[HowTo] Upgrading RAM to 128 MB (WL-500gP, WL-500W and WL-700gE) [Archive]

Oleg

10-02-2008, 14:17

As most of you asked to publish this I've finally finished this guide...

The goal of this mod is to increase built in memory up to 128MB to be able run more services on the router without the expense of accessing slow swap, etc. Beware, that this mod requiresvery strong soldering skills! And usual disclaimer: do it on your own risk to brick the router completely.

What do you need to perform a mod?

Good soldering skills at first (the board is Pb Free!) and equipment
One 22Ohm (33 Ohm is also ok) resistor to enable A12 address line (not needed for WL-700gE, as it has it already)
Two TSOP packaged DDR333 or DDR400 SDRAM chips organized as 32Mx16

The easiest way to get chips (and perhaps cheap) is to remove them from the PC2700/PC3200 DIMM or SO-DIMM: at the moment we've checked the following parts:

Hynix HYMD532646CP6J-D43 PC3200 DIMM: it has Hynix HY5DU121622CTP-D43 chips
Samsung M470L6524BT0-CB3 PC2700 SO-DIMM: it has Samsung K4H511638B-TCB3 chips
Samsung M470L6524DU0-CB3 PC2700 SO-DIMM: it has Samsung K4H511638D-UCB3 chips
Transcend TS32MSD64V3M PC2700 SO-DIMM: it has Elpida D5116AFTA-5B-E chips

Please note, that Hynix is least preferred. Also, avoid using Infineon chips.
The problem is that PCB is not ideally traced and has some noise UDQS line coming to U4, resulting in memory errors (see below).

Doing it

Start with flashing latest firmware which is known to support 128MB of RAM. My firmware starting with 1.9.2.7-7g are known to work ok, as they've required patches. But I recomend flashing latest anyway.
Telnet/ssh to your router and type

nvram set sdram_init=0x000b
nvram set sdram_config=0x0032
nvram commit
halt
This would turn U4 chip off and prevent my firmware from auto enabling it. The router would be halted too, so you could safely remove power from it.

Disassemble your router now
Remove shieldings from the back of PCB (it's self-adhesive) and from the top
Solder 22 Ohm resistor on the free pads labeled R43. Skip this step if you have WL-700gE. Check image below:
http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_5609_.jpg (http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_5609.JPG)

Replace original U3 chip with your new memory chip. Be sure to remove PB free solder completely from the PCB pads before soldering your new chip!
Power your device on. It should now start normally and report 32MB of RAM (use free to check this).
If it does not: check your soldering work again. Don't even think of pin-9 trick or whatever! FYI: all routers starts
after replacing U3 chip.
Test RAM using memtest (see below). If it fails, then double check your soldering and try again.
Given, that your router works with U3 replaced, continue with replacing U4, now it should look like this:
http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_5590_.jpg (http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_5590.JPG)

Replaced? Ok, turn it once again and check, that it still work. If it does not check U4 soldering: perhaps you short-cuted something... Now type the following in the telnet/ssh to enable U4 and 128MB of RAM:

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_config=0x0062
nvram commit
reboot

It should now reboot. If it does, than you're lucky man (Elpida and Samsung chips are reported to be very lucky)
if it does not (Hynix never boots this way) then proceed this way: check your U4 soldering work once again. Try
to power on your device. If everything looks good then you've to try adding 3-7 pF capacitor between U4 pin 51
(UDQS) and ground:

http://wl500g.dyndns.org/wl500gp/IMG_3999_.JPG (http://wl500g.dyndns.org/wl500gp/IMG_3999.JPG).
If it does not boot - check your soldering work once again. If it still does not work - I've no idea then. Don't blame me, this is ASUS PCB fault.
Test RAM using memtest (see below). Leave it running for a long time to be absolutely sure it works fine. If it does not, then perhaps you should solder a capacitor as described above. Once it's error free, you could tell
memory controller to re-tune some internal timings:

nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

Activating 128MB with known good memory
You need this everytime you perform a reset to defaults...

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

Testing device memory
Type these lines to start testing:

cd /tmp
wget http://oleg.wl500g.info/bin/memtest
chmod +x memtest
./memtest 16m

Note, that memtest at most could only pin half of device memory. Replace 16m with 64m for 128MB of RAM.

Pictures
WL-700gE with Samsung chips and 8MB flash
http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_4384_.JPG (http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_4384.JPG)
WL-500gP with Samsung and Hynix chips at the same time
Samsung chip does not need caps on this PCB...

http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_4005_.JPG (http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/IMG_4005.JPG)

Oleg

10-02-2008, 14:20

Also, filed here: http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp_ram.html

Russian page with more pics: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=7048
Russian discussion with more pics: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=7523

newbiefan

10-02-2008, 14:24

MANY THANKS!!

Simple perfect and outstanding - as usual!

Oleg

10-02-2008, 14:40

Good luck in upgrading your unit. For the first unit it took for about a two weeks to complete the mod: the problem was a hynix (and we have not figured yet that cap at UDQS could solve a problem) and PB free PCB. But finally, all routers are working fine. Try to find Elpida or Samsung chips. I beleive Transcend should be available in european stores too.

trucki

10-02-2008, 16:09

@Oleg
Thanks for the tutorial.

Do you think I could solder the new ram chips on top of the original chips?
That would allow me to select between the old and the new chips by resoldering the CS Pin.

Trucki

Oleg

10-02-2008, 17:12

Most likely no: DDR chips are very sensitive to tracing and pin capacitance. You know, they're running at 133 Mhz...

trucki

15-02-2008, 05:18

OK, no on top soldering.

Do you know if I can install the latest x-wrt (http://www.x-wrt.org) with 128MB Ram upgrade?

THX!
Trucki

Oleg

15-02-2008, 07:52

I've no idea.

breizh76

16-02-2008, 21:42

Thanks for this great tuto.

Unfortunaltly for me, I failed to desolder the U3 chip (some pads has been destroyed).

Before throwing my asus (RIP :( ), is there a solution for it to boot / work only with the U4 chip?

Your advices are welcome! :o

trucki

17-02-2008, 06:17

Hi,

my mod is working. I used Samsung ICs. Here (http://www.wl500g.info/showpost.php?p=83390&postcount=30) you can find some photos.

@breizh76
Maybe you can solder a small cable to the broken pads / pins. Can you post some Photos?

Trucki

breizh76

17-02-2008, 17:57

Good job trucki, you had the good method :D

As for my Asus, I'm giving up, I don't think I could do anything now.
I have played an d I loose, I knew the rules :rolleyes:

trucki

23-02-2008, 09:02

Hi,

I tried to install X-Wrt. With 32MB it works.

With 128MB Ram it doesn't start. I enabled 128MB Ram with

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_config=0x0062
nvram commit
reboot

CFE_Output_X-Wrt_128MB:

CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
init started:
Build Date: ¥| 10¤ë 12 22:21:19 CST 2006 (root@localhost.localdomain)
BusyB
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.

et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.90.7.0
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29006: 264MHz
Total memory: 134217728 KBytes

Total memory used by CFE: 0x80800000 - 0x8089AF40 (634688)
Initialized Data: 0x808313D0 - 0x80833790 (9152)
BSS Area: 0x80833790 - 0x80834F40 (6064)
Local Heap: 0x80834F40 - 0x80898F40 (409600)
Stack Area: 0x80898F40 - 0x8089AF40 (8192)
Text (code) segment: 0x80800000 - 0x808313D0 (201680)
Boot area (physical): 0x0089B000 - 0x008DB000
Relocation Factor: I:00000000 - D:00000000

Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1B-FC-57-AB-6E, ipaddr 192.168.178.1, mask 255.255.255.0

gateway not set, nameserver not set
Null Rescue Flag.
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: .. 3704 bytes read
Entry at 0x80001000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x80001000

Any ideas?

