Howto add serial port to WL-500gx/gp

[Josephus]

The Asus wl500g deluxe has uart pinout onboard, so 2 serial ports can be added to the unit.
The only difference between wl500g and wl500gx that the deluxe does not require a UART chip, so a simple RS232 transceiver will do the trick.

Here are my experiences adding a single serial port to the router
The parts you need:
- 1 MAX3232 IC (SO-IC)
- 5 1uF capacitors
- cables, connectors

I attached the PCB layout I made, and a few pictures that might help.
There are 2 jumpers on the pcb, which switches between the Tx-Rx, so it doesn't matter what kind of serial cable you actually use.
Good juper configurations:
._ ._ and _. _.
Don't mix them! Next time i'm going to use a switch instead

You need to connect the router's 3.3v, GND, UART_TX0, UART_RX0 pins to the left side of the pcb, set the jumpers, and connect a DB9 connector to the right side.

Note: Actually i was able to add the serial port without actually removing the warranty sticker. I left the screw with the sticker untouched, and stretched the unit just enough to get the connector on the pins.

Important: Don't try this, unless you know what you are doing. I take no responsibility for damaging your router

CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤*  7¤ë 16 19:48:38 CST 2004 (root@PaNLinux)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.

Initializing Arena.
Initializing Devices.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 1.3.2.0
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29007: 200MHz
Total memory: 0x1000000 bytes (16MB)

Total memory used by CFE:  0x80300000 - 0x80436CF0 (1273072)
Initialized Data:          0x803311B0 - 0x80333540 (9104)
BSS Area:                  0x80333540 - 0x80334CF0 (6064)
Local Heap:                0x80334CF0 - 0x80434CF0 (1048576)
Stack Area:                0x80434CF0 - 0x80436CF0 (8192)
Text (code) segment:       0x80300000 - 0x803311B0 (201136)
Boot area (physical):      0x00437000 - 0x00477000
Relocation Factor:         I:00000000 - D:00000000

Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-11-D8-XX-XX-XX, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Rescue Flag disable.
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: ...... 1748992 bytes read
Entry at 0x80001000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x80001000
CPU revision is: 00029007

Primary instruction cache 8kB, physically tagged, 2-way, linesize 16 bytes.

Primary data cache 4kB, 2-way, linesize 16 bytes.

Linux version 2.4.29 (josephus@arrakis) (gcc version 3.3.5) #1 Sun Mar 6 02:01:59 CET 2005

[rwhitby]

I have successfully connected to the serial port on J5.

I've used a small converter board from a usb->serial cable (an old phone data cable), and will mount that board inside the case, with just a USB device port added to the back panel. Pictures later ...

Here is the output from the serial console on boot (running Oleg's firmware).

CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤G  3¤ë  1 16:49:41 CST 2005 (root@PaNLinux)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.

Initializing Arena.
Initializing Devices.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 1.3.2.0
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29007: 200MHz
Total memory: 0x2000000 bytes (32MB)

Total memory used by CFE:  0x80300000 - 0x80436F10 (1273616)
Initialized Data:          0x803313D0 - 0x80333760 (9104)
BSS Area:                  0x80333760 - 0x80334F10 (6064)
Local Heap:                0x80334F10 - 0x80434F10 (1048576)
Stack Area:                0x80434F10 - 0x80436F10 (8192)
Text (code) segment:       0x80300000 - 0x803313D0 (201680)
Boot area (physical):      0x00437000 - 0x00477000
Relocation Factor:         I:00000000 - D:00000000

Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-11-D8-??-??-??, ipaddr 192.168.??.??, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Rescue Flag disable.
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: .. 3560 bytes read
Entry at 0x80001000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x80001000
cpu probe
prom init
cpu report
CPU revision is: 00029007
Primary instruction cache 8kb, linesize 16 bytes (2 ways)
Primary data cache 4kb, linesize 16 bytes (2 ways)
Linux version 2.4.20 (root@omnibook) (gcc version 3.2.3 with Broadcom modifications) #62 Mon Mar 14 21:39:22 MSK 2005
Setting the PFC value as 0x15
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 8192
zone(0): 8192 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 noinitrd init=/linuxrc console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5365 rev 1 at 200 MHz
Calibrating delay loop... 199.47 BogoMIPS
Memory: 30128k/32768k available (1755k kernel code, 2640k reserved, 220k data, 68k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction...  unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
PCI: Fixing up bridge
PCI: Fixing up bus 1
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
NTFS driver v1.1.22 [Flags: R/O]
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 0) is a 16550A
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
PPP BSD Compression module registered
MPPE/MPPC encryption/compression module registered
 Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table v1.1 at 0x0040
number of CFI chips: 1
Flash device: 0x400000 at 0x1c000000
Physically mapped flash: squashfs filesystem found at block 936
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
0x00000000-0x00040000 : "pmon"
0x00040000-0x003e0000 : "linux"
0x000ea190-0x003e0000 : "rootfs"
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x003e0000-0x003f0000 : "config"
sflash: found no supported devices
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 4096)
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (256 buckets, 2048 max) - 344 bytes per conntrack
ip_conntrack_pptp version 1.9 loaded
ip_nat_pptp version 1.5 loaded
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_time loading
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
IPv6 v0.8 for NET4.0
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
NET4: Ethernet Bridge 008 for NET4.0
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.7 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
FAT: bogus logical sector size 38400
FAT: bogus logical sector size 38400
NTFS: Unable to set blocksize 512.
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 68k freed
Algorithmics/MIPS FPU Emulator v1.5
eth0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 1.3.2.0
robosw_attach_ocp: no Robo device on OCP bus
PCI: Enabling device 01:03.0 (0004 -> 0006)
eth1: Broadcom BCM4320 802.11 Wireless Controller 3.90.7.0
device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
eth0.1: No such device
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
br0: port 2(eth0) entering learning state
br0: port 1(eth1) entering learning state
br0: port 2(eth0) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 1(eth1) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 20:26:03 Mar  3 2005
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.0 (0000 -> 0001)
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x100, IRQ 2
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.1 (0000 -> 0001)
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x120, IRQ 2
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
PCI: Enabling device 01:02.2 (0000 -> 0002)
ehci_hcd 01:02.2: PCI device 1106:3104
ehci_hcd 01:02.2: irq 2, pci mem c00af000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
PCI: 01:02.2 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (0 bytes) by BIOS/FW, correcting to 32
ehci_hcd 01:02.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 4 ports detected
usb.c: registered new driver usblp
printer.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver
usb.c: registered new driver audio
audio.c: v1.0.0:USB Audio Class driver
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
PCI devices found:
    Class 0501: PCI device 14e4:0800 (rev 1).
    Class 0200: PCI device 14e4:4713 (rev 1).
    Class 1000: PCI device 14e4:4718 (rev 1).
    Class 0c03: PCI device 14e4:4715 (rev 1).
    Class 0604: PCI device 14e4:0804 (rev 1).
    Class 0b30: PCI device 14e4:0816 (rev 1).
    Class 0500: PCI device 14e4:080f (rev 1).
    Class 0600: PCI device 14e4:5365 (rev 0).
    Class 0c03: PCI device 1106:3038 (rev 97).
    Class 0c03: PCI device 1106:3038 (rev 97).
    Class 0c03: PCI device 1106:3104 (rev 99).
    Class 0280: PCI device 14e4:4320 (rev 3).
echo for PaN ::: &&&PaN

[palbeda]

Hi,

I was wondering if you manage to send output to your serial port.
There is another thread about adding USB serial ports and all people I heard (including myself) trying to actually use the port found out that the wl500 reboots after sending a few characters to that port. Maybe you run into problems just like us actually using the port. Unfortunately I do not know of any fixes for this problem.

Regards

Peter

[rwhitby]

I've used a small converter board from a usb->serial cable (an old phone data cable), and will mount that board inside the case, with just a USB device port added to the back panel. Pictures later ...

Operation is confirmed, and here are the promised pictures. I left room between the ethernet ports and the new usb device port just in case I decide to add the extra two USB host ports later ...

