What you get
| BPI-R4 (Banana Pi specification) | |
|---|---|
| SoC | MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880), 4x Cortex-A73 @ 1.8 GHz |
| RAM / storage | 4 GB or 8 GB DDR4, 8 GB eMMC, 128 MB SPI-NAND, microSD |
| Network | 2x 10G SFP (or 1x 10G SFP + 1x 2.5GbE with a hardware modification), 4x gigabit Ethernet |
| Wi-Fi | none onboard: 2x miniPCIe (PCIe 3.0, 2 lanes) for Wi-Fi 7 cards |
| Expansion | M.2 Key B (USB 3.2 / PCIe 3.0) for 4G/5G, M.2 Key M (PCIe 3.0 x1) for NVMe, 1x USB 3.2, 26-pin GPIO, RTC battery connector |
| Power | 12 V / 5.2 A or 19 V / 3.2 A |
Banana Pi sells variants: -4G/-8G (standard), -4E/-8E (PoE-capable, module not fitted) and -4P/-8P (PoE module fitted).
Pitfalls
- Wi-Fi is an add-on. The board alone is a wired router. For wireless, budget for a Wi-Fi 7 card in the miniPCIe slots.
- Power for the Wi-Fi card: OpenWrt's page states the optional BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 module needs a 19 V / 3.2 A supply and switch SW4 set to ON before installation. A 12 V supply that runs the bare board isn't enough.
- 8 GB boards running at 4 GB: OpenWrt's page states the 4 GB image boots on 8 GB boards but limits RAM to 4 GB unless a compatible BL2 bootloader is used. Check the firmware selector for an 8 GB-aware build.
- Wi-Fi range: OpenWrt's page lists weak points of the Wi-Fi module (lack of shielding, no integrated power amplifiers) and, on some modules, zeroed tx_power values in EEPROM with an overlay workaround in newer releases.
- PoE: OpenWrt's page states the present version does not support the PoE function, even though PoE hardware variants are sold. Don't plan a PoE-powered install without checking the current status.
- SFP+ modules: not every module works; some need extra kernel PHY modules.
Installing OpenWrt
OpenWrt lists 24.10.0 and later as supported stable releases. Boot device selection uses switch SW3 (per OpenWrt's page: A=0 B=1 SPI-NAND, A=1 B=0 eMMC, A=1 B=1 microSD). The simplest route is writing the factory image to a microSD card; installing to NAND or eMMC goes through the bootloader menu and needs a serial console.