Thx
Trucki

Oleg

23-02-2008, 09:25

It should be patched to detect 128MB correctly. Does it based on OpenWRT? If so, I've submited this patch to Kaloz for about a year ago.

trucki

23-02-2008, 12:36

Hi Oleg,

yes, X-wrt is an Openwrt Image with webif2 Interface.
How can I include this patch? Where can I find more information about it?

Thx
Trucki

Oleg

23-02-2008, 12:43

Hi Oleg,

yes, X-wrt is an Openwrt Image with webif2 Interface.
How can I include this patch? Where can I find more information about it?

Thx
Trucki
The patch itself is here (this link should be known to Kaloz):

http://oleg.wl500g.info/wl500gp/kernel-mvista-mem.patch

mitek

15-03-2008, 15:11

Oleg,

When disabled U4, changed U3 to MICRON MT46V32M16-6T and boot I can see 64MB (so it seams one chip is working). When changed U4 and enabled both (0x0011, 0x0062, 0x0000) I still see 64MB. Do you know where could be the problem (adding capacitor does not change anything).

BTW: do you know when default settings are used (in CFE "printdefault"). There are 0x0009, 0x0062, 0x0000) (sdram_init, sdram_config, sdram_ncdl) - in rescue mode?

Oleg

15-03-2008, 15:29

have you used pin 9 trick at some point?

mitek

15-03-2008, 16:24

no, I didn't use use pin 9 trick. My router was working properly and decided to expand ram. So I followed procedure you described but at the end I see only 64MB. Do you think I need another sdram_config?

----

correction - I have used pin9 trick few months ago (before trying the ram expansion).

Oleg

15-03-2008, 18:43

erase /dev/mtd/3
erase /dev/mtd/4

this would wipe pin9 effect and reset to defaults.

mitek

15-03-2008, 19:35

Thanks a lot.
It helped and now I see whole 128MB.
I'll run memtest for a night and see if everything is working fine.

mitek

16-03-2008, 15:38

After all night tests I can confirm that MT46V32M16-6T memory is working fine after upgrade.
I mounted it with capacitor 2.2pF, but I think it should work also without it.
Now I have ASUS WL500gp with 128MB RAM.

Big thanks to Oleg for his help with nvram clear after pin9 trick.

BTW: At the moment only Oleg's firmware is working with 128MB. Both Kamikaze 7.09 and X-Wrt have no patch implemented yet.

trucki

18-03-2008, 05:48

Here you can find the 128MB patch for Openwrt / X-Wrt.
http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=14560

Trucki

mitek

18-03-2008, 20:33

Here you can find the 128MB patch for Openwrt / X-Wrt.
http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=14560

Trucki

Yes. I know about this patch and had used it in own compiled Kamikaze.
I just wanted to mention about it for people that trying to make hardware upgrade but complain about lack of 128MB support in other firmwares.

particleman

20-03-2008, 03:12

hggomes

21-03-2008, 07:18

I have performed this upgrade twice on WL-500W routers both have worked flawlessly even without soldering a capacitor on U4. I have run memtests and have run the routers stabley for weeks. The RAM modules I used were NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T

Also the 128MB patch is implemented in DD-WRT v24 rc7 builds 9285 and newer. So that is now another option for 128MB upgraders, the lastest builds also have USB support.

Hi, i can't understand how you upgraded to 128MB with 2x32MB (NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T), i've buy a Kingston 512MB DDR 333 notebook memory double side (4chips of each side) (64Mx8) with NANYA NT5DS64M8BS-5T chips, is that ok to upgrade to 128mb?

Oleg said: Needed: Two TSOP packaged DDR333 or DDR400 SDRAM chips organized as 32Mx16, i can't understand how you can upgrade to 128MB with 32Mx16 chips, isn´t 64Mx8?

After all night tests I can confirm that MT46V32M16-6T memory is working fine after upgrade.
I mounted it with capacitor 2.2pF, but I think it should work also without it.
Now I have ASUS WL500gp with 128MB RAM..

How with 32MBx2 chips?

particleman

21-03-2008, 15:58

I bought a Kingston 512MB DDR400 SO-DIMM with 4 chips on each side, so 512/8=64

I have no idea why the Nanya code reads as it does

Hi, i can't understand how you upgraded to 128MB with 2x32MB (NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T), i've buy a Kingston 512MB DDR 333 notebook memory double side (4chips of each side) (64Mx8) with NANYA NT5DS64M8BS-5T chips, is that ok to upgrade to 128mb?

Oleg said: Needed: Two TSOP packaged DDR333 or DDR400 SDRAM chips organized as 32Mx16, i can't understand how you can upgrade to 128MB with 32Mx16 chips, isn´t 64Mx8?

How with 32MBx2 chips?

hggomes

21-03-2008, 16:40

I bought a Kingston 512MB DDR400 SO-DIMM with 4 chips on each side, so 512/8=64

I have no idea why the Nanya code reads as it does

Should i upgrade with NT5DS64M8BS-5T 64Mx8? Is the same as yours right? (64Mx8)

Oleg

21-03-2008, 16:44

You CAN'T use 64Mx8 chips. You need 16bit wide chips.

hggomes

21-03-2008, 16:52

You CAN'T use 64Mx8 chips. You need 16bit wide chips.

Is there any 64MB chips with 32Mx16 organization?

Oleg

21-03-2008, 17:09

Have you read first post and success stories?

Oyabun

21-03-2008, 19:23

Just finished upgrade today.
Used Samsung Chips K4H511638B-TCB3. It started up allright, ran memory test without any problem. At the same time I have installed pins for the Jtag serial, corrected R17 value on the Wireless board.
It runs flawless now - I'm very statisfied with the results.

Thank you again Oleg.

particleman

22-03-2008, 03:23

Ahhhh... I get what those Nanya codes mean now, NT5DS32M16BS means that my chips are in a 32Mbit x 16bit wide organization, 32x16=512bits/8=64Mbytes. Your chips are NT5DS64M8BS which is 64Mbitx8=512bit/8=64Mbytes and aren't organized in a compatible fashion for these routers. I guess I lucked out because I missed that important piece of information that the chips had to be 32x16 when I bought my DIMMs, but got lucky and bought a DIMM organized 32x16.

Is there any 64MB chips with 32Mx16 organization?

hggomes

22-03-2008, 22:56

Thanks, i will see if i can find one ;)

trucki

25-03-2008, 05:22

The latest build of white russian X-wrt now supports the Wl500gp with 128MB, too.
http://downloads.x-wrt.org/xwrt/firmware_images/whiterussian/0.9/latest-daily-build/default/

hggomes

25-03-2008, 12:33

I found it. NT5DS32M16BS-5T ;)

Ahhhh... I get what those Nanya codes mean now, NT5DS32M16BS means that my chips are in a 32Mbit x 16bit wide organization, 32x16=512bits/8=64Mbytes. Your chips are NT5DS64M8BS which is 64Mbitx8=512bit/8=64Mbytes and aren't organized in a compatible fashion for these routers. I guess I lucked out because I missed that important piece of information that the chips had to be 32x16 when I bought my DIMMs, but got lucky and bought a DIMM organized 32x16.

Have you follow the exact steps in the Oleg's tuturial? I mean the nvram memory commands...

Inertial

25-03-2008, 17:33

Big thanks to Oleg and all the contributors!

I’ve been looking around for a small form factor computer to use as the main computer of a mobile robot, when it occurred to me that routers are actually becoming some very good examples of physically small computers.

Linux is my OS of choice for such projects, so I was very happy to learn about the wl500gP + Oleg's firmware combo.

Spec's-wise the wl500gP it's nearly all-ready out of the box, but then again, one can never have enough memory!

