Radxa Wireless Module A8

The Radxa Wireless Module A8 is a standard M.2 2230 form factor wireless module using the Realtek RTL8852BE chip, supporting Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The Radxa Wireless Module A8 is currently available in two versions.

• V1.0

• V2.0

Hardware

Specifications

Features	Description
Name	Radxa Wireless Module A8
Product Description	IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wireless LAN 2T2R and Bluetooth 5.2 Combo Module (M.2 2230)
Chipset	RTL8852BE
Host Interface	Wi-Fi: PCIe BT: USB
Dimension	22mm x 30mm x 2.25mm
Form Factor	M.2 2230 E Key
Antenna	I-PEX MHF4 Connector Receptacle (20449) ANT1(Main): WiFi/Bluetooth  TX/RX ANT2(AUX): WiFi  TX/RX
Operating Temperature	0 to +70°C
Weight	3g

WLAN

• IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wireless LANs
• IEEE 802.11 ac/ax supports 2T2R and is compliant with the Wave 2 technology standard for Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) technology.
• IEEE 802.11 n supports standard MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and is available in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
• Maximum PHY data rates are up to 286.8 Mbps with 20MHz bandwidth, 573.5Mbps with 40MHz bandwidth, and 1201Mbps with 80MHz bandwidth.
• Backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g devices when operating at 802.11n data rates
• Backward compatible with 802.11a/n/ac devices when operating at 802.11ax data rates
• Supports IEEE 802.11i, including WPA, WPA2, WPA3 security protocols, and also supports WAPI security protocols.
• 802.11g has a maximum data rate of 54Mbps, 802.11n has a maximum data rate of 300Mbps, and 802.11ax has a maximum data rate of 1201Mbps.

Bluetooth

• Support Bluetooth V5.2
• Compatible with Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR
• Supports WLAN and Bluetooth coexistence
• Supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mode
• Supports all Bluetooth packet types at Basic Rate (BR) and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)

ID Table

Version	WLAN VID	WLAN PID	Bluetooth VID	Bluetooth PID
V1.0	10EC	B852	0BDA	B85B
V2.0	10EC	B852	13D3	3570

Support List

Version	V1.0	V1.0	V1.0	V2.0	V2.0	V2.0
System	Linux	Android	Windows	Linux	Android	Windows
Radxa X2L	Support	N/A	Support	Supported by kernel > 6.7	N/A	Support
Radxa ROCK 3A	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Debugging	N/A
Radxa ROCK 3B	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Debugging	N/A
Radxa ROCK 5A	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A
Radxa ROCK 5B	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A
Radxa ROCK 5 ITX	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A
Radxa CM3I with Radxa CM3I IO Board	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A
Radxa NX5 with Radxa NX5 IO Board	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A
Radxa CM5 with Radxa CM5 IO Board	Support	Support	N/A	Support	Support	N/A

Block Diagram

Dimensions

Tutorial

Installation

For products that support the A8 module, Radxa has integrated the corresponding driver in the official image. You can directly insert the wireless module into the M.2 E Key connector to use it.

Take the use under the official Debian system of ROCK 5B as an example, the installation is as shown in the figure:

Wi-Fi usage

1. After entering the system, open the terminal

2. Enter the following command to enable Wi-Fi

sudo nmcli r wifi on

tip

When you use the sudo command for the first time, you need to enter the password of the login account.

3. Enter the following command to scan Wi-Fi

sudo nmcli dev wifi

4. Enter the following command to connect to the Wi-Fi network

sudo nmcli dev wifi connect "wifi_name" password "wifi_password"

Among them, wifi_name is the name (SSID) of the Wi-Fi you want to connect to, and wifi_password is the password of the Wi-Fi.

In addition, you can also perform visual operations through the WiFi control provided by the Linux desktop.

Bluetooth usage

1. Test the Bluetooth module and check the Bluetooth device.

sudo systemctl status bluetooth

2. Run the Bluetooth device.

sudo systemctl start bluetooth

3. Detect Bluetooth devices

sudo hciconfig

hci0: Type: Primary Bus: UART
        BD Address: 10:2C:6B:49:D5:53 ACL MTU: 1021:8 SCO MTU: 64:1
        UP RUNNING
        RX bytes:850 acl:0 sco:0 events:58 errors:0
        TX bytes:2814 acl:0 sco:0 commands:58 errors:0

4. Test Bluetooth function

   To connect a Bluetooth speaker:

   First install pulseaudio

   sudo apt-get install -y pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pulseaudio

   Run pulseaudio

   sudo pulseaudio --start

   Connect using pulseaudio

   sudo bluetoothctl
   
   [bluetooth]#default-agent
   [bluetooth]# power on
   [bluetooth]# scan on
   [bluetooth]# trust 41:42:1A:8D:A9:65 #BT-280
   [bluetooth]# pair 41:42:1A:8D:A9:65
   [bluetooth]# connect 41:42:1A:8D:A9:65

Q&A

When using the Radxa OS Bookworm system, there will not be two wlan devices

This is due to wifi driver differences. The rtw89 driver used by Radxa OS Bookworm has better performance with small memory devices, while the 8852be driver used by Radxa OS Bullseye has more features.

The driver can be replaced by the following operation:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential git
git clone https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw8852be.git
cd rtw8852be

echo "EXTRA_CFLAGS += -Wno-error=address" >> Makefile
sed -i "s/CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE = n/CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE = y/g" Makefile

make
sudo make install

echo "alias   pci:v000010ecd0000b852sv*sd*bc*sc*i* 8852be" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/8852be.conf
echo "blacklist       rtw_8852be" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/8852be.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
sudo reboot

For more information see rtw8852be

Unable to turn on 5G hotspot using NetworkManager

Trying to specify a channel