where it receives cellular internet via the cellular modem and uses the cellular network based on the SIM card carrier. Then on the receiving end you just need to terminate the connection to some sort of network device with an ethernet cord, like a network switch or access point.
@@DevOdyssey I understand. What I want its to amplify the range of the 4G LTE antenna for the sim conecting instead something like the ubiquiti.. with that I can get internet in places where its difficult Do u get me? Sorry for my english haha Thank you greetings from colombia
@@zanta_ Great! Sorry if I misunderstood you earlier. The way you suggested it is one way you can accomplish the range of your 4G LTE. This would especially apply in scenarios where you you'd want to deploy a 4G LTE router, but in that area you can't get a good signal. This type of setup would suffice to my understanding. However, since the range of the Litebeam is roughly 18 miles max, according to Ubiquiti, I'd imagine you could get decent 4G LTE signal within that radius, however maybe not, as I'm not sure how well the 4G LTE signals are for cellular carriers in Columbia. It's something you'd have to experiment with. No worries on your english! I understand what you're saying 😊 Greetings from the United States!
Thanks for watching BQAggie2006! Seeing Carrier Aggregation (CA) work, and its improved performance would be really cool. In the AT command guide for this Sierra Wireless modem (linked in the description above), on page 25, they do talk about settings up CA using the command AT!ANSEL, and choosing your specific bands you want for CA. The part that kinda throws me off is the selection of GPIOs, which to me I don't immediately see any GPIOs available on the modem. Maybe this is referring to the antenna interfaces, but honestly, this is where I'm fairly inexperienced. So if I understand that command correctly, it should be more / less straightforward to do CA, regardless of the modem. The command should be similar, and more so, the same concepts should apply. Maybe in my next video that relates to cellular (4G / 5G), I'll have it configured and working 😊 If you're curious and you have the hardware you need, give it a shot and I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Hey, hope you see this. So can I set up a raspi 4b with the 4g hat, and then with openwrt use the Ethernet port to connect a switch? The switch then only relies on openwrt, not my isp modem. Thx ! Great vids!
I see it @-someone- 😊, appreciate the compliment! Yes, that is correct. You can put a 4G (even 5G) HAT on a RPi 4 (probably RPi 5 too, though no official build yet, you can find one on github made by a developer). and then user the ethernet port, connect it to a switch and now you have a home network that uses 4G/5G with plenty of LAN ports. The switch relies on OpenWrt / Cellular provider, and not your ISP's modem.
Thanks for watching @thebusinesscentre, BYOH (Hardware) is a great feeling especially when it comes to customizing it for your needs, and not feeling locked in with service provider hardware, especially for internet. Figuring this out was very much a rewarding experience, albeit a long, cumbersome one.
Thanks for watching Farmer Thanus! It _could_ be possible, but that would probably depend on what version of Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS is supported on an a Pi 2 Model B. If it has the right drivers on the OS, you can probably get it working. Not sure about the specs for a Pi 2 Model B but you'd need a USB2 port on it to attach a Cellular Pi Hat. Then with the lower power hardware, I'm not sure how fast it would be but it could still work, even if it's a tad slow.
Thanks for watching Martin! So as of yet, I have not figured out making cell phone calls, though you aren't the first to ask me. You can take a look at some of the other comments below that do talk about this and potentially the software you'd use (baresip, linphone). When making this video, I was focusing more so on connecting the RPi / OpenWrt to their LTE internet, to use as a hotspot, backup home internet connection, etc. Technically speaking though, this hardware (modem, SIM, antennas) should be all that you'd need to make phone calls (other than a microphone and speaker). The more difficult part comes in setting up the software (SIP / VoIP), which is more difficult to do than just setting up an internet connection, from my understanding.
Hello, I bought the same hardware but I'm having problems with the configuration. OpenWRT doesn't recognize EM7455. uqmi command doesn't work and Luci doesn't create DHCP client associated to the wwan connection. Any idea to resolve it?
Thanks for watching Felipe. So this is where the difficulty comes in with cellular networking. It’s not always the easiest to troubleshoot, based on how you receive the modem, especially if it’s used. Not impossible, but it’s just another area of knowledge to learn. Anyway, the EM7455 is basically the same as the MC7455, just that it uses an M.2 connector as opposed to a mPCIe. Now your uqmi command may not be working because your modem might not be in QMI mode, but rather a different mode, like MBIM. So this is where you’d need to get into the backend of the modem via the serial interface and issue AT commands as I do in the video to make the right changes. Before then, first check if your modem is showing up in dmesg, specifically see if you get the /dev/cdc-wdm0 interface. That should tell you if you’re getting connected. If yes, then that’s a good sign. If not, then there might be a connection issue or you’re not in the right mode. Moving on, I’d then get into the serial interface using the minicom command in the video (if /dev/ttyUSB2 is available), and check it’s status using AT+CPIN. If that shows it’s connected, then that’s good. Otherwise it could be an issue with your carrier not accepting your modem, as thats alls possible. I’d be sure to check with your provider if it’s an approved modem. Lastly, in the serial commands, I’d check the modem usb composition mode to see if it’s in MBIM mode. If so, then that’s why DHCP isn’t working as MBIM mode does not use DHCP and assigning the IP address would have to be a manual process. I don’t know all the right commands for umbim off the top of my head but I would do some research there. If you don’t have the ttyUSB2 serial interface, it may be blocked off, and you’d have to use umbim commands to change its composition if you want QMI, or the right umbim commands to get your public IP address. Nonetheless, I’d check the Sierra wireless forums for help, as they’ll have more tailored content for what you need to do based on your information and anything additional you find. Also refer to the pdf link in my description for the AT command reference. That will definitely be useful in your troubleshooting.
Question: At the software part you said you flashed the SD card with openWrt. My SD card is flashed with headless Debian so how can I flash it with openWrt? Are you saying you installed openwrt on pi?
Thanks for watching Vyacheslav! That’s correct. I simply flashed an image of OpenWrt to my SD Card using balena etcher, dd, or whatever tool you prefer to use. I’d suggest you get another SD card you can put OpenWrt on, or you can flash over that Debian headless with an OpenWrt image if you don’t absolutely need it. Or if you want to do the flash using the headless Debian, you can use the dd terminal command and another SD card to flash the OpenWrt image onto it. It’s basically considered installing it, but technical it’s not an interactive install process, it’s simply setting up an SD card with an image of OpenWrt and then that card becomes your hard drive as with any Raspberry Pi hardware (assuming it’s not eMMC)
Stupid question from my side I see OpenWrt doesn't support many routers that we can actually get. Is it possible to create a custom flash for something like the Huawei B618s-22d ?
Thanks for watching Angry Dog! Not a stupid question at all. So that is true, there are quite a bit older or harder to get routers that OpenWrt supports well. I had trouble at times going to the store to see what I could find that is supported by OpenWrt. Your best bet is to go on eBay or build your own with supported hardware. I learned that the hard way. Given that the Huawei is not on their “table of hardware”, you can’t build a custom image. However, it’s not to say that it couldn’t be developed. Really your only way would be if you, or OpenWrt developers, researched and developed a base image that you could use or customize with your own build. Now if there are similarities within in the hardware between the supported Huawei routers and the B618-22d, you might be able to get away with it, but it would likely be unstable. Generally speaking, you wouldn’t be able to do it. A lot of it has to do with hardware support and what’s proprietary vs open source.
Thanks for watching @samtronxindia! I appreciate the idea, it's something I'd have to think about as timing between speaking and assembling would be important, but also actually seeing how I'm assembling is more important than seeing myself, so if anything, I'd make sure that is primarily whats shown, while the smaller video feed would be myself. This would seem to change back and forth as I take breaks assembling. Is there a certain reason why you'd want to see this?
