Make an expansion board with a serial port(s) for WL-500b/g

[Technik]

Yes it is possible - I have made and tested this RS232 interface yet (see the bootup messages from PMON below).
Please note you will loose the warranty by this modification as there is a warranty label that you will have to remove.
There's no impact to the router's mainboard as the expansion card is connected through onboard connector only and it can be removed anytime.

You will need just few electronic parts to make the expansion board.
- UART or DUART chip (16c552,16c550,16c450,82c50,...)
- XTAL 13 MHz (or close to 13 MHz)
- MAX232 or equivalent (two pieces if you plan to use DUART)
- some passive elements - capacitors, resistors, connectors

The schematic will follow later on (as soon as I convert it to electronic form somehow...)


Messages from PMON during the boot:
PMON version 5.3.22 [EL], LSI LOGIC Corp. and Broadcom Corp.
Compiled on Fri Apr 25 15:24:08 2003
CPU type 4710.CPU clock frequency 125 MHz.Avail RAM 16384 KBytes.
NVRAM: AMD 29lv320DT 2Mx16 TopB.
Visit www.carmel.com for updates.

~Downloading os image in 3 seconds
Using specified MAC address.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.11.19.0
MAC Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Opened ethernet
Downloading from ethernet, ^C to abort
Downloading image time out
Boot os from the flash
CRC OK
Uncompressing..................................... ................done
Doing command call 80001000

[Antiloop]

technik NICE work! can you supply us with some nice pics for reference till you finish the schematics?

[Technik]

technik NICE work! can you supply us with some nice pics for reference till you finish the schematics?

OK then... But it's a bit brutal so don't be disgusted with this please!
BTW I would like to say THANK YOU to hwsoft for providing me with the UART chips and to Antiloop as well for the information about ASUS hardware. Thanks guys!

[Antiloop]

nice nice

thank you 2

so i can just use those old uart chips from old ISA cards or similair, nice upcoming project sometime..

[Technik]

Yes you can use an old chips if they can operate at 13 MHz clock rate. That's why I put the UART to socket - sometimes it's not easy to find a datasheet of some specific chip... 16c55x recommended because of FIFO buffer.
It should be also possible to use XTAL with lower frequency and change the serial port initialization to get the same baud rate.

BTW this is a list of PMON commands:

...
Opened ethernet
Downloading from ethernet, ^C to abort
break!
~PMON> h
      h  The help command                           m  modify memory
   copy  copy memory                                d  display memory
   fill  fill memory                           search  search memory
compare  compare memory                         uncmp  Uncompress gzip file
    set  display/set variable                   unset  remove variable
     hi  display command history                 vers  display version info
   load  load memory from hostport               call  call function
  cp2fl  Copy Ram to Flash                     nvInit  no options
nvErase  no options                            etdiag  enet diag. test
 ildiag  iline diag. test                      rmdiag  sdram diag. test
 mpdiag  mass production diag. test           pcidiag  pci interface diag. test
pmadiag  pcmcia interface diag. test          leddiag  led gpio interface diag. test
usbdiag  usb interface diag. test             plpdiag  parallel port interface diag. test
PMON>

The help function is working also for every listed command.

[Oleg]

OK then... But it's a bit brutal so don't be disgusted with this please!
BTW I would like to say THANK YOU to hwsoft for providing me with the UART chips and to Antiloop as well for the information about ASUS hardware. Thanks guys!

Seems you have 2.x firmware, which uses different header for connecting UART. 1.x has something proprietary.

[Technik]

Seems you have 2.x firmware, which uses different header for connecting UART. 1.x has something proprietary.

Yes, Oleg - the router HW revision is 2.40. Revision 1.00 uses a different connector which is quite hard to obtain (see photos here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=8).

[Antiloop]

which are the first 2 letters/numbers of your serial Technik/Oleg ?
eg it will start with a 3 of 4

i want to know since when the v2 hardware is sold

my youngest unit is from december 2003 also produced in dec-2003

[Oleg]

2.x units has MACs starting with 00:0e: as seems, while 1.x has 00:0c:.
Mine is 1.4 and was bought in Germany in nov-dec 2003, do not know exactly.

[Antiloop]

yes that's right.. i believe my december unit is starting with 00:0e too

but what i meant was the serial number.. that's at the bottom of the router

[Technik]

which are the first 2 letters/numbers of your serial Technik/Oleg ?
eg it will start with a 3 of 4

i want to know since when the v2 hardware is sold

my youngest unit is from december 2003 also produced in dec-2003

Mine starts with:
42, MAC 00:0e... HW rev. 2.40 (WL-500g)
3A, MAC 00:0c... HW rev. 1.00 (WL-500b)

[Technik]

Just FYI...

PMON version 5.3.22 [EL], LSI LOGIC Corp. and Broadcom Corp.
Compiled on Fri Apr 25 15:24:08 2003
CPU type 4710.CPU clock frequency 125 MHz.Avail RAM 16384 KBytes.
NVRAM: AMD 29lv320DT 2Mx16 TopB.
Visit www.carmel.com for updates.

~Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode:

Using specified MAC address.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.11.19.0
MAC Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Opened ethernet
Downloading from ethernet, ^C to abort

Wait for Rescue Client IP BroadCasting ...
break!
~Downloading os image in 3 seconds
Using specified MAC address.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.11.19.0
MAC Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Opened ethernet
Downloading from ethernet, ^C to abort
Downloading image time out
Boot os from the flash
CRC OK
Uncompressing..................................... ................done
Doing command call 80001000

[Antiloop]

eh..

Visit www.carmel.com for updates.

what the heck does that has to mean?
geez.. they're fucking around with us

[Technik]

eh..



what the heck does that has to mean?
geez.. they're fucking around with us

Didn't you try to use search function? But it couldn't help to get the source codes anyway...

Oleg, are you very busy these days? Couldn't you please make the customized version with original serial driver implanted?
Please ignore that request if you have more important tasks... But it would be really nice to play with analog modem, mobile phone, console over serial etc...

[Oleg]

Antiloop: pmon sources are available in wap54g sources (except ASUS modifications).
Technik: Be patient. The cheaper solution for the modem is the USB modem or USB/COM converter. Also, firmware by default will use first COM port for console, so you need at least another one or recompile the kernel with init string of your choice.