Think clearly before using OpenWrt on Xiaomi routers. Mijia’s features will not be restored.

The Redmi AX6S at home has been gathering dust for half a year, and I have always wanted to install the OpenWrt plug-in to play with it. The tutorials have all been read, and before I refreshed the app, I accidentally opened the Mijia App and took a look - the router was lying in the device list, and the status of about 40 Mijia devices were listed at the bottom. I suddenly realized a problem: After brushing OpenWrt, what is left on this page? Online tutorials all teach you how to swipe it, and no one tells you what will be lost on the Mijia side after swiping it. I spent a whole night going through this matter one by one, and I will leave the conclusion here.: The Internet is still online, but the presence of the router in the Mijia system is basically cleared. There are whole-house smart devices, and this article is a must-read before taking action.

Let’s talk about the conclusion first: It’s not the Internet that’s lost, it’s the Mi family’s “handy」

OpenWrt is flashed in, and the router essentially changes its operating system. WiFi works, DHCP works, and the Internet works as usual. This part is true. What is missing is the entire layer of Mijia services running on Xiaomi’s official firmware.: Mijia App’s binding relationship, device status, and those “convenient” linkages are all invalid. I counted them item by item, and the impact was greater than I expected.

Before I flashed my AX6S, what could I do in the Mijia App?: Check the online status of forty devices at home, set a separate speed limit for the sweeper, and share management permissions on my mother’s mobile phone. When I get home, my mobile phone connects to WiFi and the entrance light comes on. After the refresh, these entrances returned to before liberation overnight - it was not that they were broken, but that the services were no longer in the new system at all.

Pay attention to the Bluetooth gateway. Half of the models cannot be used as Bluetooth gateways. I have written about this before. Turn to the backstage article in 31.1 Checked the model number. If your home expects the router to serve as a gateway for Bluetooth thermometers and Bluetooth door sensors, confirm this before flashing the phone.: Does this function originally exist? If it is there, it will be gone after flashing, and the Bluetooth devices will collectively lose contact.

That "device is offline" in Mijia App, don't follow the tutorial to reset it

That night after flashing, the router in the Mijia App turned gray, and when I clicked on it, it prompted that the device was offline. If someone else is in charge of the router in your home - my mother shares the permissions on her phone - when she sees this prompt, she will most likely unplug it and restart it. Restarting is useless, and following the tutorial to restore the factory settings is even more useless. OpenWrt ignores this at all.

The correct approach is to do the opposite: In the Mijia App, install this router Actively unbind and delete , out of sight, out of mind. Don’t leave that gray icon around, as others in your family will be misled by it over and over again. Unbinding does not affect any Mijia device itself. The sweeper and camera are all there as they should be. They are just no longer managed through the "administrator" of the router and return to their own WiFi mode.

It's another thing if the device itself is offline, and the WiFi layer needs to be checked. I recorded the number of troubleshooting methods for collective disconnection of Mijia devices. Mijia App offline article , don’t rush to move the equipment yet. There is a special point in the flashing scenario: In the default WiFi configuration of OpenWrt, you can set the SSID names of 2.4G and 5G yourself. If they are different from the original ones, the entire device will have to be reconfigured - this is the bulk of the next section.

If the WiFi name is not changed, forty devices can save one full reconfiguration.

When flashing OpenWrt, the tutorial usually allows you to enter the LuCI backend and configure WiFi from scratch. Here’s a life-saving habit: The SSID and password are copied from the original Xiaomi firmware. . Just use the original name, the original password, and the encryption method you used in the WPA2/WPA3 mix. Forty Mijia devices didn't even notice that the router had changed its heart, and they automatically reconnected without reconfiguring any of them.

I didn't understand the first one when I flashed it, so I randomly came up with a new name. I stayed with the equipment at home to re-configure the network until 11 o'clock that night.: The sweeper needs to press and hold to enter the network distribution mode, the camera needs to scan the code, and the door sensor needs to remove the battery. Channel 2 followed suit and copied the original name and called it a day. The supporting pitfalls are channel and bandwidth: Among the forty 2.4G devices, there are a few old sensors that cannot recognize all channels. The default Xiaomi firmware is the most stable. Don’t just follow the tutorial and turn on the 160MHz bandwidth - I have experienced problems with 2.4G narrowband devices not being able to connect.