Thankyou guy!!! Is it possible to set up in raspian using the raspian network manager gui??? Or can it only be done with openwrt??? I mean not as a router but just as a basic internet connection with a 4g USB dongle. I think I gotta activate usb_mode_switch in terminal or something. Im too busy to look into it right now but maybe next month I can set it up. Stay Awesome!!!
You're welcome country boy! Thanks for watching. So this is a great question, I'm glad you asked. Thats because when I was trying to do 4G setup in my first video (the 3G one), I actually performed some troubleshooting and testing using Raspbian to connect to 4G. The Sixfab kit I bought does comes with a script that configures everything for you, but I wanted to learn how to do it myself. With that, I downloaded the QMI drivers for Raspbian (libqmi), along with minicom for serial access, and I successfully connected to 4G on my Telit modem, just not using Verizon's network, but rather Sixfab's (via AT&T). I did this all via the terminal and not with the network managed GUI, but, it should be possible with a different package, modem manager, which also has a GUI. Now I've struggled to find a tutorial around setting up a 4G connection using the modem manager gui, but I assume its possible. If not, you can use the modem manager cli to configure the connection, and the GUI to monitor it. You dont have to use modem manager and can do this all via libqmi (or other protocols supported by the modem and their respective libraries) but modem manager does seem to make it easier. You can also find plenty of tutorials on google for using modem manager cli. snapcraft.io/install/modem-manager/raspbian Good luck on your setup next month!
Thanks for watching! It looks like you already commented on my other video about building OpenWrt. That’s a way you can get the packages onto your image without having grab them off the internet post deploy. Otherwise, you’ll need to connect to the internet first, say via a WiFi acting as a client, to then download the packages. A third options is to build a sysupgrade package in the firmware selector, add your packages, and get your build created for you. Then perform a sysupgrade and you’ll have the packages on your instance. firmware-selector.openwrt.org
@@DevOdyssey thank you. Your video has been very helpful. I’ve made a lot of openwrt images now. I think I’m close to a final version, I finally got my modem to show up as a usb device. Slow progress but it’s a lot of fun. Wouldn’t be possible without your videos, thank you so much!
@@sebastiangreen8369 You're welcome. Happy to hear you've been able to make a images easily, making custom ones that suit your needs. Its definitely slow progress when you go through this process, but also a lot of fun as you noted. Its very rewarding to see the incremental progress you make and to actually get something working. Glad I can be part of this journey for you, and we can share in these similar interests. I'll be happy to hear when you get it all working.
I have a Mini pci-E WWAN HAT ver2.0 with sierra MC7700 network card can you help me to configure it on raspberry pi 4 4G it is if possible thank you and have a nice day
Hi salmi, The Mini PCI-E WWAN HAT is what I used to replace my Sixfab, Pi HAT, as I accidentally messed up the SIM card slot there. I can attest that this PCI-E WWAN HAT works. First, make sure that this modem works with your cellular provider. As for using the MC7700, I can provide you guidance, as it should be similar to what I did with the MC7455. What you need to do first and foremost is update the firmware, and make sure the modem is set to the profile of your cellular provider, or Generic. Then also make sure its in QMI mode, if you are following this video. The AT commands will be helpful here. techship.com/downloads/category/technical-documentation-sierra-wireless-mc7700/ You should be able to download the AT commands from there, though you will have to make an account with them. This git repo has been useful for me, and i'm sure you will find it useful too. github.com/danielewood/sierra-wireless-modems
Hi Miko, thanks for watching! I have thought about an OpenWrt video with OpenVPN, I have not gotten around to it yet, as I made a video on Wireguard, which I prefer as VPN protocol. I have used OpenVPN before Wireguard, and its fairly simple, especially with a VPN provider since they will provide the OpenVPN client config for you. I will caution however with free VPN providers, as if it's open for anyone to login, publicly, it's difficult to ensure the protections you seek with a VPN provider. Since they are free, they have to pay for maintenance somehow, and it possibly could come at the cost of your data. I am not too familiar with vpnbook, so I can't ensure their privacy protections or if they have a "no log" policy, but I would just be cautious. No matter your VPN provider, setting up an OpenVPN client config on OpenWrt will be same.
Thanks for watching Grey! I'll take that as a compliment 😊. At the moment, I'm not available for hire, but if you had a question, I'd be happy to offer my feedback. Feel free to make a comment or send me a message.
Thanks for watching Ralph! If you are speaking in regards to NanoPi R4S, I don't actually have one to give out, if you mean receiving the physical router. In terms of configuration, it should essentially follow this video, with minor differences. Since this Modem is connected over USB, you can simply connect it over the USB port. Now I'm not sure if USB is off by default on the NanoPi R4S, but you should be able to turn it on by modifying the /boot/config.txt file, and adding the following. dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host In addition, you'll need to make sure you have the kmod-usb-dwc2 package installed on your system. You wont not get the best form factor with this USB to mPCIe connector I used, but it should nonetheless work. You might be able to find other USB to mPCIe connectors that better accommodate the form factor of a R4S. I'd recommend searching on ali express to see what hardware you can find there.
Thanks for watching Critstian! I'm not sure where you found that information, but according to Verizon's open development website, they still have it listed, so I'd imagine its still supported. opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build/approved-modules/module/10859 Where did you get that information?
@@cristiantoma9386 You're welcome, thanks for sharing Cristian! First, I will say you generally don't want to share and IMEI publicly, as thats device specific information that can be used to register a device onto any cellular network. Granted, it doesn't seem like you are using that modem on Verizon anyway, but I'd edit your comment to remove that number. Anyway, I tried out that website and I do see it what you're saying. Whats strange, is that I typed in the IMEI number of my Sierra Wireless MC7455 modem that I used in this video, it worked, saying it's supported. So, I think that your hardware version of the Sierra Wireless MC7455 might be an older version than the one I am using, and is not supported on Verizon's network, while my newer version is. I can't confirm this is the case, but it's the only explanation I can think of as to why. I don't have a link I can share, as it doesn't redirect to a new link once I confirm my modem is supported. All I see after entering my IMEI is "This device will work on the Verizon network." So if you are trying to buy a used modem, see if you can get the IMEI. Otherwise, if you buy a new device, you should be able to reference Verizon's supported hardware list and have it work no problems.
Who wants to see a 5G RPi Router?
I wouldn't mind.... Although is something I could use on counted ocasions.
@@oskar3514 Awesome! Thanks for watching Oskar.
I'm eager to try it, because this could be the best competition as a home router to get comparable speeds to wired home internet. Especially for those where wired home internet is not an option, this makes 5G that much more attractive. With the ability to customize a 5G router (over telecom 5G routers that will barely give you any flexibility), I think custom 5G routers will become more popular.
It would be nice if there were videos of things or functions that are not mentioned in OpenWrt. I mean, the least "topical".
@@francocastilloAR By least topical, so you mean functions or things you can do that aren’t in OpenWrt wikis or docs? I do hear you on that, I’m trying to find some of those myself. But if you do think about it, since it is basically Linux, you can do really whatever most other Linux distros can. Now that does come with a huge asterisk as there certainly will be things you can’t do, but there will be plenty you can, but will take more effort.
