Upgrade RAM and flash memory on the TP-Link WR841N OpenWrt router

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The TP-Link, which is available for around 20 euros, has become the most popular device for OpenWrt in recent years. It is used particularly frequently by Freifunkern: of almost 50,000 Freifunk hotspots in Germany, more than 30,000 run with this router. However, the developers of the alternative router firmware OpenWrt had announced that they would no longer support devices with only 32 MB RAM or only 4 MB Flash such as the WR841N. This also applies to Freifunk, because its firmware is based on OpenWrt. The limitations of the WR841N due to the small RAM were already felt in mid-2019 when many devices are registered in the WLAN. But so far there is no good alternative to the popular router at a similar price.

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Fortunately, RAM and Flash chips can be swapped out with a little skill and good tools. Upgrading to 64 Mbytes of RAM and 8 or 16 Mbytes of flash memory costs around one euro, takes around 20 minutes for experienced solderers and gives the WR841N even more years of life. We will show you step by step how to donate organs with the younger versions 8, 9, 10 and 11. The author publishes additions in his GitHub repository.

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