APU1D with LTE Huawei ME909u-521

mike234

First of all, Thanks again for all the help, I really wouldn't know where to begin without all those helpful hints and info.
It really made all the difference.

I think you are spot-on (again) here :

really wonder if it was the "Newness" of the firmware that fixed your problem or just the fact the new modems ship in QMI mode and need a DirectIP firmware flash. I don't think that the Sierra mode-switcher works until you flash it to a DirectIP mode from your experience!!! Now it has both QMI and DIP flashed to it and maybe Sierra mode-switcher just flips one bit -to use other firmware onboard. Total guess…

Watching the updatesoftware closely during the update, I noted that some of the software didn't seem to exist in the MX7710 prior to the update.
In other words, some of the "software modules" were updated from one version to another (dated from a '09 to a '12 i believe), but at least one of the "modules" didn't seem to be present at all in the MC7710 prior to this.
So it may all very well be as you suspected.

Here were I live, I'm "blessed" with well working DSL lines, offering about 50 Mbit each, which covers my needs pretty well.
For years I've been using the Alix2D13 with great success.
On occasion, when needing internetconnection away from home, I have been using the Alix2D13 with an USB 3G stick, which works okay too, providing the signal is strong..!

and the signal is usually of poor strength, where and when I need it the most :)

So, what I really needed was a WWAN router, with the durability and features like I'm used to with the Pfsense, AND offering 3G /LTE though external antennas.
As you so rightly point out, a highgain antenna pointing in the right direction makes night into day.
I have something like this in mind : http://www.landashop.com/catalog/poynting-lpda0092-gsm3g4g-booster-antenna-cable-p-2389.html

Anyway - The need for using for proper external antenna lead me to the APU1D with its miniPCIe, which would offer nice little SMA connectors on the back, and a soo much neater solution than the USB stick

You know the rest of the story :)

gregober

Excuse me to get back to the root of this thread…

But will any of the existing Huawei 3G/4G Mini-PCIe modem cards work with APU1D ?

I am talking about :

• Huawei ME909u-521 (chipset Qualcomm MDM9615)
• Huawei EM820W (chipset Qualcomm MDM8200A)

It was not quite clear to me where the initial testing went ? and what were the problems remaining ?

I need to do some testing with these hardware and would like to have advise before buying the right hardware.
Since a lot of "known to work" hardware is made by Huawei it seems quite logic to try these Huawei Mini-PCIe cards.

But looking at the FreeBSD threads there is not much written about these cards yet ?

Thanks

mike234

Speaking for myself, I was never able to get the Huawei ME909u-521 to work with the APU1D.

Basically, it seems that this modem is not properly recognized, the necessary ports are not available within the PPP setup.

(The latest version I've used for testing is the 2.2 64bit, maybe the newer versions will be more successful.)

Using the Sierra modem instead, combined with alot of good help, I finally managed to get the system to work.
Further testing afterwards revealed quite good performance and stability.

luckman212

Mike

Which Sierra modem did you use? It's an internal mini PCI? Are you able to get 4G/LTE with this?

Guest

@mike234:

Exactly as you predicted, the Compaq won't startup with the MC7710 inserted, due to the lack of WWLAN capability on this model. Sweet.

hmm.. I've got an Intel Nuc, which of course also supports mini pcie, but I guess that will probably have the same wwlan issue…

Mike and all,

if you have those problems perhaps this would be a solution for you to go around
of this problems in the future. I personally use this miniPCIe to USB Adapter for flashing, trying out and as a external USB modem or WLAN adapter.

There fore no drivers are needed it can be connected to any USB port.
Not really cheap but I also don´t want to miss it anymore.

Guest

I can confirm that the Huawei EM820W is working.

edited to correct my bad info

Guest

I recommend the Sierra MC7700 for AT&T. They work well, The MC7710 is supposedly for TMobile. I have found the MC7700 able to pick up TMobile in LTE mode as well. This may be just in my particular area. Their LTE bands are real close together here.
MC7700 costs 50 bucks here on ebay
MC7710 costs 170 bucks here on ebay
So i never tried the MC7710.

I did experiment with the MC7750 but it requires a dual boot rig as Windows is needed for Verizon SIM activation. They are machine locked somehow. ATT sims can be moved around between devices. This has been my experience.

luckman212

So if I had a Verizon MC7750 with a 4G SIM that was already activated (using in a Lenovo laptop e.g.) could this be transplanted into e.g. a Netgate APU and used? Has anyone done this? Do I still need to flash to DirectIP (DIP) mode vs QMI with the Windows utility first on pfSense 2.2

gregober

Just one point : the MC7710 is EOL and generally speaking the MC77XX does not seem to be advertised any more by Sierra Wireless.

Have you had the opportunity to test any newer models : MC7304 or MC8704 (these are for Europe) ?

Thanks.

Guest

No the MC-7750 in any "serial only" box with Verizon would be a no go with a card swap from another computer.. I have a feeling the Verizon sim activation uses something from the host computer and writes it to the SIM. Locks it to that device. You may be able to activate it in the APU if you get the right person on the phone at customer support. They can activate it over the phone.

Regarding the EOL status: You have to realize that open source lags in development and many of the best working devices are EOL.

Now if your trying to source new MC77xx modules i can understand your dilemma.

I have both EM7355/MC7355 in hand and need to test. These are more common than the MC7304/7305 here in the US.

Yes you would need to flash an MC77xx to directIP before even attempting to get it going with Verizon/pfSense.

Guest

I can confirm that the Huawei EM820W is not working.

