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Cudy AP3000 Outdoor v1: OpenWrt flashing guide

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Cudy AP3000 Outdoor v1: OpenWrt flashing guide

Outdoor-rated (weatherproof enclosure) sibling of the Cudy AP3000 v1, same MediaTek MT7981 filogic platform. Same family, different board ID and firmware image — the two are not interchangeable.

Hardware specifications

PropertyValue
SoCMediaTek MT7981 (filogic)
CPU2x ARM Cortex-A53 (aarch64), integrated 2.4GHz + 5GHz radios
WiFi2.4GHz 802.11n (HT20) + 5GHz 802.11ax (HE80)
EnclosureOutdoor-rated, weatherproof
Board IDcudy,ap3000outdoor-v1
Firmware filenamecudy_ap3000outdoor-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
OpenWrt targetmediatek/filogic

Firmware mix-up warning: the similarly-named cudy_ap3000-v1 (indoor) image exists and will be rejected by sysupgrade as the wrong device if you accidentally grab it — always double-check the filename says outdoor before flashing.

Newer units manufactured from November 2025 onward (serial numbers starting 2543 or later) use a different NAND flash chip (F50L1G41LC). Flashing an older intermediate/OpenWrt image onto these can prevent the device from booting — check the OpenWrt forum thread for the current guidance on your unit’s manufacture date before flashing.

Default network (stock Cudy firmware)

  • Web UI / router IP: 192.168.10.254

Steps: flashing OpenWrt

Same two-stage process as the indoor AP3000 — a Cudy-signed transition image first, then the official OpenWrt sysupgrade.

1. Get the Cudy-signed transition image

Check Cudy’s support channel / cudytech.com for the current transition firmware link for this specific model (AP3000 Outdoor, not the indoor AP3000).

2. Flash the transition image via the stock web UI

  1. Log into the stock web UI at 192.168.10.254.
  2. Upload the transition firmware through the normal firmware-update page.
  3. Wait for reboot — device now runs an OpenWrt-based intermediate firmware.

3. Flash the official OpenWrt sysupgrade

Download cudy_ap3000outdoor-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin for the version you want from the OpenWrt downloads page, verify the checksum, then flash via sysupgrade (SSH/CLI) or LuCI.

Known quirk: LuCI wireless status display bug

LuCI’s wireless status page may incorrectly show both radios as “Wireless is disabled” with ? for channel/bitrate. This is a cosmetic bug, not a real outage:

  • Root cause: iwinfo/ubus call iwinfo info reports the hardware as generic mac80211 (unrecognized device-name string for this newer MT7981/mt76 driver) rather than a proper chip name.
  • LuCI’s status JS renders “disabled” whenever it can’t fully identify the hardware this way.
  • Verify actual status with ubus call network.wireless status (up: true, disabled: false) and check hostapd logs for real client associations — no workaround needed, it’s purely a display issue.

Verify

cat /etc/openwrt_release
ubus call network.wireless status

Sources

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