A good example of this is I’m starting to slowly research how to attach a small LCD display or E Paper display, and show relevant network information like IP, WiFi info, and maybe down load and upload speed. From what I’ve seen so far, I’d just need the proper python libraries to interact with the screen. So if I can pull information out and pass it to a python library, and the screen device is recognized by the OS, well then it should be doable. I’d just need to be sure I can run python on my Raspberry Pi (or possibly other OpenWrt device). So this should be very doable and I think would be a great example of what you’re speaking to.
I’m saying this because I have an idea of making a nice, clean cased, really polished OpenWrt hotspot running on a CM4 with the right carrier board and a 5G modem. This is gonna take quote a bit time but I hope to get there.
Cool nice build
I want to use this to build an autonomous rc plane that can see air traffic and stay far away! Big project ahead. Exciting! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for watching RC | COWBOYS!
Wow, now thats an awesome use case, one I certainly haven't imagined. I would love to see a project like that come into fruition using a Raspberry Pi, with 4G, for operations beyond VLOS. I have done some drone flying awhile back, including getting my Part 107 license! Sadly, I didn't continue it or use it to my expectations, but it sure was fun and I do enjoy flying time to time with my DJI Mavic 1st gen.
Thanks for sharing and best of luck!
Your content is awesome as there is little to no information on how these are set up. May I suggest going in depth more on the command line commands to lock and change bands, how the PCIe and M.2 protocols and ports Dev/tty/usb... setup. I want to do videos on how to set these up and info for firmware updates, what to do when you are stuck with a firmware recovery screen and how to put routers into recovery mode. Another crutial thing is setup or bands, their hex decimal and command to program groups of bands. Another hot item is how to see the available towers in your area and how to select different towers. Their is reading material available on this available but can be confusing when you want to find info for the average Joe. I knew nothing about this stuff and am self taught as my internet option was DSL.
Thanks for watching Jeffrey! I do really appreciate the compliment.
There really is not that much information, and for where you can find it, it's very fragmented. One thing my foray into cellular technologies has taught me is how difficult it is working at the level of AT commands. I'd certainly like to get more in depth with commands to lock and change bands, and other parts of the setup. For the PCIe and M.2 protocols, to my knowledge, at least in this case, they rely on USB protocols, as they are running over USB, where PCIe and M.2 are just the form factor for connectors. Since cellular chips are just their own form of mini computers with a serial interface, thats how you get to interact with them in terms of tty/usb.
I did have to do a firmware update on mine, so thats something you can explore and I was able to find sierra wireless documentation that helped, at least on their forum. I have not tried to see the different towers you can connect to, but that would also be pretty cool. It's certainly confusing, and I need help in understanding it myself.
I taught myself this as an option to create your own wireless hotspot, but also for the application of home internet usage, as carriers open up plans for cellular home internet with data caps that support it.
I can't honestly guarantee that I will get to all of that, but I likely will mess with it once I get to a 5G video and get it working after I can afford the materials, since a 5G cellular modem purchased a la cart is very expensive, as much or more than an actual 5G phone itself.
Nonetheless, I'm happy you got some great value out of this video.
You had slower 3G speeds than that? Damn...
Great video! Would love a 5G one!
OpenWrt THE BEST LINUX DISTRO.
There's so many ideas I keep finding with OpenWrt, it's really a marvel with what it's capable of. For IoT type hardware and networking hardware, OpenWrt is definitely the Linux Distro for the win.
nice work, that is a very stunning talking bot you builded.
I’m not sure what you mean Carlo. My 4G LTE modem isn’t a bot in this video. On the contrary it’s way more firmware involved than a bot would be. What are you referring to?
@@DevOdyssey hahahá, of course yo don't. you are the talking robot, my friend. nice to see your videos, please keep it up.
@@Xayuap haha only if I was that good to make a comment-responding bot 😂. I’ve personally responded to each of these comments, and I genuinely thank everyone for watching. Its not too much where I can’t keep up with them. But if it were more than it is now, then I definitely couldn’t keep up.
I do appreciate your compliment and I have more videos coming soon! In particular, another cellular build with a carrier board and cm4. Just got the board yesterday from Ali Express, but I have lots of testing to do to make sure it’ll work the way I expect it to.
Your videos are so organized! keep going man, youre a star 👏
Thanks for watching and being a viewer Abdalrahman! I truly appreciate the compliment 😊. Plenty more videos to come!
Nice cockatiel picture by the way. I’m a fan of them, as I used to have one in high school.
@@DevOdyssey Thats so cool! i cant wait for the upcoming videos 🙂
Thank you very mutch for thos excellent video. How can I proseed to connect to Internet through Ethernet port ? Thank you in advance.
Thanks for watching @hedibalma3493! I appreciate it.
So to connect to the internet from the ethernet port, at this point, you could use it like you would any LAN port. By default its configured to be a LAN port in any OpenWrt installation. In this setup here, its a LAN port so just plug in whatever device, and it will be connected to the internet. Simple as that.
hi nice video - do you know whats the current best LTE module for the raspberry pi on the market as of 2023?
Thanks Gerald! and thanks for watching.
So technically I don't know what the best LTE modem is for an RPi, but you should have little trouble getting many LTE modems to work since there is likely a Linux driver available for them that you can utilize. From my personal experience, Sierra Wireless modems tend to be open source and OpenWrt friendly with a good community and good documentation. I would consider that brand. Thats the a reason I went with them. Let alone, if you can afford a 5G modem, I'd recommend using that for faster speeds. Otherwise, you can find good deals on used LTE modems on ebay, as that's where I purchased mine and used for this video.
@@DevOdyssey do you have a link to the sierra wireless LTE module? I think you need at least a raspberry pi 3. Raspberry pi zero would not work i guess
@@Gerald-iz7mv Sure! This is the link to the module I used specifically.
source.sierrawireless.com/devices/mc-series/mc7455/#sthash.M5x0JmIt.dpbs
You could use a Raspberry Pi 3 and maybe a zero? So long as you can connect to the module over usb and get enough power to it. Though form factor wise, it probably wouldn’t look that good anyway, or be easy to handle, but possible. It would look ridiculous as the Pi zero would be around the same size as the modem itself. Not even including the mounting for the modem.
The drivers would be likely be available on the Pi zero I imagine.
Great video! -- man seeing Hayes AT commands was a blast from the past -- the ghost in the machine. I'm antiipating this type of modem will be much more satisfying than hot-spot sharing over an iphone. I was thinking about setting up a Pi as a remote secuity device using a cellular modem.
Thanks for watching and the compliment Big Wave Dave! I genuinely appreciate it.
As I was testing this out and doing my own research, I did stumble across the name Hayes to see its basically the baseline of all AT commands, of which then vendors add their own AT commands on top of that from what I've seen. It's pretty neat to see this tech come into the light as a blast from past, and how it's still in use, but hidden in deeper layers that are obfuscated with higher layers of code. This was my first interaction with it, if you don't count the video I did on 3G.
In many ways, using these commands is really the only way to get what I want to get done, with regards to 4G internet connectivity, though I know I've only scratched the surface since theres GPS, carrier aggregation, etc.
This modem is definitely more satisfying than your typical hot-spot sharing over a phone. A lot more technical too, with a lot more features, but for me, I'd definitely say a lot more satisfying.
I would recommend you try out your use case as remote Pi for security monitoring, and I'd love to hear how it all works out for you! There's much more I want to explore in this realm, for me the hurdle is working with AT commands and my carrier to get the features I want working. It's all a labor of love.
