Anyone have experience with this USB dongle? Seems like an easy way to add HaLow to devices but I can’t find very much online for how to run it on a Raspberry Pi.
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There are a number of posts on this forum for how to run the morse driver on the RPI, but you will have to compile the kernel module yourself (and likely the mac80211 module) as well as supporting software. These are often talking about SDIO, but USB is basically the same except no device tree modifications (i.e. easier).
The simplest way would be to build the ekh-bcm2711 board for morse_openwrt, then grab the rpi-4-mmeval image it will generate.
See https://www.morsemicro.com/resources/appnotes/MM_APPNOTE-24_Linux_Porting_Guide.pdf for generic info.
I did a ‘crude as possible’ example of bring-up on Ubuntu 22 for an internal workshop recently: GitHub - wryun/morse-ubuntu-walkthrough: Example of bringing up 1.16 morse driver on Ubuntu · GitHub (this is not really intended to be used independently, but might be useful)
Also, Gateworks has done some useful changes for recent kernels/mac80211:
(we will release a new version of the driver shortly, and we’ll update our kernel with similar changes)
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Oh wow thanks I didn’t realize we could use the same driver guides. I’ll first work on getting my hands on one of the usb cards.
Yes, sorry, what I should have led with is that it’s the same driver code you want. Just make sure it’s compiled with USB support.
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i ordered some of these recently. Im interested in your progress. Working on a similar project.
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I’ll keep you updated. I’ve made contact with their sales team and will be ordering a few soon. I really like the usb fork factor.
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A response I received from Vantron. Is this correct or am I safe purchasing? @james.haggerty
The Morse Micro 8108 chip does not currently support mesh networking. Although this function is expected to be available, it has not yet been enabled for use. The MM6108, however, already supports mesh networking.
As of the current published driver version, it’s not officially supported (you can configure both 11s Mesh and EasyMesh, but we don’t guarantee anything). I can’t offer dates, but I would expect a new driver version soon which should improve the situation.
Got it thanks. Still going to order some.
What would it take to enable mesh networking?
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mine should arrive tomorrow! Hyped.
Follow the Mesh Application notes as per MM6108, the caution around “it’s not officially supported” is just that we haven’t 100% validated the mesh capabilities and therefore can’t make any guarantees.
It is still configurable, and people are actively using it!
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Thank you, I appreciate it
Got them working with 802.11s mesh and WPA3. Will post a writeup tomorrow…or the day after.
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That’s Awesome ! I ran into shipping problems, still gonna be a little while before mine arrive 
Congrats on your progress!
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Didn’t forget about this but have been busy. Get your cards yet? The included guide is helpful but I found I didn’t need any of the software files they provided. Using the official files from the MM GitHub repository worked great.
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That’s great news ! I had an issue with shipping and am still waiting unfortunately. Hopefully within a week it will arrive. What OS setup are you running ? I’ll probably do some initial testing with OpenWRT, while also working on a custom BuildROOT OS specifically focused around the MM8108 chipset
I did Bookworm RaspberryPi OS install then swapped out the kernel and modules with the custom compiled ones. Then compiled and installed the latest version of the userspace tools following my other guide to finish things off. Ultimately the setup was very similar to the seeed studio hat other than I this time complied the kernel using the Morse Micro rpi-linux repo instead of patching the mainline linux kernel myself. I’ll attach some read ahead for you. This is the guide from Vantron that I really only needed for the steps where we compile the driver in to the kernel using the menuconfig. That process was new for me as diving down in to the kernel is not my expertise.
I did make a custom modprobe file that I will share when I’m back on my board and can grab. Forgot to back that up to my laptop.
VT-USB-AH-8108 Wi-Fi HaLow USB Dongle Quick Start Guide-V1.2.pdf (796.2 KB)
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Awesome ! Thank you so much , this is very helpful 
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New USB?? I reached out to vendor to ask about differences. Looking at the product descriptions this new standalone model makes it seem like no further operating system changes are required? Does that mean no longer needing to patch kernel or am I over simplifying?
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