Then I landed on that 128M memory upgrade post by Oleg, and this is the story:

Components:

After a week long search some NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T were located. So why not give it a try? There was no confirmation for these back then, though according to the datasheet they were pin compatible and organised as 32x16. But when I was about to acquire them, I got a call from a second-hand store, about some SO-DIMM with Samsung K4H511638C-UCB3 gathering dust on their shelves, so that was it! These were confirmed by trucki and way cheaper too.
(Thanks to particleman we now have a confirmation for NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T)

33 Ohm smd 0402 resistors were kindly donated from an old dvd player, (one for A12 line, one more to replace an accidentally desoldered and lost one)

Method:

- Used a hot-air gun (the paint-stripping gender) to preheat the pcb and then desolder the (fluxed) memory chips, while protecting the rest of the pcb with multiple layers of aluminium foil as a heat screen, both from the SO-DIMM and the wl500gP.
- Applied no-clean flux on the pads, then removed the solder from the pcb pads with desoldering braid (wick).
- Cleaned around with some alcohol and some cotton buds.
- Positioned the chip, then kept it in place with some scotch tape (it *really* helps).
- Used a fine tip, low wattage soldering iron with tiny amounts of solder applied on the tip.
- soldered pins under optical aid.
- cleaned around some more.
- Scanned and hi-res macro-photographed the result from various angles to visually inspect on screen.
- checked for sort / open circuits with a multi-meter.
- reworked a few stubborn pins. :p

And voila! It didn't work :confused: no power led on :eek: disappointment :(

At the time it was already very late at night, so I slept over it, many nights, and when I found the time, armed with multimeters, optical aids, pencil and paper for an improvised schematic, datasheets, previous pic's of the tracks under the chips and quite some patience I checked again every single track and pin on the first chip (U3). Pins 18 (Vdd) and 4 (DQ1) were found to be loose, giving false positives when pressed on their pads with the multi-meter probe. They were resoldered while I pressed down on them with a pointed tool and voila, router finally up and running! :) U4 was not much of an issue and soon I had all 128M of ram activated! :D:D:D

At first strong vibration would freeze the router (more loose pins) but then the soldering iron came again in to play, and everything worked just fine!

The router went through twelve runs of memtest and all is fine! Router is happy, I am happy, big Thanks Oleg!

Here is a reference list compiled from this forum with all chips known to work so far for wl500gP:

Chip: By: On memory module: Type: Form: By: Confirmed by: Note:

HY5DU121622CTP-D43 HYNIX HYMD532646CP6J-D43 PC3200 DIMM HYNIX Oleg 1
K4H511638B-TCB3 SAMSUNG M470L6524BT0-CB3 PC2700 SO-DIMM SAMSUNG Oleg .
K4H511638D-UCB3 SAMSUNG M470L6524DU0-CB3 PC2700 SO-DIMM SAMSUNG Oleg .
D5116AFTA-5B-E ELPIDA TS32MSD64V3M PC2700 SO-DIMM TRANSCEND Oleg .
K4H511638F-TCB3 SAMSUNG newbiefan .
K4H511638D-UCB3 SAMSUNG newbiefan .
K4H511638C-UCB3 SAMSUNG KVR333X64SC25/512 PC2700 SO-DIMM KINGSTON trucki .
MT46V32M16-6T MICRON mitek 1
NT5DS32M16BS-5T NANYA particleman .
K4H511638B-TCB3 SAMSUNG oyabun .
K4H511638C-UCB3 SAMSUNG M470L6524CUO-CB3 PC2700 SO-DIMM SAMSUNG inertial .
HY5DU121622CTP-D43 HYNIX NotebookKiller 1
Note 1: Capacitor between pin 51 and ground / Clock lines employed.
Note 2: Infineon chips are reported as not collaborating with wl500gP pcb.

Be warned that the pcb pads are really easy to damage, static electricity could fry the chips, thermal shock could destroy them as well as the pcb and other components, flux/solder fumes are usually toxic, etc.
Before attempting such a mod it would be useful to search for "SMD desoldering" on the net, since there are many informative how-to's and even videos on the subject, get familiar with the "reflow thermal curve" and "ESD damage", practice desoldering and soldering on some scrap pcb's first and make sure you won't miss your router too much if things go wrong.

Admittedly, coming from an H/W background I have quite extensive soldering/desoldering experience but I still believe it's possible to perform the mod when having some soldering experience and rehearsing the steps on some scrap first.

@breizh76:
I am pretty sure your asus is recoverable, have a look at what these people from http://www.circuitmedic.com (http://www.circuitmedic.com/guides/guides.shtml) are doing.
Agreed it requires lots of tools and even more skill, but still it is possible!
Got four partially lifted pads myself, when desoldering U3 but finally everything works fine.
Had a 60G HD too with many cut and lifted tracks 'few years ago, but managed to functionally restore it (visual aesthetic aspect though... ouch!)
If you don't feel confident, you could find some hardware-tech / mobile-phone repair-tech guy that could do it, or even I could try and have a go at it, if you post me your unit.

@All:
Could any one direct me to some wl500gP schematics, if such thing is available? I’d like to try some extensive wl500gP hard-hacking :)

Inertial

Oyabun

03-04-2008, 11:17

@All:
Could any one direct me to some wl500gP schematics, if such thing is available? I’d like to try some extensive wl500gP hard-hacking :)
Inertial

Unfortunately I haven't seen anything like that so far. I'd be interested too.
What kind of hard hacking are you thinking about?

NotebookKiller

03-04-2008, 11:43

Hello. I made 128m upgrade with Hynix HY5DU121622CTP-D43 chips. I really don't understand, why do people solder capacitor to UDQS? On original modules it is between clocks - normal and inverted. In Asus there's no such a capacitor. I added it (marked red on photo) by scratching solder mask on clock lines and soldering to them. Device started normally and passed the all-night memtest torture without any errors. Capacitor was taken from the same module as chips.

hggomes

07-04-2008, 02:00

If anyone have one to sell with 128mb working without problems, or if anyone wants to profit with mod i'll buy it for double the price.

Inertial

07-04-2008, 19:35

Hello!

Originally Posted by Oyabun
What kind of hard hacking are you thinking about?

Most of my inspiration came by looking at these pieces of information: (attached below)

* BCM4704 Block Diagram

* BCM4704 System Diagram

Well besides the gpio pins, I2C bus, SPI bus, SD card, etc type hacks, (directly off wl500gp pcb tracks), the most promising thing, may be the ability of BCM4704 processor to handle three mini-PCI 2.3 peripherals.

From Broadcom's BCM4704 Product Brief:
The PCI 2.3 host interface allows enumeration of three external PCI peripherals (more with external arbiter)

Another way to explore would be the EBI (Expansion Bus Interface) route. Signals for this bus are presented to the flash memory chip (SPANSION S29GL064M), of course stealing them from the chip's pads seems extremely hard, but it might still be an option for just a couple of lines. And since extremely hard is still possible ;) , one could even try an IDE connection if all necessary signals are found to be present and the firmware side of things in understood as well (that already sounds pretty complex to me).

Other interesting things are the modem and audio codec’s as well as the two-port USB 1.1 host. Interesting these are, however, only if their respective signal/data lines are present somewhere on the pcb, since un-burying them from under the BGA :eek: seems highly unlikely, to stay optimistic. :cool:

Software-wise, access to the MAC (Multiply Accumulate) unit on-chip would be very useful to people who wish to hook up some sensors on the wl500gp and then use it to perform some DSP (digital signal processing) on the collected data.

Also software-wise, access to the IPSec Core and related hard-wired functions available in the BCM4704 (IPSec 3DES, SSL MAC, TLS HMAC, SSL/TLS DES/3DES, MD5/SHA-1 HASH, IPSec AES), would be very useful for some types of network applications.

All of the above require, inside knowledge of the processor core, usually found in a Programmer's Guide type document and in datasheets, for the software part, whereas for the hardware part, processor datasheets and router schematics would be needed. Without any of these documents in sight, it's gonna be pretty hard to attempt most of these modifications.

That's why I believe mini-PCI peripheral expansion is the most viable approach, given the available documentation.