You'd probably be interested to hear that there is now custom Linux firmware from pine64 that you can flash your modem with, allowing for even more customizations, and possibly ease of use, that you wouldn't get with the manufacturers firmware. Check out the link below if you're interested.
hackaday.com/2022/07/12/open-firmware-for-pinephone-lte-modem-whats-up-with-that/
@@DevOdyssey Hackaday's the best! - Hayes made the OG command set with their 1200 BAUD modem. However the very first telephone modems were not Hayes, but rather "Bell 103" where "Bell" is "Bell Telephone System". We started with 110 BAUD and shortly thereafter we went to 1200 Baud! Before smart modems, we would have to dial the phone then switch over to the modem manually. Using AT commands was a huge improvement. Later US-Robotics drove the baud rates up to 9600, then later 56K BAUD which folks said was impossible over POT'S wires. Keep up the good work!
@@bigwave_dave8468 Thanks for sharing the history lesson! I do find it fascinating how technology grows and changes over time, and in many respects, how it doesn't even change, but rather, new layers of obfuscation are written over it, for the sake of ease of use.
I appreciate the support! Looking forward to hopefully getting a custom 5G router video out there 😊
So did you activate the sim on your phone first? Any issues from Verizon using a the sim on a non standard phone?
Thanks for watching @miletony2069!
Great question. I actually activated it on my hotspot that I bought from Verizon, but once I did that, I didn't have problems using with the cellular modem I bought for this video, the Sierra Wireless MC7455. I did get emails when I transferred the SIM to different modems, but otherwise nothing actually preventing me from connecting to the cellular network.
is it possible to connect a raspberry pi 4g to a vps server from the 4g signal and send a wifi signal to communicate mobile devices?
Thanks for watching DonRoberto!
I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but yes you can. The 4G connection allows you to connect over the internet, just like DSL or cable. So you can connect to the VPS via a VPN connection, if you are trying to tunnel your internet connection through the VPS, say for changing your public IP, or create a local are network / LAN connection for VPS maintenance, or other use cases.
You can then set up a WiFi signal over the built in WiFi chip on the Raspberry Pi 4 board, that allows other devices / mobile devices, to connect to the Raspberry Pi, and send those connections to the VPS over the VPN.
So it's certainly possible, but the set up and configuration will vary depending on your use cases.
Hi, great video. I got a problem. I installed all the package, checked more then once, but I can t get confirm the interface qmi_wan and if I try the AT command AT!LTEinfo? I get an error. Can anyone help me or direct me to some info. I searched but couldn t find much.
Thanks for watching and the compliment Robert!
So when we get into AT commands, those tend to be very vendor specific, and they will vary depending on who made the hardware. They should have AT command reference documentation somehow out on the internet. That being said, what is the make / model of the cellular modem you are using? If its not the Sierra Wireless MC7455 AirPrime, or another Sierra Wireless modem, then its likely the AT!LTEINFO command will not work for you.
However, I we can do some other troubleshooting before using AT commands. Do you see the interface show up in LuCi? If you're in a terminal, you can also type the 'ip a' command to see if the interface shows up.
Lastly, you can also ping through interface (if it shows up), such as ping -I wwan IP_ADDRESS_HERE (at 11:49) and if you get responses, you know the cellular modem is working.
If all of those fail (pinging doesn't work, interface doesn't show up), then I'd start looking into the AT commands.
I just rewatch both 3G and 4G video and I got confused! I have the Telit modem not the sierra :) Will try your debugging after work.🤞
Ah sorry for the confusion!
So the 3G video I made first because I couldn’t get 4G working. I purchased the SixFav 4G LTE kit which came with the Telit modem, and I used their pay per go cellular network.
My ultimate goal was to use my unlimited Verizon network, but the Telit modem simply didn’t work. So I bought the Sierra wireless modem, and after hours and hours of tinkering, I got it working.
So you might be able to get it working with 4G. You’d just need to refer to the Telit modem documentation, put the modem in QMI or MBIM mode, and make sure your cellular service provider supports the Telit modem. I have only gotten QMI to work so I’d start with that if I were you.
Best of luck in your debugging!
Is it possible to use GPS through this module as well? I think a use case for a vehicle LoJack system would be cool.
Thanks for watching Kurt!
Since this module is GPS capable, it should be possible to utilize it. The difficulty here lies in knowing how to interface with the modem, to take that data, and then present and use it in a meaningful way. You can use the QMI or MBIM protocol to obtain this data (would be easier than direct AT commands) and do whatever you need with it. So in theory it's certainly possible, but I'm not sure all of what you'd need to do.
So long as GPS is working with your carrier, then you can track it. Now getting that data, would be another story, and I'd imagine over some web interface. Nonetheless, requires a bit of brainstorming to get all the right pieces and parts together.
Good video!!
Is there any option of doing the same project but using 5G connectivity instead of 4G LTE??
Thank you very much!!
Hi Pedro,
Thanks for watching, and thanks for the compliment 😊.
So I do plan on eventually doing just that (creating a 5G connected Raspberry Pi). As of now, you can pre-order a 5G Pi Hat from SixFab here:
sixfab.com/product/raspberry-pi-5g-development-kit-5g-hat/
The biggest issue for me is the cost, as 5G modems get expensive very quickly, especially on the category rating of the modem. As a result, I'm not sure when I will get to it.
The good part is the protocols mentioned in this video are the same for 5G, and most of the enhancements for 5G are hardware based and radio (frequency) based. So once I do get a 5G modem, and the antennas, I should be able to connect to 5G without issue, and then I can fine tune it as need be with any 5G specific configurations / features.
I hope to see you turn an old PC into something else like;
> A custom router with PFsense/OPNsense
> A multi-purpose Server with capabilities like:
VPN (OpenVPN/WireGuard)
Media (JellyFin/Kodi)
File-Sharing/SeedBox
Mail-Server
Or you can do that with a Raspberry-Pi
Thanks for watching Fine Wine 2.0!
It's ironic you say that, because I've been collecting a few old "home" PCs (towers, desktops), for use as a home firewall solution like OPNSense or PFSense. It would ideally be a dedicated network device, that would include VPN functionality, RADIUS, VLANs, IDS/IPS, etc. I also bought a generic intel electron based SBC so I can specifically do this, but with the benefit of 4 ethernet ports already there. With an old PC, I'd need to use a PCIe network card with additional NICs, ideally 4 and all gigabit.
As or the media, file sharing, and mail server, I'd generally put those on their own dedicated hardware, or dedicated VM, if the old PC had enough RAM, CPU performance and disk space, where I'd put a hypervisor on it, such as Proxmox. I'm also not sure if Media, File-Sharing, and Mail Servers are available as plugins / packages on OPNSense / PFSense, but even if they were, I feel thats better ran on dedicated hosts.
Now wouldn't it be awesome if you could do this all on a Raspberry Pi? Well, you can install a hypervisor on Raspberry Pi, but it's hardware would limit you in terms of the performance you'd want. Also, there are beta (or alpha) build of OPNSense that you can install on Raspberry Pis, but its not slated for general release until next year I believe. Not sure about PFSense, but likely, someone has already ported it to a Raspberry Pi. Again, just not sure of it's stability in a production sense. They are getting there though, and I look forward to using OPNSense/PFSense on a Raspberry Pi. FreeBSD already runs on Raspberry Pi, so its just a matter of continuing the development for network utilities based on FreeBSD.
In general, intel is best in terms of supportability. When I get to tinkering around with it more, you'll see my video(s) on it 😊
@@DevOdyssey Can you tell the pros & cons if OpenWRT & DD-WRT ???
& which one is better??
(if at all)
I'm talking features, how much of it is proprietary ease-of-use, devices etc.....
@@AcidiFy574 In all honesty, I can't provide the most unbiased comprehensive list of pros and cons for OpenWrt and DD-WRT, as I'll have a pretty large bias to OpenWrt, granted my experience is basically exclusively in OpenWrt.
