Powerful, Intuitive, Open Source Mesh Wi-Fi!

Maxwell is powerful, secure, open-source mesh Wi-Fi made easy! Each node is a serious router with multiple high-gain antennas, up to three simultaneous MIMO Wi-Fi bands, and support for gigabit Ethernet backhaul. We even offer a weatherized node that’s perfect for outdoor use. Maxwell is not just powerful and reliable, though. It’s also perhaps the easiest mesh Wi-Fi system to set up: just place the nodes around your house, plug them in, power them on, and use an Ethernet cable to connect one of them to your broadband modem.

Flexible & Secure

Open-source means you’re in control. You can ssh into any router node, see what’s going on with the config files, and run scripts. You can even modify and build your own firmware. And since it’s based on OpenWRT—the world’s leading open-source router software—you can take advantage of thousands of additional packages that let you extend the functionality of your Maxwell nodes. From VPNs to QoS to parental controls, the OpenWRT community has you covered.

Open-source also means security. With support for WPA3 encryption and the ability to ensure that your system is patched against the latest vulnerabilities, Maxwell helps you stay ahead in the cat-and-mouse game between those who write malware and those who push updates for router firmware. Plus there’s no phone app and no need to hand your mesh keys over to a third-party (we’re looking at you Amazon and Google). When it comes to privacy and security, less is sometimes more.

All the Details at Your Fingertips

Maxwell scripts on each node gather information and feed it to a dashboard where you can monitor what’s going on with your mesh—either at a glance, using the super-cool graphical network map, or by digging into the details. What nodes are working? Are they connected to the Internet? What’s connected to what, on which Wi-Fi channels, and how strong is the signal? What’s the bandwidth between all of the nodes? What are the upload and download speeds, to and from the Internet, on each node? What’s the preferred routing path between each pair of nodes?

This ease-of-use extends to configuration as well. At the push of a button, you can easily set new SSIDs, replace your WPA keys, update your firmware, etc. And when you modify settings like this, your changes will propagate to the entire mesh!

Features & Specifications

• Ease of Use: Automated mesh setup & dynamic route optimization
• Bandwidth: 50-400 Mb/s (typical, real-world bandwidth) depending on the
  setup topology and client location relative to the hub
• Scalability: Support for up to 17 mesh router nodes and 230 simultaneous clients
• Coverage: Up to 30,000 square feet, plus support for wired Gb
  Ethernet backhaul and Ethernet-connected client end-points
• Flexibility: Deploy a mix of dual-band and tri-band nodes depending on
  where you need more bandwidth, add guest networks easily, and take advantage
  of USB ports to accommodate on-network storage
• Security: Latest WPA2 (client) and WPA3-SAE (mesh) encryption, with seamless
  hand-off via 802.11r when moving clients between mesh nodes
• Dual-band nodes: AC 1300-2100 Mb/s class MU-MIMO router
  • Dual 800 MHz+ CPU
  • 128+ MB RAM & Flash
  • 2+ Gb Ethernet ports
  • 6+ antennas
• Tri-band nodes: AC 2200-3000 Mb/s class MU-MIMO router
  • Dedicated 5 GHz backhaul channel
  • Dual 800 MHz+ CPU
  • 128+ MB RAM & Flash
  • 4+ Gb Ethernet ports
  • 8+ external high-gain antennas
• Outdoor station nodes: AC 1200 Mb/s class router
  • PoE connection
  • Weatherproof design
  • 2+ high-power, high-gain antennas

Mesh View

Comparisons

Support & Documentation

The Maxwell source code is on GitHub and our documentation is available here. If you have a question, you can reach out to us using the Ask a technical question link on our campaign page. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Manufacturing Plan

For the time being, Maxwell nodes are off-the-shelf commercial routers that I have purchased and onto which I will load our customized Maxwell firmware. This process will cover all initial campaign orders. Moving forward, I’m working on a version of Maxwell that is optimized for two open source router boards: the Banana Pi R64 and the WF-HR1901 IPQ4019-based router board, both of which should provide great tri-band performance at reduced cost and with improved availability.

Fulfillment & Logistics

We will send all crowdfunded Maxwell nodes in one bulk shipment to Mouser Electronics, Crowd Supply’s fulfillment partner. They, in turn, will ship each order to its new home. You can learn more about Crowd Supply’s shipping process in the Crowd Supply Guide. And remember to keep your shipping address updated in your Crowd Supply account!

Risks & Challenges

The Maxwell mesh system has been tested quite extensively over the past several months—in my home and in the homes of my beta testers. I am therefore confident that the system is stable and that it will work. As with all software and firmware, however, there are bugs. As Maxwell is deployed to hundreds or thousands of locations, we will undoubtedly discover circumstances in which it reacts poorly to some new configuration or use case. Fortunately, both our software and our firmware are easily updated, and I will do my best to roll out fixes as bug reports come in. And of course, the beauty of open source is that you yourself can contribute to the Maxwell community by submitting those bug reports—or even by pushing code that addresses them!