TP-LINK Archer A6 v2 (US, TW)

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multiple revisions of this device, use caution
abgn+ac (AC1200)
AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Router
Homepage Product page
Wikipedia TP-Link
WikiDevi.wi-cat.ru TP-LINK Archer A6 v2.x
3rd Party Firmware
dd-wrt Status Unknown
OpenWrt Supported
Tomato any flavor Incompatible
Gargoyle Status Unknown
Platform
Brand • Model • Rev TP-LINK Archer A6 v2 (US, TW)
FCC ID TE7A6
IC ID 8853A-A6
Type wireless router
Series Archer A6
CPU1 checkY Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
CPU1 Type MIPS 74Kc
CPU1 Speed 750 MHz
Flash1 Chip Brand? Model?
Flash1 Size 16 MiB 16,777,216 B <br />131,072 Kib <br />16,384 KiB <br />128 Mib <br />0.0156 GiB <br />
RAM1 Size 128 MiB 134,217,728 B <br />1,048,576 Kib <br />131,072 KiB <br />1,024 Mib <br />0.125 GiB <br />
RAM1 Chip Brand? Model?
ETH chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
Switch Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337
Ethernet Port Count 1-1GbE-WAN
4-1GbE-LAN
Wired Standard IEEE 802.3i/3u/3ab

802dot11 OUI: none specified

Stock bootloader U-Boot
Expansion IF types none specified
Power 12 VDC, 1 A
Serial Port (UART) yes, 3.3V TTL, (115200 8N1)

Flags:
Wave2, MU-MIMO

Other

Default SSID: TP-Link_XXXX (40 addl. devices)
, TP-Link_XXXX_5G (30 addl. devices)
Default IP address: 192.168.0.1
the IP 192.168.0.1 is used by 825 additional devices
of which 110 are TP-LINK devices

3rd Party Firmware Support OpenWrt • (List | Dev | DLs)
Retail
Availability End of Life
FCC approval date 04 December 2018
(Est.) release date 21 March 2019
(Est.) initial retail price (in USD): $50
ASIN B07N1L5HX1
Country of manuf China
Radio 1
Chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
Wireless interface OUI none specified
Antenna Connector Type none specified
MIMO status 2x2:2
Wireless Standard IEEE 802.11b/g/n
802.11n up to 300 Mbps
802.11g up to 54 Mbps
802.11b up to 11 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency 2.4 GHz
Radio 2
Chip1 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9886
Wireless interface OUI none specified
Antenna Connector Type none specified
MIMO status 2x2:2
Wireless Standard IEEE 802.11a/n/ac
802.11ac up to 867 Mbps
802.11n up to 300 Mbps
802.11a up to 54 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency 5 GHz
 FCC ID
TP-LINK Archer C6 v2.x (EU, RU)TE7A6
TP-LINK Archer C6 v2.x (US)TE7A6
 CPU1 brandRadio1 chip1 brandRadio2 chip1 brand
TP-LINK Archer A6 v2 (EU, RU)Qualcomm AtherosQualcomm AtherosQualcomm Atheros
TP-LINK Archer A6 v2 (US, TW)Qualcomm AtherosQualcomm AtherosQualcomm Atheros
TP-LINK Archer A6 v3.0MediaTekMediaTekMediaTek

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

For a list of all currently documented TP-LINK devices with specifications, see TP-LINK.

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.),
• 867 Mbps - 2SS 5GHz 802.11ac (80MHz chan.) = AC1200 class

Overview

The TP-LINK Archer C6 v2.x is likely identical. The Firmware Emulator for the A6 still calls itself a C6 in some places. The FCC Radio Test Report documents call the C6 the series model and the A6 the test model.

"1806012A6-2.0 Rev1.0sp2" is silkscreened on the board in the FCC photos.

Flashing

Flashing OpenWrt

Target: ath79
Subtarget: generic
Package architecture: mips_24kc
Supported Since Commit
Support started version: 21.02.0
Current supported version: 25.12.1
LAN Hardware: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337N
WLAN Hardware: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563, Qualcomm Atheros QCA9886
WLAN Comment: 2.4Ghz 2x2:2 MIMO, 5Ghz 2x2:2 MIMO
Installation method(s):
GUI OEM, U-Boot TFTP recovery, see git-commit
Install Comment:
Be aware installing snapshot requires SSH access
Recovery method(s):
TP-Link TFTP, see forum, see git-commit
Comment:
The A6 v2 and C6 v2 are identical, except for the name. Anything that works for the C6 v2 will also work for the A6 v2, which is why the "device page" link leads to the C6 v2 page. See it for more info.
git • >> 
ath79: add support for TP-Link Archer C6 v2 (US) and A6 (US/TW)
This patch is based on #1689 and adds support for TP-Link Archer
C6 v2 (US) and A6 (US/TW).

The hardware is the same as EU and RU variant, except for GPIOs
(LEDS/Buttons), flash(chip/partitions) and UART being available
on the board.

- SOC: Qualcomm QCA9563 @ 775MHz
- Flash: GigaDevice GD25Q127CS1G (16MiB)
- RAM: Zentel A3R1GE40JBF (128 MiB DDR2)
- Ethernet: Qualcomm QCA8337N: 4x 1Gbps LAN + 1x 1Gbps WAN
- Wireless:
  - 2.4GHz (bgn) QCA9563 integrated (3x3)
  - 5GHz (ac) Qualcomm QCA9886 (2x2)
- Button: 1x power, 1x reset, 1x wps
- LED: 6x LEDs: power, wlan2g, wlan5g, lan, wan, wps
- UART: 115200, 8n1 (header available on board)

Known issues:
 - Wireless: 5GHz is known to have lower RSSI signal, it affects speed and range.

Flash instructions:

Upload openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c6-v2-us-squashfs-factory.bin
via the router Web interface.

Flash instruction using tftp recovery:

1. Connect the computer to one of the LAN ports of the router
2. Set the computer IP to 192.168.0.66
3. Start a tftp server with the OpenWrt factory image in the
   tftp root directory renamed to ArcherA6v2_tp_recovery.bin.
4. Connect power cable to router, press and hold the
   reset button and turn the router on
5. Keep the reset button pressed until the WPS LED lights up
6. Wait ~150 seconds to complete flashing

Flash partitioning: I've followed #1689 for defining the partition layout
for this patch. The partition named as "tplink" @ 0xfd0000 is marked
as read only as it is where some config for stock firmware are stored.
On stock firmware those stock partitions starts at 0xfd9400 however
I had not been able to make it functional starting on the same address as
on stock fw, so it has been partitioned following #1689 and not the stock
partition layout for this specific partition. Due to that firmware/rootfs
partition lenght is 0xf80000 and not 0xf89400 as stock.

According to the GPL code, the EU/RU/JP variant does have different GPIO pins
assignment to LEDs and buttons, also the flash memory layout is different.

GPL Source Code: https://static.tp-link.com/resources/gpl/gpl-A6v2_us.tar.gz
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