But, with that said, I think it depends on your scenario.
If you want the short of it, I think OpenWrt is better. But again, depends on your needs.
OpenWrt has way more features than DD-WRT, and seems to be more actively developed than DD-WRT, to my knowledge. OpenWrt and DD-WRT should be all open source, given their licensing model are both GPLv2, with no proprietary software. However DD-WRT does have a professional version, while OpenWrt does not and all features are fully open.
Ease of use - personally, I like the LuCI layout with OpenWrt, its certainly more modern that DD-WRT. However, I think DD-WRT may be a tad easier given its user interface seems a little more intuitive. Though I did have some trouble implementing features like VLANs in DD-WRT. I think OpenWrt has more of a learning curve, but once you get past that, you're pretty set in terms of using OpenWrt.
If we account for install as well, I think both installs can be somewhat difficult, depending on your router. If you use a Raspberry Pi, its easier since you just have to flash a memory card, which I'm not sure if DD-WRT supports it. DD-WRT has a more difficult install with different packages that can be very confusing.
Lastly, I think DD-WRT supports more routers than OpenWrt. But if you are willing to get your own single board computer, and flash OpenWrt onto it, you'd get an amazing feature set. DD-WRT does seem to support x86, but with caveats, a big one being USB support. OpenWrt fully supports x86/x64 platforms. So in this capacity, you aren't too limited by hardware, as you can build your own (or buy prebuilt one)
The community to me seems more active in OpenWrt versus DD-WRT.
So overall, it really depends on your needs and use cases. The reason why I go with OpenWrt and have made mostly videos here is because of the support, the community, and to an extent, it's popularity. It's become my preference in terms of linux based routing firmware.
DD-WRT can provide you with the features you need, with a router you may already have thats supported (and maybe not supported by OpenWrt), and still better than stock router firmware. Might be easier to use than OpenWrt for some people. If you don't need bleeding edge features either, DD-WRT might be a better choice. However at the same time, since I feel OpenWrt is updated more frequently, you are likely to get more security updates too, which is very important for a network edge devices.
Some of the statements in here about DD-WRT are based on assumptions, or limited knowledge with DD-WRT, so feel free to do your own research. In my opinion, I'd go with OpenWrt any day over DD-WRT (I'm pretty sucked into it at this point).
@@DevOdyssey I heard that OpenWRT is basically fully libre/Free-software (100% FOSS) while, DD-WRT isn't
BTW, is the OpenWRT community friendly to noobs like me😅?
@@AcidiFy574 Yes OpenWrt is for sure, no paid tiers, all open, and you can create with it whatever you can imagine! Though, writing open source drivers for proprietary hardware can be limiting, especially from a licensing perspective. Just see why Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W isn't fully supported by OpenWrt. It's basically because the OpenWrt developer community can't release the wireless driver for the Broadcom wireless chip without approval from Broadcom themselves (licensing issue). It's sad when these things get in the way.
Yes, in my opinion the community is noob friendly, I was a noob once too. Heck, I don't eve consider myself that experienced, I just have a knack for figuring things out 😊.
All I will say is if you're looking to ask questions in the forum, do as much research as possible, before you ask. Chances are, your question is answered. If it wasn't, present your research, findings, and troubleshooting steps you took in your forum post. You'll be respected more for it and it'll be easier to get to a resolution for your problem quicker.
Hi ran across your video in my research, I have a RP4 8mb (I'm a beginner newbee) and I use T-Mobile's Home Internet, their "Gateway" with router turned on has limited options. This cellular service for me provides fast internet but with limitations, one is no network printer and gaming in multiplayer as no static IP address can be established. Would OpenWRT be a good candidate and can you see any pro's and con's with T-Mobile Service (and Verizon has also came out with their version of home internet).
Hi Mark, thanks for watching!
Definitely, OpenWrt would be a great candidate as a replacement for your T Mobile Home Internet Gateway, and their software they run. It's likely based on open source software anyway, but with limitations in place.
With OpenWrt you can certainly attached a network printer, and do gaming with static IP addresses for your game devices. Quite honestly, it surprises me you have those limitations on T Mobile's Gateway router.
If you want the easiest solution, I'd recommend buying another home router, and plugging in an ethernet cable from the WAN port of the new home router, to the ethernet port on the T Mobile Gateway. However, this hinges on if the T Mobile Gateway has a feature called bridge mode, where you effectively pass your public IP address to the new home router you'd purchase. This basically makes the T Mobile Gateway only act as a cellular modem, and disables router functionality. You'd want to bridge as well, because ideally for gaming scenarios, you don't want to double NAT, as that can cause issues for some games.
Otherwise, you could go with a more complex solutions by making a cellular router of using a Raspberry Pi and OpenWrt, with T Mobile's cellular network. As you can see from the video, it will take effort along with trial and error, but likely it should be possible. Thats really the biggest con you have, other than managing very technical settings, that can improve or break your cellular network speeds if you know / learn what you're doing. In addition, in this scenario, you'd probably want some outdoor antennas to improve your cellular network speeds, as I talked about at the end of the video. Lastly, a DIY option like this will likely cost more, as it won't be subsidized by a T Mobile cell contract.
As for the pros, it all comes down to flexibility. More options, more choice, all which lead to more power and control over your home network.
So depending on how deep in the weeds you wanna go, doing a custom setup could be great (and fun) at the same time, or a headache.
If you're just looking for a reliable solution, with less configuration and setup, I'd go with buying another router for your home network needs, and using the T Mobile Gateway exclusively as a cellular modem.
So I can use your exact 4G hardware, and get the same results?
Hi Vyacheslav,
Yes you should expect similar results using the same hardware, but your speeds will vary depending on your connection to the nearest cell tower and carrier, assuming they support this modem.
That sierra website is buggy as hell. The chat bot prevents me from checking out any products. Im glad they are so upfront about their inabilities. Any other recommendations?
Thanks for watching @user-otzlixr!
The website seems to be okay for me, but now it seems like they redirect to their generic IoT page and not the actual modem itself, which is unfortunate. It's certainly still a good modem, even though it has aged. I actually can't seem to find the page anymore, maybe because they're not supporting it anymore, which also is a shame.
If you click on the Module Finder in the modules drop down menu at the top, you should be able to search for other modules, but you won't be able to find this one anymore.
Anyway, I'm sure many of those other modules will work fine on a Raspberry Pi, so long as you get your connectivity working (in terms of hardware, like USB3, PCIe, or M.2). M.2 probably makes the most sense as a connector, and then you can use a special carrier board to connect that over a USB3 port on the Pi. I haven't used any other Sierra Wireless modules, so I can't speak from experience, but given I've used one, I feel like I could get others working, so long as the carrier supports them.
The only other module I have used is a Quectel EG-25G running in QMI mode. All I needed was their AT documentation and I was able to get it working in a similar manner to the steps in this video.These modules are used often and pretty plentiful, so I'd give it a shot, unless you want to go to 5G, then you're gonna need a more powerful and up to date module.
any new videos in the making??
BTW, just like how some routers like tgat of TP-Link, NetGear or Linksys have companion apps so that we can control the routers via phones
does OpenWRT or DD-WRT have such apps ??
would be kinda nice to have them
Hi again FineWine 2.0!
Yes, I am finishing up an edit for a video around OTG port on a Raspberry Pi and using it with OpenWrt. That should be coming out soon.