By the way, Chang Kuai Lian. I have written about the mechanism in Xiaomi’s official firmware that prevents the device from going offline after changing the password. Enjoy the article I talked about its principle and the by-product of invisible WiFi. OpenWrt doesn't have this thing. In the future, changing the password will be a hard change, and all devices will be reconfigured faithfully - so you have to think clearly about the password before changing it. The cost of changing the password once and having everyone start over is higher than in the official firmware era.

The router function is lost, how can OpenWrt fix it?

Not all is lost. Many functions of OpenWrt have been replaced. They just changed places and names. To limit the speed of a certain device, the official firmware needs to be clicked twice in the 31.1 background or Mijia App. OpenWrt must enter "Network-QoS" or install SQM, and the configuration idea has also changed.: Instead of dragging a slider directly by device, you can limit it by IP. The premise is to first fix the IP for the device. The Xiaomi background binding fixed IP I wrote before corresponds to static DHCP in OpenWrt. The idea is the same, but the interface is completely different.

Check the list of devices on LuCI.com, and you will find it on the LuCI homepage. It has more complete information than the 31.1 backend, with MAC, signal, and connection duration all on one screen. For new device launch notifications, install luci-app-notify or write a simple script to push it to the phone. The playability is better than the official firmware. 31.1 The 7 things behind the scenes OpenWrt can do most of the things that the Mijia App I have tried can't do - the price is that you have to do everything yourself.

So my judgment is: Brushing OpenWrt is suitable for two types of people. One type is that there are not many Mijia devices at home, just three or five, and the Mijia role of the router is dispensable. If you throw it away, just throw it away in exchange for the freedom of plug-ins. The other type is a hard-core enthusiast who is willing to spend a night re-establishing speed limits and device management in the new system. The most uncomfortable thing is being caught in the middle: There are dozens of devices that want both linkage and plug-ins, but neither end is available.

For those who really want the best of both worlds, here is my compromise.

In the end, I didn’t upgrade the main computer. I installed the dusty AX6S and used it as a bypass router. The main router is still Xiaomi’s official firmware, and all the Mijia stalls are retained. ； After the AX6S is installed, OpenWrt is hung next to it, and it is specially used for advertising and scientific Internet plug-ins. The whole house's traffic passes through it. In this way, there will be no delay on both sides of the network.: The router in the Mijia App is still the main router, and the binding, speed limit, and linkage remain unchanged. ； Install as many plug-ins as you want. If it fails, you can just unplug the network cable and the FamilyMart network will be restored immediately, leaving the main router unscathed.

The cost of this solution is the electricity bill of an additional machine and a LAN port, which costs dozens of dollars a year. Compared with swiping the main phone, what I save is the risk of "swiping the whole family and disconnecting the Internet" and the cost of "losing all Mijia functions", I think it is worth it. How to connect the bypass router and what to pay attention to. I wrote an example of using Padavan as a bypass router on my mother’s Xiaomi router 3. That article There are wiring diagrams and pitfalls that have been stepped on, so just follow them.

There are so many devices at home that the router can’t handle them. Another way is to add a Mijia central gateway to share the load. I’m still worried about the local linkage even if the external network is disconnected. The central gateway article Tested in practice. But the hub cannot save the scenario of "flashing the router itself" - what it saves is that the device can still be linked when the external network is disconnected. Changing the system of the router is two different things, so don't confuse them.

One last checklist before taking action

If you really want to do it, go through it in this order before you start.:

Finally, to be fair, OpenWrt is not bad. My AX6S runs very happily after being flashed, and I can install plug-ins at will. The question is never whether it can be used, but whether you have clearly calculated "what will be lost" before brushing. The tutorial only teaches you to flash the system. You have to take stock of the missing Mijia functions in advance. Think carefully before taking action, and leave a regret medicine like me. If it is destroyed, you will lose a whole night.