PCI's, let's sum it up, we have: One for the PCI-to-USB bridge (VIA VT6212L), one more for the actual mini-PCI connector harbouring the wi-fi card, that's two, leaving room for (hopefully) one more! Plus all the signals for the PCI bus should be presented to the mini-PCI connector. That's only a guess however, I haven't actually checked to verify that, but still. The specifications for PCI and mini-PCI bus are at hand, so it will be a matter of (spare) time to verify it.

After verifying that all necessary signals are present and that the firmware (as is or modified) could handle such an addition, it might be possible to try and solder one more mini-PCI card connector on the existing pcb pads.

Many mini-PCI cards are available which could be used to offer additional functionality, provided the suitable driver exists, that is.

* mini-PCI to IDE and/or SATA controllers + Compact Flash (CF) Socket, (no USB bottleneck)
* mini-PCI to (a multitude of) serial ports extension cards
* mini-PCI GPS receiver module with extra serial ports
* mini-PCI 801.11a/b/g 400mW card
* more examples welcomed

A simple idea would be to add an extra dual band wi-fi card, transforming the router to a link, or even backbone node for wireless metropolitan networks. A GPS card would suit locative (location-aware) applications. The extra serial ports would be good for robotics or home automation and a direct mini-PCI to IDE/SATA/CF card would allow for file transfers at full speed, overcoming the USB bottleneck. I could go on daydreaming about possibilities for long... :)

Take a wl500gP, hook up some temp, humidity, pressure, wind-speed, rainfall, etc sensors over USB or serial ports and you get a remote, networked, weather-station. Or add some motors and motor drivers assortments, vision, GPS, batteries, sensors (speed, distance, temp, inertial, rotational, magnetic, etc) a few microcontrolers, quite some code, and voila: you have a networked mobile robot...

For the moment my preferred (and much more realistic) approach is to interface microcontrollers to the RS-232 and USB ports of the router. I'm planning to work with some PIC18F4550 with USB connection while some other PIC boards with rs-232 are already available and have plenty of things interfaced to them. Now I only need to set up a cross compiler for the wl500gP and write some code to get them to communicate with the router (and, hopefully, one day, attempt even native compilation). Some more code writting/porting will be needed to have the router perform some processing on the data collected through the uC's and plan some actions to execute on the devices interfaced to them in response, all while sending part of the data over lan/wi-fi. The birth of a simple robotics platform, indeed.

Following the various posts about the RS-232 console connection, and parper's post "Additional USB ports and Internal HD!", I performed the corresponding mod's, and now I have a very happy wl500gP with Oleg's firmware, 128MB ram, four onboard USB 2.0 ports and two RS-232 signal level serial ports. :D

I will post methods and findings soon!

Ideas, comments, suggestions are welcomed :)

Greetings to all and thanks for all the info's you are sharing,

inertial

Below are some very inspiring BCM4704 Diagrams from Broadcom's Product Brief, a picture of wl500gP's case following modification to house the extra two USB connectors, and a couple of pictures of the actual post mod pcb.

Oyabun

08-04-2008, 12:16

Hello!

Most of my inspiration came by looking at these pieces of information: (attached below)

* BCM4704 Block Diagram

* BCM4704 System Diagram

Well besides the gpio pins, I2C bus, SPI bus, SD card, etc type hacks, (directly off wl500gp pcb tracks), the most promising thing, may be the ability of BCM4704 processor to handle three mini-PCI 2.3 peripherals.

Great!

Count me in. I have bit limited time now, as I'm in a middle of a NAS building project based on the StormSemi Gemini SL3516. Adding mini PCI slot would be great. I have already found miniPCI Sata controller with flash support. It would be an interesting project to build a small embendded server based on the new ssd disks. Also the networked weather station sounds like a great idea. If it would support mesh architecture and and seismology (vibration sensors) coupled with a solar panel and some batteries it could make up for a great science platform for earthquake forecasting.
At the moment I'm working on a more mundane project though. I have a flat what I rent out what happens to be in a very lucky spot of the city so I can get 10M/10M cable net connected on it. Even though I live only four streets away, this option is not available here, so I'm building a torrent seed server for the other flat. I will be able to log in and start downloads remote, and when the download finished it will syncronise automatically to my home nas trough sftp. I'd like to connect a security camera tooking to an area what not interferes with their life (eg. entrance), but helps if something happens with the flat. Also would like to connect smoke sensors to send alarm trough the net. I would like to have everything in one neat package (so HDD inside the case, proper cooling etc) to avoid accidental disconnects, ect.
Meanwhile the tenant will be able to use some part of the bandwidth trough wireless - with a QOS service - for a reduced fee. For this I'll most probably use my current 500gP and buy a new 500W for our home.

ps.: In the meantime I just finished a second transplant to 128 Mb on a friend's asus. Flawless, started right away and stable.

ps2: Do you think that the factory power supply is enough to power all your installed ports? I had unexpected reboots even when tried to connect the USB HDD and a flash disk at the same time.

ps3:Probably we should start a new one about HW hacking instead of hijacking this 128Mb upgrade topic.

Garluk

18-04-2008, 11:38

Is this howto good for upgrading WL.-500GP v2 RAM to 128MB?

Oyabun

18-04-2008, 13:22

This info is intended to help uprading ram in BCM47xx based routers.
The v2 version is based on a BCM5354 all-in-one chip what is theoretically able to handle 128MB ram, but so far I haven't seen any picture taken of a v2 board, so I cannot tell how it had been realised.
You can find a brief introduction on 5354 here (http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/5354-PB01-R.pdf)

Serge_K

18-04-2008, 14:32

Garluk

18-04-2008, 17:59

I have a WL-500GP v2 on my hand.
I have disassembled it and I have found the RAM. There are only one chip: the Hynix HY5DU561622ETP

Oyabun

25-04-2008, 09:54

I have a WL-500GP v2 on my hand.
I have disassembled it and I have found the RAM. There are only one chip: the Hynix HY5DU561622ETP

So if you google for this chip, you can find, that it is a 16Mx16 chip, resulting in 32MB. As single. Theoretically it means, that this router (because of the one-chip design) could not be upgraded to 128, but 64MB.
As it should be the actual case, as on the reference pictures linked by Serge (thanks :)) the chip on board is a Samsung K4H511638D what is used by many of us, giving 64MB/chip capacity.
So if you are interested in upgrading your router to 64MB the steps are the folowing:
- Check router board for missing resistors (if any), as on the previous boards A12 address line has not been implemented -it might be the case in the new version also.
- Cross check memory addressing parameters with Oleg, how to enable 64Mb on a single chip for v2 routers.
- Acquire a single Samsung K4H511638D or equivalent chip with 32Mx16 capacity (look above Inertial's post about compatible chips)
- Do the phisical upgrade (or better to ask someone with good soldering skills and a rework station to do is for you)
- Check it with Oleg's memtest
- Enable 64 MB
- Recheck
- Enjoy

Hope it helps.
BR.
Tamas

status report: A friend of mine just finished upgrading the router sucessfully to 128MB, and also added connectors for the two additional USB ports with neat routing and proper coupling. I have finished installation of an external diversity antenna (instead of the PCB one) and installed 2x 5dB antennaes. :-) No dropped connection since, 54 Mbit/s maintained everywhere, fastest Wlan as ever with this router. :-)

Inertial

27-04-2008, 21:36

ps3:Probably we should start a new one about HW hacking instead of hijacking this 128Mb upgrade topic.

Appologies for disappearing for so long, and especially to Oyabun. A software development project, with tight deadlines, tons of mathematical modeling and mobile platform optimization, landed on my head. I was on it day and night since nearly my last post. I mannaged, though, to succesfully upgrade to 128MB yet another wl500gP, while having a short break :D Well I will follow Oyabun's advice and start a new thread under the "WL-500gP Pics & Specs" section. This choice is justified, in the sense that hardware hacks actually affect the specs, and even improve them i would suggest ;)

It will be entitled: "Exploring WL500gP hardware expansion / interfacing possibilities (http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=14170)", hope it sounds promising...