Doing a quick search, I do see there is one iOS app for OpenWrt called, OpenWrt Tool 15. Not sure how good it is, doesnt have great rankings in the app store, its only for iPad, and it seems to last work with OpenWrt 15, which is pretty behind the current version of 21.02.
apps.apple.com/us/app/openwrt-tool-15/id1245196214
Looks like there is also an instructable to build an app for iOS/Android, but I can't seem to tell how old it is or what versions of OpenWrt it works with.
www.instructables.com/AndroidiOS-App-to-Access-Your-OpenWrt-Router-Remot/
Lastly, this question does seem to have been asked in the OpenWrt forum.
forum.openwrt.org/t/how-to-change-configuration-files-from-ios-android-app/93342
Hope this helps and happy learning!
For the SIM card what kind of plan is on it . Is it a prepaid plan or a plan on a contract. Is it possible for me to use the sim in my phone that is a contract plan or does it have to be a prepaid plan???
Thanks for watching deucekiller022!
In this video, I was just using my Verizon plan (contract) that has unlimited data on it. Though, I'm pretty sure it probably gets throttled after using so many gigs (probably 15 GB), and then my speeds would drop once I consumed that many gigs.
But the plan shouldn't matter, prepaid or contract. You should be able to use the SIM card on your phone, plug it into this set up, and get onto the internet. It is possible that you might run into some issues, where your carrier has seen that your SIM card is not in your phone anymore, and the SIM is using a different modem. That could result in being blocked by your Cellular carrier, but this is likely dependent on who your carrier is.
I haven't tested this out but in theory it should work. The issue lies in what detections and controls your carrier has for moving your SIM card to a new modem. If you do try this out, I'd be curious to know how it works out for you.
@@DevOdyssey ok thank you for the information. I am planning on using my pineapple MK7 with a LTE USB modem (EXVIST 4G LTE USB Dongle W/EG25-G LCC)
@@deucekiller022 You’re welcome and best of luck! Sounds like it should be fun. Hope this video helps you get it working.
@@DevOdyssey I was able to get it to work with my wifi pineapple and the SIM card (contract) I have .
@@deucekiller022 Awesome glad to hear that! Thanks for letting me know and enjoy your setup 😊
I know the video is a bit old, moreover it’s not a help forum, but I stuck for month. Everytime I launch a speed test it works great for the download part but stop after 2s on the upload part, and my rooter doesn’t work anymore, I have to reboot openwrt to make it work again. I tried a lot of things but it keeps happening. Now I juste let it like that and when I use too much upload I have to reboot it. Have you an idea where I miss configured something ? Or maybe it’s a ISP limitation ?
Thanks for watching @gabius_times386!
It's aged a bit, but still relevant in the world of mobile networking, for anyone who's still working on custom cellular solution.
First, I do appreciation the due diligence you've done. While yes its not a help forum, its still a place to share what you're experiencing, and of course I'll do my best to help. So I have to say, you're running into the exact same issue that I had. I assume you are running the same set up I had in this video, even the hardware and maybe even Cellular ISP (Verizon), which to that point, would make sense you've experienced the same issue as me.
However, I went on to test this issue even further, and moved to another modem, a Quactel EG25-G, and still ran into the same issues. Heck I even got an outdoor antenna for it (omni), and it still seems to be finicky with speedtest. The only think I really didnt change was the Cellular ISP, stayed Verizon, and the protocol for connecting, QMI. Given that, I have a feeling that the issue is between QMI and the modem. When I ran the speedtests, I'd disconnect too, and would have to reboot. I dug into it even further to see often that this process would disrupt the modem connection somehow, where the modem would get assigned a new public IP address, but, that IP address wouldn't make its way to the network interface. I feel like the speedtests would cause a hiccup and the modem would simply reset itself, but the new pubic IP would not make its way to the interface, creating a routing issue and of course, loss in connection.
Given that, I honestly never completely resolved this issue, but I feel I mitigated it well. What I did was look into ROOter, which is based on OpenWrt, but built with a focus on Cellular networking, for cellular modems. I looked at what they may be doing, and found the have their own gcom script and bash script to handle this (gcom is basically a script for running AT commands). I took this, and tweaked it a bit for my own use case, and then set it up to run as a cron job every 5 minutes to basically check if connection was still running (i.e. using ping), and based on that, I'd do nothing, or I'd reset the modem, or restart the router.
www.ofmodemsandmen.com/firmware.html
Now I can't completely recall if I had this issue using the ROOter firmware. I feel like I still might have, but its been awhile so I'd have to check again. Given that my usage of my Cellular network is for out of band access to my home network, I'm not really using this for heavy internet traffic for my devices, at the moment, but this could become an issue again for me in the future, which I hope not. I might also reach out to the creator of the project to see if he's experienced this scenario.
Anyway, I downloaded the version for Raspberry Pi, which from there, I dug into the scripts and found what I mentioned above. I'll share this information in one of my gists, but in the mean time, you can explore the ROOter firmware and find it.
EDIT: Scripts can be found below. Tweak them to whatever works for you, including AT Commands.
gist.github.com/odevodyssey/52ff8daf2ea8aa40ecee4c798789b7ca
Hope they are useful!
@@DevOdyssey thanks a lot for your answer! I planed to try with a different ISP, so maybe it will change :)
A pretty long and good answer, thanks again for the time you spent!
@gabius_times you’re welcome, I try to be very thorough, often times to a fault 😅. Let me know how it works for you, I’m curious to know as I may have to explore another ISP as well if this change the issue.
@@DevOdyssey i will try your « patch » but I don’t really want to have a router rebooting each time a send too much data…
I don’t think it’s isp related, I live in Switzerland so, it’s an other isp.
I tried using modem manager instead of qmi, it was working great for 30 min, then the same problem came back to kill my joy.
I’m still investigating and will post what I found, and if your patch works for me (if I manage to install it)
@@gabius_times Thats understandable, I definitely don't want the behavior either, though I haven't tested this thoroughly enough to know when it happens. So far, it seems to have happened when running speedtests, but not sure if it happens under different network conditions.
Likely its not ISP related, but can't say I eliminated that option. Given your experience on a different ISP, its probably not ISP related. Interesting the same thing happens with modemmanager, but not surprised either given it used QMI in the same way I do in this video, so I'd almost expect it.
Hopefully my script helps and if not, might have dive a bit deeper, and get additional help.
Awesome!
I would like to use a Ubiquiti Litebeam Antenna instead that little one..
I need ETH receptor instead the one you use in your module..
Can u tell me how?
I want connect to the network of my sim provider with that antenna
just conecting the antenna to the eth port??? ? ??
tell me!!
hahah
@@zanta_ Thanks for watching Sé Rah!
So the Ubiquiti Litebeam Antenna are pretty neat devices. They work as a Wireless bridge, or Point to Point connection that basically helps you wirelessly beam your network across long distances, as opposed to running a long ethernet cable. That being said, these devices are not intended to connect to 4G LTE signals, let alone any cellular signals from a cellular carrier. They transmit in the 5Ghz range, which is not used by cellular carriers. Therefore your use case will not work.
However, you could connect the ethernet port from the Raspberry Pi, to the ethernet port on the LiteBeam, and that way, it can transmit your cellular internet over a long distance, to the receiving LiteBeam wherever you place it. You can set up a local network on the Raspberry Pi, and associate that network with the ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi, basically the default on an OpenWrt installation. But in this scenario, the Raspberry Pi is acting as the router, where it receives cellular internet via the cellular modem and uses the cellular network based on the SIM card carrier. Then on the receiving end you just need to terminate the connection to some sort of network device with an ethernet cord, like a network switch or access point.
@@DevOdyssey I understand.
