TP-LINK has launched a weak electric box, professionally named a modular information box, model TL-EN4030. As the model suggests, its dimensions are 40x30cm, with a depth of 12cm. This is an empty box designed to be modular, allowing you to purchase different horizontal blocks based on your needs, or you can hide your savings inside. The price for this empty box is 160 yuan. The metal casing of this weak electric box is relatively thick, heavy, and has a good texture.
Here is the empty box:
This is the cover:
The appearance with the cover installed:
Inside the weak electric box, there are two separated spaces on the left side, which can accommodate two optical modems without any issues, while the right side is for installing modules.
The two spaces on the left and right can freely pass through wires:
Four cable management slots:
The power supply is also modular, with the model TL-P125-EN, just launched, priced at 335 yuan, with a power of 125W, which I think is a bit expensive.
Currently, there is only one routing module for sale, model TL-R4010GPE-EN, priced at 330 yuan. This is an AC controller, PoE power supply, and all-in-one router. The model looks familiar; I have previously disassembled a white R4010GP, and I estimate the hardware configuration is the same.
Let’s first look at this modular power supply, P125-EN. The number after P represents the output power, and I estimate there will be larger power models available.
The color of the power supply matches that of the weak electric box and appears to be made of plastic material, which it actually is. There is a power switch on the right:
There is no power input line in the accessories, which means you directly pull three wires from the strong electric box to the weak electric box for power supply. You can open the wiring cover by unscrewing the screws on the right side of the image below.
On the left, there are three DC power output ports; the top two are 53.5V outputs with a maximum current of 2A, and the lower one is a black DC plug, 12V, with a maximum current of 1.5A, suitable for optical modems.
To prevent you from plugging in the wrong cable, the white and black DC plugs are of different sizes: the white one is 4.0/1.7mm, and the black one is 5.5/2.1mm.
Next to the wiring cover, there is a two-pin power socket, which you can use as a socket. When the module’s output does not meet your needs, you can let other power sources draw 220V directly from here. I think this two-pin power socket is very necessary; otherwise, you would have to pull another power strip in, which is inconvenient.
Open the wiring cover: (A reminder, non-professional electricians please do not disassemble)
I directly found a 1.5-square power line, cut it off, and connected it according to the live wire, neutral wire, and ground wire. The outer diameter of the wire is relatively large, so I only secured the three wires:
Once again, a reminder! If you don’t understand, don’t connect the wires randomly; there is a significant danger.
Now let’s disassemble this all-in-one machine: R4010GPE-EN
It also has a white plastic body:
It has a total of 10 Gigabit ports, supports dual WAN, and the other 8 LAN ports support PoE power supply.
Label content:
Model: TL-R4010GPE-EN
This model also has an easy expansion button, which means it can form a mesh network with the easy expansion router:
The shell has no screws and can be pried open directly:
The visible side is facing the front panel, with a rectangular heat sink:
After disassembling the mainboard, the plastic bottom shell has two thermal silicone pads that contact the heat sink to transfer heat to the shell:
On one side of the mainboard, you can see the network ports, so I define this as the front of the mainboard:
Back of the mainboard:
Remove this rectangular heat sink:
This side has no chips; I wonder if this IC is used for controlling the LED indicator:
The heat sink has three fixed legs, secured with solder:
After a simple operation with a manual solder sucker, pry open the heat sink. The term ‘pry open’ indicates that a sticky thermal grease is used between the heat sink and the chip.
Let’s first look at the CPU.
The CPU model of R4010GPE-EN is MT7621DAT, dual-core 880MHz, integrated with 128MB memory, and five Gigabit ports.
The Gigabit switch chip model is RTL8367S, with a total of 5 PHYs, meaning there are 5 Gigabit ports. The 7 represents 7 MACs; the ports use 5 MACs, and there are two remaining MACs, one is 1G RGMII, and the other is 2.5G bandwidth HSGMII.
However, this CPU only has RGMII, so there will be a 1G bottleneck between the 5 ports connected to RTL8367S and the 5 ports connected to the CPU.
R4010GP also has this configuration; I have previously tested it, and it is indeed the case. I will not test this one again; I will use the images from R4010GP, and the port method will be similar to R4010GPE-EN.
Connect multiple devices that require high bandwidth on one side. If you do not have this application scenario, you do not need to worry about this issue.
For details, see the disassembly of R4010GP: TL-R4010GP-AC disassembly, with some function settings explained.
The flash memory model is XM25QH256C, with a capacity of 32MB:
IP808AR is responsible for controlling the PoE power supply for 8 ports. “IEEE 802.3AF-2003 and 802.3AT-2009 compliant Single DC power supply voltage input (45~57V)”
Disassembly is complete.
Summary of all chip models for R4010GPE-EN:
Put the power module and this all-in-one module into this weak electric box. Oh, and fit a Huawei HS8145x6 in there too. This is roughly how it looks!
There is also a space to place a soft router, but the power supply will require an additional power adapter, so if that power module could provide an additional DC 12V/3A output, that would be perfect.
By the way, take a look at the network cable connectors.
Check if the crystal connectors in your weak electric box are connected like this:
Check if the panel modules are connected like this:
If so, buy tools to redo it yourself.
Especially for those who clearly check that all 8 cores are connected but can only achieve 100Mbps, please redo it. Make the stripped part as short as possible. If the wires are all straightened out, how can they resist interference?
Back to the weak electric box, if you do not use TP-LINK modular products, buying this weak electric box seems to have little significance, although the material is quite good, made of 1.2mm thick cold-rolled steel.
If you want to use it, at least buy a power module and a switch module. The seller on Xianyu said that the switch module has not started selling yet.
This article is complete. As always, choose according to your needs.