See you there...

Inertial

Garluk

01-05-2008, 12:53

So if you google for this chip, you can find, that it is a 16Mx16 chip, resulting in 32MB. As single. Theoretically it means, that this router (because of the one-chip design) could not be upgraded to 128, but 64MB.
As it should be the actual case, as on the reference pictures linked by Serge (thanks :)) the chip on board is a Samsung K4H511638D what is used by many of us, giving 64MB/chip capacity.
So if you are interested in upgrading your router to 64MB the steps are the folowing:
- Check router board for missing resistors (if any), as on the previous boards A12 address line has not been implemented -it might be the case in the new version also.
- Cross check memory addressing parameters with Oleg, how to enable 64Mb on a single chip for v2 routers.
- Acquire a single Samsung K4H511638D or equivalent chip with 32Mx16 capacity (look above Inertial's post about compatible chips)
- Do the phisical upgrade (or better to ask someone with good soldering skills and a rework station to do is for you)
- Check it with Oleg's memtest
- Enable 64 MB
- Recheck
- Enjoy

Hope it helps.
BR.
Tamas

status report: A friend of mine just finished upgrading the router sucessfully to 128MB, and also added connectors for the two additional USB ports with neat routing and proper coupling. I have finished installation of an external diversity antenna (instead of the PCB one) and installed 2x 5dB antennaes. :-) No dropped connection since, 54 Mbit/s maintained everywhere, fastest Wlan as ever with this router. :-)

Your's friend have upgraded a v1 o v2 WL-500gP router?

Oyabun

09-05-2008, 09:11

Your's friend have upgraded a v1 o v2 WL-500gP router?
Sorry. Of course v1.

hggomes

13-05-2008, 00:46

It is possible to test all the 128MB RAM, cause doing ./memtest 128MB only tests 64-67MB. I've tryed "free" and i've got 124MB free without any services running, it should test at least 124MB. This way i will never know if the other module of 64MB it's OK or not. Any ideas?

shinji257

27-05-2008, 20:31

Just curious but is there anyone here that can do this upgrade for me? I have no experience on SMD chips. I will probably get another unit for this upgrade so that my current one isn't affected and I will continue to have 2 "stock" units.

vuk

05-06-2008, 12:52

I wonder if there is anyway to solder some TSOP slot first in place of U3 and U4 the sort of those seen on many OLD 4Mb PCI video cards, just to allow easily exchange the RAM on WL500. Anyone tried ?

Inertial

05-06-2008, 23:27

Dear Vuk,

I am planning to use some Meritec TSOP-48 sockets for the flash chip, not sure if i'll do so *on* the board of the router, there are clearence issues. Meritec doesn't do TSOP-66, (since they are not used for flash chips, i think)

Thought of hacking some piece of something to do what you describe, but this would be difficult, in reality. Anyway, that's what came to my mind:

-> Either to make a fixture to press the chip pins directly on solder-wicked, cleaned, and kinda, DIY, atmospheric-pressure "hot-air-kind-of-leveled" pads :)

-> Or use these very nice elastic 1D-conductive strips, the ones employed to transfer the current to glass substrate LCD dot-matrix screens (grey conductive something, sandwiched in pink elastic). I have some of this somewhere, have to test resistance and most of all, the pitch of these conductors, to avoid shorting everything. Then a way to hold and press everything in place will have to be devised.

Proceeding in these ways ofcourse would make it very hard to tell if the problem comes from the chip under test OR the fixture :p

The sockets you mention are a great idea, i will give it a try for sure if i manage to find any and report the results back here.

The second best thing that comes to my mind is to use 3M's z-plane conductive tape, but i can't afford it - far too expensive.

Looking through quite some of the boxes that comprise my old hardware collection (others call it junk :rolleyes: ), nothing like 66-tsop sockets was found...

So please, could you direct us to some photos of the video cards in question. Or at least to some model names/numbers and manufacturer's names.

Inertial

vuk

06-06-2008, 09:12

Well, actualy i remembered and old ATI pci 4Mb card i had once (1998 perhaps), but I never counted the pins in the TSOP socket. Anyway, i am sure there are 66 pin versions for that.
Another ideea came to me was the same as yours, to replace the EEPROM with a larger one, say... 128Mb from a flash disk and put it in a TSOP socket. Because I found a similar HYNIX chip inside a flash disk of mine.
Still don`t know how to copy the entire code inside to make it boot again.
Whatever, that would allow to store a richer operating system inside on a larger storage space and to use external usb laptop hdd just for user space, accounts and downloads, etc.
QUESTION: wl500 is a multilayer or plain dual layer PCB ? :D

Freelancer

16-07-2008, 19:32

Hi, guys

I have tears in my eye, I was able to upgrade to 128Mb.
First of all I could not get the correct Samsung chips.
For this I bought two chips from Trucki.
Secondly I did not had the "hand skill" for soldering.
For this I turned for everybody. My neighbor worked in a place where they had professional soldering gear, but there I as a stranger could not enter, so initially I asked around everywhere who can do it, I wanted to see and to be able to try it and if wrong re solder it. Could not find nobody. Oyabun volunteered, but he was busy in private life. So finally I gave my router to my neighbor to do it in a blind way and if turns out good than turns out good.
And it turned out good. :-)
It is so good. :-):-):-)
Next thing I will be asking around how to set up the development environment and trying to port the DC++ client. :-)

oleo

17-07-2008, 07:33

Install amule instead of porting dc+. Quick description for optware is at http://trac.nslu2-linux.org/optware/wiki

pop k

27-07-2008, 12:34

Is that possible to upgrade ram of ASUS 520gU to 128MB?
It has the same cpu but is different frequency.

pop k.

vuk

02-09-2008, 11:23

Is there anyone of u who has an extra pair of chips for sale, or knows a reliable source tu buy those ? I mean the chips described by Oleg in http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=12962

Thank you!

moszinet

30-09-2008, 13:07

I've managed to buy one of these laptop memory modules on ebay.co.uk ...

vuk

06-10-2008, 12:43

I doubt someone will ship to Romania :)

birch01

18-11-2008, 11:49

I have a few K4H511638B-TCB3 left if anyone needs.

Sally

12-12-2008, 16:01

Hi!
Here I have two Hynix HY5DU561622ETP Chips (16Mx16) from my bricked D-Link DNS-323. As I read in this thread one chip from that type is used in the v2.

Can I use these two chips for an upgrade from 32 to 64 MB? Or where do i get the recommended chips best? Neighter Hynix nor Samsung provide any free samples on their website like other companies do (TI for example) :(

Greeting, Sally

wpte

23-12-2008, 01:36

my waranty is almoast gone, so I was thinking of upgrading the memory too..
I can get the transcent memory, for 11 euro only:p

now I'm wondering, I'm not really super pro at soldering, but I've done it before with a point soldering torch.

How do I get these chips from their wat is it... sockets?
those pins aren't made of tin is it?:p

If I look at these images: http://www.wl500g.info/showpost.php?p=83390&postcount=30
then I see that in the 2nd image all the pins are melted away, including some parts of the chip... I mean, it looks a bit rough and very dangerous to do:p

If someone can explain me how to get these chips off properly without burning them away, I would be happy:D

lly

23-12-2008, 12:08

The best way to solder/desolder such chips - is to use hot air gun or hot air station. It may be professional (ERSA, PACE), hobbiest (AOYUE-6031 Sirocco, AOYUE-908, etc.) or even good workers hot air gun (Makita HG650 for example) with small nozzle.

Some people upgrade router with an old soldering torch only, but this is not so accurate and require much time.

I strongly recommend you to train on something else before hacking router, for example - old PC expansion cards, motheboards, etc.