What I want its to amplify the range of the 4G LTE antenna for the sim conecting instead something like the ubiquiti..
with that I can get internet in places where its difficult
Do u get me?
Sorry for my english haha
Thank you
greetings from colombia
@@zanta_ Great! Sorry if I misunderstood you earlier.
The way you suggested it is one way you can accomplish the range of your 4G LTE. This would especially apply in scenarios where you you'd want to deploy a 4G LTE router, but in that area you can't get a good signal. This type of setup would suffice to my understanding. However, since the range of the Litebeam is roughly 18 miles max, according to Ubiquiti, I'd imagine you could get decent 4G LTE signal within that radius, however maybe not, as I'm not sure how well the 4G LTE signals are for cellular carriers in Columbia. It's something you'd have to experiment with.
No worries on your english! I understand what you're saying 😊
Greetings from the United States!
I would love to see how to perform/configure carrier aggregation!
Thanks for watching BQAggie2006!
Seeing Carrier Aggregation (CA) work, and its improved performance would be really cool. In the AT command guide for this Sierra Wireless modem (linked in the description above), on page 25, they do talk about settings up CA using the command AT!ANSEL, and choosing your specific bands you want for CA. The part that kinda throws me off is the selection of GPIOs, which to me I don't immediately see any GPIOs available on the modem. Maybe this is referring to the antenna interfaces, but honestly, this is where I'm fairly inexperienced.
So if I understand that command correctly, it should be more / less straightforward to do CA, regardless of the modem. The command should be similar, and more so, the same concepts should apply. Maybe in my next video that relates to cellular (4G / 5G), I'll have it configured and working 😊
If you're curious and you have the hardware you need, give it a shot and I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Hey, hope you see this. So can I set up a raspi 4b with the 4g hat, and then with openwrt use the Ethernet port to connect a switch? The switch then only relies on openwrt, not my isp modem. Thx ! Great vids!
I see it @-someone- 😊, appreciate the compliment!
Yes, that is correct. You can put a 4G (even 5G) HAT on a RPi 4 (probably RPi 5 too, though no official build yet, you can find one on github made by a developer). and then user the ethernet port, connect it to a switch and now you have a home network that uses 4G/5G with plenty of LAN ports. The switch relies on OpenWrt / Cellular provider, and not your ISP's modem.
@@DevOdyssey thx 👋
@@-someone-. You're welcome!
Legend 🎉
Thanks for watching @thebusinesscentre, BYOH (Hardware) is a great feeling especially when it comes to customizing it for your needs, and not feeling locked in with service provider hardware, especially for internet. Figuring this out was very much a rewarding experience, albeit a long, cumbersome one.
Cool video!
I wonder if I could get something like this working on my old Pi 2 model B...
Thanks for watching Farmer Thanus!
It _could_ be possible, but that would probably depend on what version of Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS is supported on an a Pi 2 Model B. If it has the right drivers on the OS, you can probably get it working. Not sure about the specs for a Pi 2 Model B but you'd need a USB2 port on it to attach a Cellular Pi Hat. Then with the lower power hardware, I'm not sure how fast it would be but it could still work, even if it's a tad slow.
Great video!
Is there currently a way to make cellular phone calls using the same hardware as shown? Thank you
Thanks for watching Martin!
So as of yet, I have not figured out making cell phone calls, though you aren't the first to ask me. You can take a look at some of the other comments below that do talk about this and potentially the software you'd use (baresip, linphone). When making this video, I was focusing more so on connecting the RPi / OpenWrt to their LTE internet, to use as a hotspot, backup home internet connection, etc.
Technically speaking though, this hardware (modem, SIM, antennas) should be all that you'd need to make phone calls (other than a microphone and speaker). The more difficult part comes in setting up the software (SIP / VoIP), which is more difficult to do than just setting up an internet connection, from my understanding.
Hello, I bought the same hardware but I'm having problems with the configuration. OpenWRT doesn't recognize EM7455. uqmi command doesn't work and Luci doesn't create DHCP client associated to the wwan connection. Any idea to resolve it?
Thanks for watching Felipe.
So this is where the difficulty comes in with cellular networking. It’s not always the easiest to troubleshoot, based on how you receive the modem, especially if it’s used. Not impossible, but it’s just another area of knowledge to learn.
Anyway, the EM7455 is basically the same as the MC7455, just that it uses an M.2 connector as opposed to a mPCIe. Now your uqmi command may not be working because your modem might not be in QMI mode, but rather a different mode, like MBIM. So this is where you’d need to get into the backend of the modem via the serial interface and issue AT commands as I do in the video to make the right changes.
Before then, first check if your modem is showing up in dmesg, specifically see if you get the /dev/cdc-wdm0 interface. That should tell you if you’re getting connected. If yes, then that’s a good sign. If not, then there might be a connection issue or you’re not in the right mode. Moving on, I’d then get into the serial interface using the minicom command in the video (if /dev/ttyUSB2 is available), and check it’s status using AT+CPIN. If that shows it’s connected, then that’s good. Otherwise it could be an issue with your carrier not accepting your modem, as thats alls possible. I’d be sure to check with your provider if it’s an approved modem.
Lastly, in the serial commands, I’d check the modem usb composition mode to see if it’s in MBIM mode. If so, then that’s why DHCP isn’t working as MBIM mode does not use DHCP and assigning the IP address would have to be a manual process. I don’t know all the right commands for umbim off the top of my head but I would do some research there.
If you don’t have the ttyUSB2 serial interface, it may be blocked off, and you’d have to use umbim commands to change its composition if you want QMI, or the right umbim commands to get your public IP address.
Nonetheless, I’d check the Sierra wireless forums for help, as they’ll have more tailored content for what you need to do based on your information and anything additional you find.
Also refer to the pdf link in my description for the AT command reference. That will definitely be useful in your troubleshooting.
@@DevOdyssey Thank you! Very much!
You’re welcome. Best of luck and hope you can get it working!
Question: At the software part you said you flashed the SD card with openWrt. My SD card is flashed with headless Debian so how can I flash it with openWrt? Are you saying you installed openwrt on pi?
Thanks for watching Vyacheslav!
That’s correct. I simply flashed an image of OpenWrt to my SD Card using balena etcher, dd, or whatever tool you prefer to use. I’d suggest you get another SD card you can put OpenWrt on, or you can flash over that Debian headless with an OpenWrt image if you don’t absolutely need it. Or if you want to do the flash using the headless Debian, you can use the dd terminal command and another SD card to flash the OpenWrt image onto it.
It’s basically considered installing it, but technical it’s not an interactive install process, it’s simply setting up an SD card with an image of OpenWrt and then that card becomes your hard drive as with any Raspberry Pi hardware (assuming it’s not eMMC)
Stupid question from my side I see OpenWrt doesn't support many routers that we can actually get. Is it possible to create a custom flash for something like the Huawei B618s-22d ?
Thanks for watching Angry Dog!
Not a stupid question at all. So that is true, there are quite a bit older or harder to get routers that OpenWrt supports well. I had trouble at times going to the store to see what I could find that is supported by OpenWrt. Your best bet is to go on eBay or build your own with supported hardware. I learned that the hard way.
Given that the Huawei is not on their “table of hardware”, you can’t build a custom image. However, it’s not to say that it couldn’t be developed. Really your only way would be if you, or OpenWrt developers, researched and developed a base image that you could use or customize with your own build. Now if there are similarities within in the hardware between the supported Huawei routers and the B618-22d, you might be able to get away with it, but it would likely be unstable. Generally speaking, you wouldn’t be able to do it. A lot of it has to do with hardware support and what’s proprietary vs open source.
