The RavPower RP-WD03 is a fantastic little device incorporating a Wireless AP, File server, SD, USB charger and even has an ethernet port! But for me it could be so much more, to unlock its full potential we look to OpenWrt. OpenWrt is an open-source firmware designed for just about any router that will accept it and there are ofton different methods for installing OpenWrt to routers, some can be very invasive but this video is about the TFTP method which is very easy to do.

TFTP stands for Trivial File Transfer Protocol, and sending our firmware file to this little router shall be trivial, by default our router has an inbuilt repair system, no matter what happens (within reason) if you boot the router and hold the reset pin it will always look for a TFTP server and then download a file called “kernel” if it finds this file it will always install it over its system.

This safety feature is designed to be used with the stock firmware to repair it if has become corrupted or any other fault but we use this to our advantage! Instead of the “kernel” file being stock we use the OpenWrt firmware image and rename it, when the RavPower boots it downloads and installs the firmware like its own! Viola a perfect running OpenWrt router!

The disadvantage to OpenWrt on the RavPower RP-WD03 is the memory onboard, with the firmware installed we are left with very little space for any extra software. However, we can overcome this quite easily with an SD card. With an SD installed we can mount it and use it as our main flash, we are planning to make a video in the future on how to do this so make sure you subscribe and leave us a comment if you’re interested!