Anyway, you have to use good paste Flux (for example, http://www.efd-inc.com/Solder/Flux/ - good, but expensive) and always check quality of soldered pins. Most comfortable is to use stereo microscope, but magnifying glass is acceptable too.

wpte

23-12-2008, 12:46

thanks for your advice:D
I'll do some practice first yes.
never used flux on sutch a small thing tho, I used it for soldering big metal things together:p

I also found a good instruction video:
http://curiousinventor.com/guides/Surface_Mount_Soldering/101

it looks easy, as long as you have a steady hand I guess:)
need to get myself a new soldering iron, one with a temperature regulator:rolleyes:

lly

23-12-2008, 13:11

it looks easy, as long as you have a steady hand I guess:)
need to get myself a new soldering iron, one with a temperature regulator:rolleyes:
Yes, it is right decision, since our router is "Lead Free" and this dramatically increase demands to temperature profile!
You mustn't mix ordinary and LeadFree solder, i.e. you have to remove one before apply another.

pmahlknecht

04-01-2009, 19:20

Hi,
i tried to upgrade my router with two NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5T, but it seems that one of the two chips is damaged. When I enable only 32MB of U3 everything works fine, also memtest shows no errors, but when I enable U4 and the whole 128MB the router shows some errors during boot:

SQUASHFS error: lzma returned unexpected result 0x1
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 4000e, size 4769
SQUASHFS error: lzma returned unexpected result 0x1
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 4000e, size 4769
SQUASHFS error: lzma returned unexpected result 0x1
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 4000e, size 4769
Segmentation fault
/linuxrc: /linuxrc: 35: cannot create /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug: Directory nonexistent
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 43fc6034, epc == 8002d700, ra == 8002cdac
Oops in fault.c::do_page_fault, line 192:
$0 : 00000000 10008800 43fc601c efffffff 810b1dd4 00000060 83fc60e0 83fc6020
$8 : 10008801 00001f02 000043d1 00003d4a 2aaa8238 2abb24a8 00000000 00000000
$16: 810b1dd4 00000000 810b1ddc 000000f0 810aeba8 00004985 810fa2d0 802d0000
$24: 00000000 00453d88 803c2000 803c39d0 803c3bc8 8002cdac
Hi : fffffff9
Lo : ffffffa0
epc : 8002d700 Not tainted
Status: 10008802
Cause : 00000008
Process insmod (pid: 13, stackpage=803c2000)
Stack: 803c39d0 803c39d0 8103176c 8002750c 00000000 00000c00 00000400
00000000 8002cdac 802e64ec 00000001 00000014 810fa2d0 8002fe3c 80039870
00000000 00000000 810aeba8 80025dbc 810e5740 00000000 800399e0 80016548
803c3ac8 802e5120 00000014 810aeba8 00000001 00000400 00000050 00001f02
8003c048 811fb120 00000001 00000002 00000014 802e5120 00000014 00000400
8003c2bc ...
Call Trace: [<8002750c>] [<8002cdac>] [<8002fe3c>] [<80039870>] [<80025dbc>]
[<800399e0>] [<80016548>] [<8003c048>] [<8003c2bc>] [<80022374>] [<80022300>]
[<8000a8fc>] [<80039308>] [<80092934>] [<80095a68>] [<8000c43c>] [<80026468>]
[<80020228>] [<8000c43c>] [<80095f30>] [<8001684c>] [<800b619c>] [<800b5d44>]
[<8001670c>] [<80046974>] [<80016548>] [<800b6154>] [<800160cc>] [<80002134>]
[<80030238>] [<801a120c>] [<8002562c>] [<80030238>] [<800256d0>] [<80027428>]
[<8002750c>] [<80022258>] [<80022300>] [<80020770>] [<800225b4>] ...

Code: 00031080 00471021 00650018 <8c440018> 2402ffff ace40014 00001812 10820012 00c33021
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault
/linuxrc: /linuxrc: 54: cannot create /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug: Directory nonexistent
Segmentation fault
Segmentation fault

The soldering seems to be fine (I have quite a bit of SMD soldering experience), and I also added the cap to UDQS of U4.
Can someone tell me, if it's possible to activate the whole 64MB of U3 whitout activating U4, or if its possible to activate only U4 without activating U3?
BR Peter

pmahlknecht

04-01-2009, 22:20

Ok, i managed to enable the the 64Mb of U3 without enabling U4 with sdram_init=0x0013 . Infos about the sdram configuration can be found here: http://oleg.wl500g.info/sdram.html .

edit: Good news! After enabling the 64Mb of U3, I ran a memtest, which found no errors. So I changed U4, resoldered it, set sdram_init to 0x0011 and the router booted! Now I'm running a memtest on both chips.

For everyone who wants to upgrade the memory, I suggest to set sdram_init to 0x0013 after changing U3 (and before changing U4), and running a memtest on the chip (with ./memtest 32M).

Thanks to Oleg for this nice mod and his great firmware!

Br Peter

wpte

15-02-2009, 13:46

Well... I think I finally got my stuff ready, except for the memory module, since I get confused a bit:o

allright:
the samsung chips are 64MB x 64bit each, so you get a 512MB total in one module...
the transcent chips are however only 32MB x 64bit each, so you only have a 256 module...

now I guess I can not upgrade the router to 128MB with the transcent chips since there can only be 2 chips placed on the routers mobo:confused:

transcent: http://www.transcendusa.com/Support/DLCenter/Datasheet/TS32MSD64V3M_1180.pdf
samsung: http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/114396/SAMSUNG/M470L6524BT0-CB3.html

or am I completely wrong here:p
the samsung ones are not really easy to be found somewhere here in europe.

Pim Borst

18-02-2009, 10:30

I have been searching for a memory module too and found out that the chips on the Kingston KVR333X64SC25/512 that is listed in this thread are not usable. They are 32M x 8-bit (8M x 8-bit x 4 Bank) DDR333 SDRAM sealed in uBGA packages. See http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR333X64SC25_512.pdf.

Maybe they used to have the right chips and Kingston changed them...

Better check the datasheets before you buy one.
The Transcend module seems OK: http://www.transcendusa.com/Support/DLCenter/Datasheet/TS32MSD64V3M_1184_s1.pdf

wpte

19-02-2009, 21:44

well... still it's 64MB
or I should say this: because the processor is 32bit, it will be able to adress only 32bit of the 64bit lane on the RAM module, so you get double space and it becomes 128MB:rolleyes:

but that seems to be really theoretical:confused:

Pim Borst

21-02-2009, 10:55

I just received the Transcend module.
It has Hynix chips nowadays so if you are looking for Samsung or Elpida chips don't buy this module.

If you do buy this module, you can 'harvest' the 22ohm resistors from R1-R8 from the chip-side of the module or R9-R16 from the back-side. To get the clock timings right I will try to transplant one of the capacitors C26-C29 from the back-side the way NotebookKiller suggested.

To Wpte: each chip has 32M addresses storing 16bits (2 bytes, one word) of data each. That makes 2Bx32M=64MB per chip so the two chips will get you 128MB. For reading/writing a single byte the chips have UDQS and LDQS pins to activate the upper or lower byte only. See the datasheet http://www.hynix.com/datasheet/pdf/dram/HY5DU121622CTP(Rev0.3).pdf

andrewr

01-03-2009, 19:43

My WL-500W router was dead after I enabled U4. I used Hynix chip. I already soldered a 5pf capacitor at pin 51. It looks like the CFE isn't running. I couldn't see any output from the serial console.

Is there a way to disable U4 without booting into the system?

andrewr

01-03-2009, 20:15

To Pim Borst:

Do you know which lines the capacitor should be soldered? It isn't very clear on the photo attached in NotebookKiller's post. There are two lines that are very close to each other.

Pim Borst

02-03-2009, 08:28

Hi Andrew,

The two lines that are close to each other are the clock lines indeed.
I removed some of the PCB mask and measured that they are connected to CK and /CK of the chips (see the datasheet in earlier post).

Wednesday a colleague of mine is going to help me with the upgrade. He has professional hot-air soldering equipment. I hope it will work. Good luck with your WL500, I hope you get it working again!