Make video where you show pip for you and your desk.
Thanks for watching @samtronxindia!
I appreciate the idea, it's something I'd have to think about as timing between speaking and assembling would be important, but also actually seeing how I'm assembling is more important than seeing myself, so if anything, I'd make sure that is primarily whats shown, while the smaller video feed would be myself. This would seem to change back and forth as I take breaks assembling.
Is there a certain reason why you'd want to see this?
Thankyou guy!!!
Is it possible to set up in raspian using the raspian network manager gui??? Or can it only be done with openwrt???
I mean not as a router but just as a basic internet connection with a 4g USB dongle. I think I gotta activate usb_mode_switch in terminal or something. Im too busy to look into it right now but maybe next month I can set it up.
Stay Awesome!!!
You're welcome country boy! Thanks for watching.
So this is a great question, I'm glad you asked. Thats because when I was trying to do 4G setup in my first video (the 3G one), I actually performed some troubleshooting and testing using Raspbian to connect to 4G. The Sixfab kit I bought does comes with a script that configures everything for you, but I wanted to learn how to do it myself. With that, I downloaded the QMI drivers for Raspbian (libqmi), along with minicom for serial access, and I successfully connected to 4G on my Telit modem, just not using Verizon's network, but rather Sixfab's (via AT&T).
I did this all via the terminal and not with the network managed GUI, but, it should be possible with a different package, modem manager, which also has a GUI. Now I've struggled to find a tutorial around setting up a 4G connection using the modem manager gui, but I assume its possible. If not, you can use the modem manager cli to configure the connection, and the GUI to monitor it. You dont have to use modem manager and can do this all via libqmi (or other protocols supported by the modem and their respective libraries) but modem manager does seem to make it easier. You can also find plenty of tutorials on google for using modem manager cli.
snapcraft.io/install/modem-manager/raspbian
Good luck on your setup next month!
HELP. When I’m trying to download the packages, it doesn’t work because the pi is not connected to the internet. What do I do?
Thanks for watching! It looks like you already commented on my other video about building OpenWrt. That’s a way you can get the packages onto your image without having grab them off the internet post deploy.
Otherwise, you’ll need to connect to the internet first, say via a WiFi acting as a client, to then download the packages.
A third options is to build a sysupgrade package in the firmware selector, add your packages, and get your build created for you. Then perform a sysupgrade and you’ll have the packages on your instance.
firmware-selector.openwrt.org
@@DevOdyssey thank you. Your video has been very helpful. I’ve made a lot of openwrt images now. I think I’m close to a final version, I finally got my modem to show up as a usb device. Slow progress but it’s a lot of fun. Wouldn’t be possible without your videos, thank you so much!
@@sebastiangreen8369 You're welcome. Happy to hear you've been able to make a images easily, making custom ones that suit your needs. Its definitely slow progress when you go through this process, but also a lot of fun as you noted. Its very rewarding to see the incremental progress you make and to actually get something working. Glad I can be part of this journey for you, and we can share in these similar interests.
I'll be happy to hear when you get it all working.
I have a Mini pci-E WWAN HAT ver2.0 with sierra MC7700 network card can you help me to configure it on raspberry pi 4 4G it is if possible thank you and have a nice day
Hi salmi,
The Mini PCI-E WWAN HAT is what I used to replace my Sixfab, Pi HAT, as I accidentally messed up the SIM card slot there. I can attest that this PCI-E WWAN HAT works. First, make sure that this modem works with your cellular provider.
As for using the MC7700, I can provide you guidance, as it should be similar to what I did with the MC7455. What you need to do first and foremost is update the firmware, and make sure the modem is set to the profile of your cellular provider, or Generic. Then also make sure its in QMI mode, if you are following this video. The AT commands will be helpful here.
techship.com/downloads/category/technical-documentation-sierra-wireless-mc7700/
You should be able to download the AT commands from there, though you will have to make an account with them.
This git repo has been useful for me, and i'm sure you will find it useful too.
github.com/danielewood/sierra-wireless-modems
@@DevOdyssey thankyou very match
@@salmiamar1437 you're welcome!
it´s amazing
Thanks Diego!
Hi !
Can you do an openvpn config with rpi and openwrt ?
(with vpnbook . . . )
Thank u
Hi Miko, thanks for watching!
I have thought about an OpenWrt video with OpenVPN, I have not gotten around to it yet, as I made a video on Wireguard, which I prefer as VPN protocol. I have used OpenVPN before Wireguard, and its fairly simple, especially with a VPN provider since they will provide the OpenVPN client config for you.
I will caution however with free VPN providers, as if it's open for anyone to login, publicly, it's difficult to ensure the protections you seek with a VPN provider. Since they are free, they have to pay for maintenance somehow, and it possibly could come at the cost of your data. I am not too familiar with vpnbook, so I can't ensure their privacy protections or if they have a "no log" policy, but I would just be cautious. No matter your VPN provider, setting up an OpenVPN client config on OpenWrt will be same.
@@DevOdyssey thank you friend
@@mikostudy2867 You're welcome!
How can I hire you to help me with my pi 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for watching Grey! I'll take that as a compliment 😊.
At the moment, I'm not available for hire, but if you had a question, I'd be happy to offer my feedback. Feel free to make a comment or send me a message.
@@DevOdyssey will do! Thanks!
Sir give me 1 R4S please...
Thanks for watching Ralph!
If you are speaking in regards to NanoPi R4S, I don't actually have one to give out, if you mean receiving the physical router.
In terms of configuration, it should essentially follow this video, with minor differences. Since this Modem is connected over USB, you can simply connect it over the USB port. Now I'm not sure if USB is off by default on the NanoPi R4S, but you should be able to turn it on by modifying the /boot/config.txt file, and adding the following.
dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host
In addition, you'll need to make sure you have the kmod-usb-dwc2 package installed on your system.
You wont not get the best form factor with this USB to mPCIe connector I used, but it should nonetheless work. You might be able to find other USB to mPCIe connectors that better accommodate the form factor of a R4S. I'd recommend searching on ali express to see what hardware you can find there.
@@DevOdyssey Actually im asking a hardware as present... R2S would be enough....🤗
@@raforedebe ah well one day I'd like to get that hardware myself! But until then, I wouldn't have any to give out 😊
Verizon
Sorry, our network no longer supports this device.
Sierra Wireless - MC7455
Thanks for watching Critstian!
I'm not sure where you found that information, but according to Verizon's open development website, they still have it listed, so I'd imagine its still supported.
opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/design-and-build/approved-modules/module/10859
Where did you get that information?
@@cristiantoma9386 You're welcome, thanks for sharing Cristian!
First, I will say you generally don't want to share and IMEI publicly, as thats device specific information that can be used to register a device onto any cellular network. Granted, it doesn't seem like you are using that modem on Verizon anyway, but I'd edit your comment to remove that number.
Anyway, I tried out that website and I do see it what you're saying. Whats strange, is that I typed in the IMEI number of my Sierra Wireless MC7455 modem that I used in this video, it worked, saying it's supported. So, I think that your hardware version of the Sierra Wireless MC7455 might be an older version than the one I am using, and is not supported on Verizon's network, while my newer version is.
I can't confirm this is the case, but it's the only explanation I can think of as to why. I don't have a link I can share, as it doesn't redirect to a new link once I confirm my modem is supported. All I see after entering my IMEI is "This device will work on the Verizon network."
So if you are trying to buy a used modem, see if you can get the IMEI. Otherwise, if you buy a new device, you should be able to reference Verizon's supported hardware list and have it work no problems.