Sorry i need to fix my messup. Just tried an EM820W in my Lanner FW7535 and it is working fine as PPP modem on cuaU0.4

I am going to edit my bad info above. Still only 3.5G speed though at HPSA+ 21M…

beeloo

Hi Huawei ME909u-521 users,

I got this card but nothing about Huawei appears in dmsg…

Is there any chance to get this LTE card working on pfSense 2.2.4 ?

Thanks for your answers

Guest

I am afraid that is not going to work. Is this a European band module? I would fire up Ubuntu 15.04 and see what modem manager GUI gives you for info. Maybe CDC ethernet….. I dunno. Post any results as it may work..
Maybe slip the module into a laptop to check it out -if your on a console only box..

I see I was pretty green 6 months ago with some flagrant errors above. Went pretty far off topic too. Sorry.
Never had my MC7750 on pfSense with Verizon. MC7750 ProductID is not supported in pfSense and the module only runs in QMI mode.

Guest

Also to correct myself, the MC7700 does indeed work with T_Mobile. Problem is that it was not LTE as B2 and B4 LTE for T_mobile frequencies are in the 1900mhz range and MC7700 uses 700mhz/B17. I thought at the time I was getting LTE… Live and learn.
It worked so fast I had assumed it it was 4G.

I have bought an MC7710 to test as I have many nearby T-mobile towers i discovered. Of course now T_mobile is adding LTE/B12 and no modem has it yet...

beeloo

I just booted my APU1D4 with Ubuntu:

@ubuntu:~$ dmesg | grep -i "usb 1-2"
[    3.029495] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[    3.189951] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=12d1, idProduct=1573
[    3.196715] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=4
[    3.203884] usb 1-2: Product: HUAWEI Mobile
[    3.208093] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: HUAWEI Technology
[    3.213084] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 0123456789ABCDEF
[   10.286304] usb 1-2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[   10.286800] usb 1-2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[   10.290253] usb 1-2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
[   10.290622] usb 1-2: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB3
@ubuntu:~$

Can this be helpful ?

I'm located in France and just need the appropriate bands. (2500/2600 for LTE, 1900/2100 for UMTS I guess)
This module should be European and is supposed to be working here.

I also ordered a Sierra MC7710. It should be there in a few weeks.
I know that Sierra MC7304 is working for Orange network.

In pfSense, right after rebooting from Ubuntu, I can find the following in dmesg:

ugen1.2: <huawei technology=""> at usbus1
cdce0: <cdc ethernet="" control="" model="" ecm=""> on usbus1
ue0: <usb ethernet=""> on cdce0
ue0: Ethernet address: 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx</usb></cdc></huawei>

I can add a new interface based on the ue0 port.
However, nothing more than cuau0 and cuau1 which are the internal serial ports.

Here is the usbconfig result:

root: usbconfig -u 1 -a 2 dump_device_desc
ugen1.2: <huawei mobile="" huawei="" technology="">at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)

  bLength = 0x0012 
  bDescriptorType = 0x0001 
  bcdUSB = 0x0200 
  bDeviceClass = 0x00fe 
  bDeviceSubClass = 0x0000 
  bDeviceProtocol = 0x0000 
  bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040 
  idVendor = 0x12d1 
  idProduct = 0x1573 
  bcdDevice = 0x0228 
  iManufacturer = 0x0002  <huawei technology="">iProduct = 0x0003  <huawei mobile="">iSerialNumber = 0x0004  <0123456789ABCDEF>
  bNumConfigurations = 0x0002</huawei></huawei></huawei>

You will also find the lsusb -v result as attachement.

How can we try to make this Huawei working ?

lsusb.txt

Guest

I see that you have a CDC ethernet connection with ue0. There is nowhere to enter APN and you cannot connect without it from my experience.

Guest

I am no developer but to make it work would probably require you to add the VID/PID to USBDEVS/U3G–(ie. build your own kernel). It appears there is an USB interface there and you would have to coax the AT command interface out for PPP connection.

Guest

Do you own a MC7304? There maybe something in the future for that module… Support for MC7354 was just added and next the MC7355 hopefully. The MC7304 module shares the same firmware.

beeloo

I only have this Huawei ME909u-521 module at the moment.

As described here, I must be supported:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/ModemManager/SupportedDevices/#index6h1

usb_modeswitch with following configuration:

[2.2.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense]/root: cat 12d1:1573 
DefaultVendor=  0x12d1 
DefaultProduct= 0x1573 

TargetVendor=      0x12d1
TargetProductList= "1001,1406,140b,140c,1412,141b,1433,14ac"

CheckSuccess=20

HuaweiNewMode=1
NeedResponse=0
MessageEndpoint = 0x05 
MessageContent = "55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000"
[2.2.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense]/root:

returns:

[2.2.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense]/root: usb_modeswitch -c 12d1:1573
Look for target devices ...
 No devices in target mode or class found
Look for default devices ...
   product ID matched
 Found devices in default mode (1)
Access device 002 on bus 001
Current configuration number is 1
Use interface number 0
Error: response endpoint not given or found. Abort

[2.2.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense]/root:

Any idea ?

Thanks in advance

Guest

Your showing me a Linux forum saying it should work. This system is based on FreeBSD and compatibility depends on the underlying components. You need to check out here for supported devices.

http://www.leidinger.net/FreeBSD/dox/dev_usb/html/d2/d62/u3g_8c_source.html

Also Mini-PCIe modules have no need for usb-modeswitch. That is ONLY for ejecting the Mass Storage device presented by some USB Modems. Not internal modems.

Have you tried it with Ubuntu or something that supports it.

My modem fallback is OpenWRT. They support it all and keep it fresh.