To Pim Borst:

Do you know which lines the capacitor should be soldered? It isn't very clear on the photo attached in NotebookKiller's post. There are two lines that are very close to each other.

tcharron

12-03-2009, 16:09

I tried to upgrade my wl500gp v1 to 128m using this guide.

I salvaged some chips from an SDRAM board (Nanya 32x16).

I installed U3 successfully and ran memtest against it overnight with no errors.

I installed U4, and after some solder touchups it booted fine. I configured the settings for 128m and rebooted and it came up. Memtest ran up to test 14 and then reported an error. It had a total of 3 errors after the first iteration.

I shut it down to touch up my joints and haven't been able to get it boot since. I can only assume that bad joints are causing the problem. I will get some flux and have another go at it (I installed without the use of flux the first time). Any other tips?

tcharron

13-03-2009, 00:26

An update...

I picked up some solder paste. I was surprised that the local shop here (Active Surplus in Toronto) didn't have plain flux, but I think that the paste worked better for me.

Without removing the chips, I smeared some paste on the U4 contacts and just heated each solder joint. This worked well -- I could hear the flux burning off and could see the solder flowing into the joints. Under magnification, the joints looked a lot better after this process

Of course, it still didn't boot. SO, despite my certainty that U3 was working well (see my prior post) I gave the same treatment to U3 and lo and behold everything worked after that. I used SCP to get memtest onto the router (this was far easier than configuring the router connected to the internet) and will run memtest next.

So, a $3 tin of solder paste was the solution and I have about $2.99 of it left to spare. Cool!

vuk

13-03-2009, 17:42

Hi there people !
This might be mostly adressed to Oleg...
I tried to apply the instruction from this oleg`s tutorial. But i DID NOT (stupid me ) aplied

nvram set sdram_init=0x000b
nvram set sdram_config=0x0032
nvram commit
halt

before every chip exchange, neither upgrading to 128Mb aware firmware.
Now, after purely replacing chips and soldering 33ohm to R43, the router seem to be bricked as power led is off, wifi led is half-lit barely observable, and the switch section works ok, leds on, etc. Of course, the router does not boot :).
Is this a matter of PIN9 trick (i did it once succesfuly) or i have to replace with old chips, remove r43, and take the job from begining again ?

Looking forward for an sugestion..

Vuk

tenho

16-03-2009, 15:11

Hi folks,

can you imagine, that this RAM mod could also work for other routers. I have one Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with only 16MB of RAM, so it would be great applying this RAM mod to my router too. (Even though I was successfully been able to make the "SD mod" on my router and now it's possible to SWAP ON some space on the installed SD card which is limited only by the free SD card space, but you can figure out, that this is not the everfastest RAM upgrade possible :D ).

I'm sorry to place this post in the wrong forum, but I came across this 128MB RAM mod and found it highly interesting!

Can somebody give me a hint, what to pay attention for?
Here (http://gethome.no/~jskogtv/whr-hp-g54_sdmod_1.jpg) you can see inside the router, if this helps. And here (http://gethome.no/~jskogtv/whr-hp-g54_sdmod_2.jpg) is the backside of the board (where the RAM is soldered). Here (http://www.deutron.com.tw/data_sheets/sdram/p2v28s_0btp11_07024.pdf) are the tech. specs of the RAM chip.

I'll appreciate any advise! :)

Cheers,
tenho

RolF2

17-03-2009, 05:49

tenho

24-03-2009, 10:58

...
Testing device memory
Type these lines to start testing:

cd /tmp
wget http://oleg.wl500g.info/bin/memtest
chmod +x memtest
./memtest 16m

Would this test also work on any router running DD-WRT/OpenWRT/FreeWRT (sorry, it's not Olegs Firmware)? Just wanting to test the memory after overclocking the router... :)

Greetz,
Stefan

tenho

29-03-2009, 13:07

I'll answer myself:
The memtest is running quite well on Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with default 16 MB RAM and DD-WRT v24 vpn. But you should replace ./memtest 16m with ./memtest 5m (6m could be also OK, just try). Otherwise it will hang up.

Just putty (http://www.putty.org/) into the router and run this:

cd /tmp
wget http://oleg.wl500g.info/bin/memtest
chmod +x memtest
./memtest 5m

The first run is finished in about 10 minutes or so.

For the folks with SDmod (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Buffalo_WHR-G54S_and_WHR-HP-G54_SD/MMC_mod): don't run the test with your SD card swapped on (swap space (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linux_SWAP) with a swap file on the card)! This will mess up the contents of the card and make it unreadable. Unswap first instead!

/opt/bin/busybox swapoff /mmc/myswap.swp

Then run the FREE command in order to see, if the swap space was successfully unswapped.

I have optware (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Optware) with busybox installed and the SDmod on my router. If this interferes with the memtest: no idea. If you don't have busybox installed, just try the memtest though.

Cheerz,
Stefan

Pim Borst

03-04-2009, 09:12

After finishing the upgrade to 128MB about two weeks ago I thought I should write an update.

I am really glad I got it working. Several times I thought the machine was bricked.
My soldering skills definately were not good enough for the job.

The main problem was that I could not remove enough lead-free solder from the BCP.
This caused short circuits underneath the chip so I had to remove it again...
That ruined a soldering pad on the PCB.
Fortunately I could make a bypass with a small wire to one of the resistors next to the chip.

Another problem was loose pins.
Some pins did not touch the PCB because of the bumps of the remaining lead-free solder.
You should check the connections really well with a multi meter.

The data lines can easily be measured between the pins and the resistors next to the chips.
Address, clock, powr and some other lines between pins with the same number from U3 and U4.
You can also apply some physical pressure to the pins to see if they wiggle, but be careful because you do not want them to bend.
The loose pins were fixed by applying tiny amounts of soldering paste and reheating (see post #36).

When the connections are good and the router boots (leds will go out after a second or so) run the memtest.
Also, tap on the router while running the test and see that it does not freeze and does not give memory errors.

Some other points

The 22 ohm resistor from the Transcend SODIMM module is a little bigger than the ones on the router, but it just fits.
The Hynix chips work stable with the capacitor from the back-side of the module connected to the two clock lines (see post #38 by NotebookKiller).

I also did some other small mods: soldered header pins for the serial ports and added two extra USB ports.
These USB ports are internal, the 500W does not have room left on the back side.
I put in a 16GB flash drive which holds optware and user data. No need for swap with 128MB!

As a last point I would like to mention another option for a great mod:
The WL500W has soldering isles and holes in the PCB to connect a PCMCIA connector!

Has anyone tried to connect a PCMCIA card to the router? Did it work?
If I connected a SATA card and a SATA HDD, would that speedup the transfer rates compared to a USB drive? I have read several times that 2MB/sec is about the max with USB but why is that? Is that a hardware or a driver issue?

Please post responses in http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=19164

And finally I would give a big thank you to Oleg, the other posters of this thread and to Marc who has lend me his soldering equipment. I am really happy with my super-router.

CsBubo

04-04-2009, 14:44

Small contribution, but hope it will help some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUpHA_ZarDg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2vnJyRuq98

So, I did a few upgrades recently, and for the ones who would like to try it, I have some tips:

Use Wood's metal, it's cheap and will do the trick, You can perform the upgrade with the simpliest iron available next door. Also use the finest wick available, it will suck the excess solder like hell. And flux massively!

You can check Your unit before, if it is using 22 or 33 ohm resistors. Just to have them aligned. Not sure if it counts or not.

Although the memtest utility can pin half of the memory for the first run, what You can do is to start in one session with 64m, next session with 32m, next with 16m and You're there, almost all You're new memory is tested fully.
ELPIDA D5116ADTA chips are also fine for the upgrade!!

For Vuk: I had the same symptoms, recheck all Your soldering, especially the resistor/s and of course all the pins for shorts to the neighbours. And even if You have FW which isn't capable to handle 128, You can use the tftp method to flash a new one. So no panic, it'll work.

