Dell SonicPoint ACe (APL26-0AE)

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abgn+ac (AC1750)
Dual Band 802.11ac Wireless Access Point
Wikipedia Dell
3rd Party Firmware
dd-wrt Status Unknown
OpenWrt Supported
Tomato any flavor Incompatible
Gargoyle Status Unknown
Platform
BrandModelRev Dell SonicPoint ACe
Model Part Number APL26-0AE
FCC ID (fcc.io) none specified
FCC ID (fcc.report) none specified
Type access point
CPU1 checkY Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550
CPU1 Type MIPS 74Kc
CPU1 Speed 720 MHz
Flash1 Chip Brand? Model?
Flash1 Size 32 MiB 33,554,432 B <br />262,144 Kib <br />32,768 KiB <br />256 Mib <br />0.0313 GiB <br /> (SPI NOR)
RAM1 Size 256 MiB 268,435,456 B <br />2,097,152 Kib <br />262,144 KiB <br />2,048 Mib <br />0.25 GiB <br /> (DDR2)
RAM1 Chip Brand? Model?
ETH chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550
Switch Qualcomm Atheros QCA8334
Ethernet Port Count 2-1GbE-LAN
Wired Standard IEEE 802.3i/3u/3ab

802dot11 OUI: none specified

Stock bootloader U-Boot
Expansion IF types USB 2.0
USB ports 1
USB Hub Compatible Untested
PoE 802.3at, standard
Power 100-200 VAC ~ ? Hz, 0.8 A
Connector type AC (direct)
Serial Port (UART) yes, 3.3V TTL, (115200 8N1)
Other
3rd Party Firmware Support OpenWrt • (List | Dev | DLs)
Retail
Availability End of Life
End of Life date 2022
Radio 1
Chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550
Wireless interface OUI none specified
Antenna Connector Type none specified
MIMO status 3x3:3
Wireless Standard IEEE 802.11b/g/n
802.11n up to 450 Mbps
802.11g up to 54 Mbps
802.11b up to 11 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency 2.4 GHz
Radio 2
Chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9890
Wireless interface OUI none specified
Antenna Connector Type none specified
MIMO status 3x3:3
Wireless Standard IEEE 802.11a/n/ac
802.11ac up to 1300 Mbps
802.11n up to 450 Mbps
802.11a up to 54 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency 5 GHz

For a list of all currently documented Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) chipsets with specifications, see Qualcomm Atheros.

For a list of all currently documented Dell devices with specifications, see Dell.

450 Mbps - 3SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.),
1300 Mbps - 3SS 5GHz 802.11ac (80MHz chan.) = AC1750 class

Flashing

Flashing OpenWrt

Target: ath79
Subtarget: generic
Package architecture: mips_24kc
Supported Since Commit
Support started version: 24.10.0
Current supported version: 24.10.3
LAN Hardware: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8334
LAN Comment: PoE input on LAN1
WLAN Hardware: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9550, Qualcomm Atheros QCA9890
WLAN Comment: 2.4Ghz 3x3 MIMO, 5Ghz 3x3 MIMO
Installation method(s):
see git-commit
Recovery method(s):
see git-commit
git • >>
ath79: add support for Dell SonicPoint ACe APL26-0AE
Dell/SonicWall APL26-0AE (marketed as SonicPoint ACe) is a dual band
wireless access point. End of life as of 2022-07-31.

Specification
SoC: QualcommAtheros QCA9550
RAM: 256 MB DDR2
Flash: 32 MB SPI NOR
WIFI: 2.4 GHz 3T3R integrated
      5 GHz 3T3R QCA9890 oversized Mini PCIe card
Ethernet: 2x 10/100/1000 Mbps QCA8334
          port labeled lan1 is PoE capable (802.3at)
USB: 1x 2.0
LEDs: LEDs: 6x which 5 are GPIO controlled and two of them are dual color
Buttons: 2x GPIO controlled
Serial: RJ-45 port, SonicWall pinout
        baud: 115200, parity: none, flow control: none

Before flashing, be sure to have a copy of factory firmware, in case You
wish to revert to original firmware.
All described procedures were done in following environment:
ROM Version: SonicROM (U-Boot) 8.0.0.0-11o
SafeMode Firmware Version: SonicOS 8.0.0.0-14o
Firmware Version: SonicOS 9.0.1.0
In case of other versions, following installation instructions might be
ineffective.

Installation
1. Prepare TFTP server with OpenWrt sysupgrade image and rename that
   image to "sp_fw.bin".
2. Connect to one of LAN ports.
3. Connect to serial port.
4. Hold the reset button (small through hole on side of the unit),
   power on the device and when prompted to stop autoboot, hit any key.
   The held button can now be released.
5. Alter U-Boot environment with following commands:
    setenv bootcmd bootm 0x9F110000
    saveenv
6. Adjust "ipaddr" (access point, default is 192.168.1.1) and "serverip"
   (TFTP server, default is 192.168.1.10) addresses in U-Boot
   environment, then run following commands:
    tftp 0x80060000 sp_fw.bin
    erase 0x9F110000 +0x1EF0000
    cp.b 0x80060000 0x9F110000 $filesize
7. After successful flashing, execute:
    boot
8. The access point will boot to OpenWrt. Wait few minutes, until the
    wrench LED will stop blinking, then it's ready for configuration.

Known issues
Initramfs image can't be bigger than specified kernel size, otherwise
bootloader will throw LZMA decompressing error. Switching to lzma-loader
should workaround that.
This device has Winbond 25Q256FVFG and doesn't have reliable reset, which
causes hang on reboot, thus broken-flash-reset needs to be added. This
property addition causes dispaly of "scary" warning on each boot, take
this warnig into consideration.