Lightning Mesh

built 30–60 min per box verified 503cd17 (2026-09-13)

Choose a router and flash OpenWrt

A Lightning Mesh node is a normal OpenWrt router running one extra daemon, mjolnir-meshd. This page gets you from a boxed router to plain OpenWrt that you can reach over ethernet.

Status: built. This is how every node in the live fleet was made.

What you need

Thing Why
A supported router (below) The daemon is built for aarch64 MediaTek boards
An ethernet cable and a computer First contact is over the router's LAN port
Git LFS The Cudy-signed intermediate images are stored with LFS
A clone of the repo git clone https://github.com/WorldTreeNetwork/lightning-mesh

Supported hardware

The build produces a static aarch64-unknown-linux-musl binary. The radios must use the mt76 driver (MediaTek MT7981 or MT7986). Every node in the live fleet is a Cudy MT7981 box:

Model OpenWrt board id In the fleet
Cudy WR3000S v1 cudy_wr3000s-v1 yes
Cudy M3000 v1/v2 cudy_m3000-v1 / -v2 yes (two)
Cudy TR3000 v1 cudy_tr3000-v1 yes
Cudy AP3000 Outdoor v1 cudy_ap3000outdoor-v1 yes

Also reasonable, per the hardware research (synthesis): Banana Pi BPI-R3 (MT7986) and OpenWrt One (MT7981). Avoid Qualcomm ath11k/ath12k boards for mesh.

One mt76 limitation to know: an 802.11s mesh point and a client access point on the same radio break the mesh join. The installer turns the co-located AP off. The supported fix is a USB Wi-Fi dongle for clients. Only the Ralink RT5370 (148f:5370) is on the supported list.

MikroTik RouterOS containers were tried and retired. Don't use that path.

Step 1: Match the board label

Do: read the model and version from the label on the router itself, not from the box or the listing.

Expect: an exact model and hardware version (for example "AP3000 Outdoor V1.0").

If not: stop. A wrong intermediate image bricks Cudy boxes. Indoor, Outdoor and Wall AP3000s all need different images.

Step 2: Remove Cudy's signature check (Cudy boxes only)

Stock Cudy firmware only accepts signed images.

Do:

  1. Fetch the intermediates: git lfs pull in your clone.

  2. Open the stock Cudy web UI. An indoor AP3000 wants stock firmware 2.4.7 first.

  3. Upload the matching *.bin from `deploy/openwrt/vendor-firmware/`:

    Directory Board
    ap3000-v1/ AP3000 / AP3000 V1.1 (indoor)
    ap3000-outdoor-v1/ AP3000 Outdoor v1

    For any other Cudy model, use the matching zip from Cudy's OpenWrt download page. Never use either of the above on an AP3000 Wall.

Expect: the box reboots into a minimal OpenWrt at 192.168.1.1, handing out DHCP on its LAN ports.

If not: re-check the label against the table. Don't try another image "to see if it works".

Step 3: Install official OpenWrt

Do:

  1. Isolate the box from any house network that already uses 192.168.1.1.
  2. Get the sysupgrade image for your board id from the OpenWrt firmware selector. Use OpenWrt 25.12.5 or newer. Units with the newer F50L1G41LC flash chip (serial-number week 2543 or later) need at least 24.10.5.
  3. Flash it from the minimal web UI, or with sysupgrade.
  4. Set a root password and add your SSH public key.

Expect: ssh root@192.168.1.1 works from your computer.

If not: clear a stale host key with ssh-keygen -R 192.168.1.1, because every fresh OpenWrt box uses the same address. Stock Cudy firmware used 192.168.10.254 for management, in case the flash didn't take.

Step 4: Protect the node identity across future upgrades

The node's mesh identity will live in /etc/mjolnir/. A sysupgrade that doesn't keep it gives the router a new identity.

Do:

ssh root@192.168.1.1 "grep -qx /etc/mjolnir/ /etc/sysupgrade.conf || echo /etc/mjolnir/ >> /etc/sysupgrade.conf"

Expect: /etc/mjolnir/ is listed in /etc/sysupgrade.conf.

Next: Install Lightning Mesh on the router.

Next: Install Lightning Mesh on a router →