-- Rod

[sodb]

It took me a few seconds to understand the config. Related to palbeda's remark, this set-up is the other way around. Where palbeda connected a serial<->USB to the USB port of the Asus, in this set-up you connect the serial of the asus to the USB of e.g. a PC. Therefore, no max232 voltage convertor is needed. On the other hand, for home automation applications, a native serial port on the ASUS is to be prefered.

[rwhitby]

It took me a few seconds to understand the config. Related to palbeda's remark, this set-up is the other way around. Where palbeda connected a serial<->USB to the USB port of the Asus, in this set-up you connect the serial of the asus to the USB of e.g. a PC. Therefore, no max232 voltage convertor is needed. On the other hand, for home automation applications, a native serial port on the ASUS is to be prefered.

If you want a non-console serial port on the wl500g (e.g. for home automation), then the easiest way is to just plug in a pl2303-based usb to serial converter cable). I have sent Oleg a patch to enable such usage in his firmware, and I hope it will be included in the next version he releases.

-- Rod

[Oleg]

If you want a non-console serial port on the wl500g (e.g. for home automation), then the easiest way is to just plug in a pl2303-based usb to serial converter cable). I have sent Oleg a patch to enable such usage in his firmware, and I hope it will be included in the next version he releases.

-- Rod

yes, pl2303 support would be in the next firmware. So it would be possible to connect some cellular phones, which use pl2303 in their data cables.

[mangodan]

Does anybody know of any serial uart i/o pins are exposed on the pcb of this beast? I don;t care for RS232 levels, they'll do me fine at 3.3V as long as they are accesible.

Also i've not managed to find any info as regards to the cpu..Anybody know what it is?

Cheers

dan

Edit: OPk, i found answers to my own questions now . If anybody else is wondering check this

[WVR]

The Asus wl500g deluxe has uart pinout onboard, so 2 serial ports can be added to the unit.
The only difference between wl500g and wl500gx that the deluxe does not require a UART chip, so a simple RS232 transceiver will do the trick.

Here are my experiences adding a single serial port to the router
The parts you need:
- 1 MAX3232 IC (SO-IC)
- 5 1uF capacitors
- cables, connectors

...
[/CODE]

There is an alternate way. All these parts are built into a Nokia serial data cable which can be bought quite cheap now. Just connect up 3 wires tx, rx and ground that used to go to the phone to the connector in the WL500gx.
The other end of the cable has a 9-pin to connect to the PC.

[Duke]

There is an alternate way. All these parts are built into a Nokia serial data cable which can be bought quite cheap now. Just connect up 3 wires tx, rx and ground that used to go to the phone to the connector in the WL500gx.
The other end of the cable has a 9-pin to connect to the PC.

Well, there is yet another way with single 74HC14N

[galmiche]

Hi all,
Just for your information. I'll post a schematic later on.
Hervé

[galmiche]

Dear All,
Well I would like now to check my serials.
I did not found any stty in the directories neither in the busybox.Is this one missing in the latest Oleg firmware.
How to get stty?
Can you descrivbe a test procedure. I looped my serial pins 2 to 3 , so if I send something, it should be back...
Thanks for help
Hervé

[galmiche]

Hi all,

This is the schematic to create links USB and serial.
For the MAX chip use a 3V3 model named MAX3232
Thanks to all of you who already made pictures, that helped me.

CU
Hervé


Bonjour à tous,

Ci joint le schema de montage USB et series
Pour le max bien prendre un modèle 3V3
donc un MAX3 232 (avec un TROIS en premier chiffre!)

Merci à ceux qui ont sur ce Post fais les images que j'ai reprises
pour éclairer le schéma.

@+
Hervé

[vlad75]

Dear All,
Well I would like now to check my serials.
I did not found any stty in the directories neither in the busybox.Is this one missing in the latest Oleg firmware.
How to get stty?
Can you descrivbe a test procedure. I looped my serial pins 2 to 3 , so if I send something, it should be back...
Thanks for help
Hervé

I have the same problem as galmiche. How do I enable stty?

[Duke]

By default, Oleg's firmware is using the first serial as terminal, and the second one is disabled.