Thanks to Oleg, and all the contributors here!

Pim Borst

04-04-2009, 16:16

Small contribution, but hope it will help some:

Thanks! It would have helped me :) I have saved the videos for my next upgrade!

Gabs86

28-04-2009, 20:04

hello, i have make the 128mb upgrade one month ago, and today my router dies when i plug my hard drive to the router . I try to load the oleg firmware again, now it´s bricked. I try to do pin-9 trick, but it doesn´t work.

What can i do?

Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

dronchik14

10-08-2009, 09:30

Guys,

Please don't try 64Mx8 - it doesn't work!

I thought that BCM5354 could support , also I checked A11 - connected, but no chance...

Looking for the known supported chip.

Robek

12-09-2009, 15:04

Hi All,
I'm new on your forum. I got many help from your forums but now I have a problem that I can not solve.
I bought a Ram modul with K4H511638B-TCCC chips.
This chip similar to TCB3 but 400MHz and the CAS is 3 not 2,5.
I changed the two ram chip in my WL500Gp V1 router. Ramtest shows no error. It semms to be OK.
But after I upgraded the router of my friend the memtest always shows error.

Here is the log:

Current limits:
RLIMIT_RSS 0x7fffffff
RLIMIT_VMEM 0x7fffffff
Raising limits...
Allocated 67108864 bytes...trying mlock...success. Starting tests...

Testing 67108864 bytes at 0x10006000 (0 bytes lost to page alignment).

Run 1:
Test 1: Stuck Address: Setting...Passed.
Test 2: Random value: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 3: XOR comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 4: SUB comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 5: MUL comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 6: DIV comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 7: OR comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 8: AND comparison: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 9: Sequential Increment: Setting...Testing...Passed.
Test 10: Solid Bits: Setting...Passed.
Test 11: Block Sequential: Setting...Passed.
Test 12: Checkerboard: Setting...Passed.
Test 13: Bit Spread: Setting...Passed.
Test 14: Bit Flip: Setting...
FAILURE: 0x00100000 != 0x00000000 at offset 0x00002f6e.
Skipping to next test...
Test 15: Walking Ones: Setting...Passed.
Test 16: Walking Zeroes: Setting...Passed.
Run 1 completed in 2867 seconds (1 tests showed errors).
munlock'ed memory.
1 runs completed. 1 errors detected. Total runtime: 2867 seconds.

I try capacitor form 3pF to 7pF but always stops at this address.
If I enable only 64MB with sdram_init=0x0013 the ramtest not shows error.
It means the U3 chip OK. I replaced the U4 with an another chip but the symtom is the same.

Could you help me?
Thank you!

Sorry for my poor English. :)

Robek

16-10-2009, 22:00

Hi all,
I think the firmware was old to handle correct the 128MB.
Updated then it works find.

If somebody use this chip use sdram_config=0062 because it has CL=3.

Rgds,

tmsulica

19-11-2009, 10:48

Hy guys , if somebody know where to fin this memory modules in Romania , can you help me ?

thanks

gnibbler

25-01-2010, 04:18

tmsulica: I found the M470L6524BT0-CB3 module on ebay recently.

I used a hot air gun to desolder the chips (wl700ge).
The pbfree solder needs quite a lot more heat/time to melt.

I Soldered one chip into U3, but could not get the power led to come on.
Rechecked the solder a couple of times.

Finally pulled the chip back off and resoldered the original which works fine again - happy and sad about that.

I will try once more tomorrow with a fresh chip.

tmsulica

25-01-2010, 08:50

hello, sorry about that better luck next time. Let's hope that you succeed ! Best of luck ! BTW: Are you from Romania ?

vuk

27-04-2010, 14:41

yes, I am...
and also interested in modding MSI RG54SE II widespread wireless router

Karel

31-05-2010, 21:05

Do you have test A-data chips DDR400(2.5) 512MX16 ADD8608A8A-5BG?

darkside40

12-06-2010, 16:18

avberk

14-06-2010, 09:20

Is it possible to increase the ftp download speed from an USB HDD on the router to a client by this mod?

I just want to have a little bit mor speed than 3MB/s or do you say this mod would have no effect on the transfer rates?

Extra ram is most likely not going to increase ftp speed.
Try ftp with a minimum amount of daemons loaded.
Then you know what the maximum speed is you can get.
which is probably exactly the same as you are getting now.

darkside40

14-06-2010, 11:49

Tried that already killed things like transmission and pyload an that dosen't increase the Lan speed.
So no need for such a risky operation at the open PCB of my WL- 500gP.

pawkrz74

23-09-2010, 15:03

Ok, i managed to enable the the 64Mb of U3 without enabling U4 with sdram_init=0x0013 . Infos about the sdram configuration can be found here: http://oleg.wl500g.info/sdram.html .
I changed two chips, but router did not started, so I bought new Samsung SO-DIMM and changed U3 only, it started (I did not enable whole chip, but used original commands by Oleg from first post), then U4 chip was soldered in empty place. Router booted and everything was fine, but when I enabled U4 chip via PUTTY the connection has gone after reboot command and router never booted again.
The question is how to disable U4 chip when router does not start, maybe serial port, what soft is necessary.

Regards
Pawel

mielu80

28-12-2010, 19:56

Hello.
Just signed up this forum to say thank you very much to all of you,and especially to Mr. Oleg who had the amability to share his work with us.
I successfully upgraded my wl500gP to 128MB following all steps in the first post.
The two Dimm's I used are from Micron 46V32M16-6T,unsoldered from So-Dimm module Kingston KVR333X64/256MB.It was a module with only 4 chips.The resistor R43 is 22 ohms,altough the other ones originally on the board are 33 ohms.Could this be a problem on long term ?
Did not soldered capacitor between pin 51 of U4 and ground.

Once again,thank you !

PS. I'm running dd-wrt v24 sp2,build 14896

tmsulica

28-12-2010, 20:10

Hello and well done, i think you will give me the courage to do it also, maybe you can post some pictures to see your mood ? To brag :), and btw, are you from Romania ? If you are, can you tell me where do you found the chips , and btw they are not in the list of oleg's but you took a chance ? and 2nd , you have 33 ohm resistor on the original board ? It should be be empty pads ....

Once agains bravo!

mielu80

28-12-2010, 21:37

@tmsulica
Thank you and yes,I am from RO/Bucharest.
I can't take good quality pictures,only got my mobile phone with camera,but it's like it was before,with the original chips :).The So-Dimm module,got it from an old laptop.
The chips are in a list,a list posted by another user,"Inertial" on post #36 and tested by user "mitek",post #21.As you can see I didn't pushed my luck,just read the whole topic.
About the resistor R43,yes there were empty pads,no resistor soldered,but on post #1 Mr. Oleg said R43 22 Ohms and that is the value of the resistor that I soldered in,but I was saying about the other resistors,soldered by factory,like R41,R45,etc...,they all are 33 Ohms.
Good luck with your mod.

mielu80

30-12-2010, 09:50

After running memtest all looks good,no errors.
Changed the resistor too,to 33 ohms one. (only for my consciousness
:) )
By the way,tmsulica...
If you don't have memory chips,I have two of them left.

rumenchooo

23-02-2011, 08:54

Thank you guys.
I`m proud owner of WL500W with 128 MB.
Everything works like a charm.

Wish you luck

Regards
Rumen

Piorun

26-09-2011, 17:25

Chip: RC12D161TA0-27BC VData DDR333 (2.5) 512MX8, S/N: 502XR VDFDB29080XK - Is this RAM supported ?

Is there any way to run router on U4 RAM only ?
I lose a few soldering path for U3 chip - my first upgrade :-(

pmrb

30-09-2011, 22:42

Hello,
I've successfully upgraded the ram of my WL-500G Premium to 128Mb by following Oleg's instructions. The very last operations were:

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_config=0x0062
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot

Then I've run "memtester 64M" for about 3 loops. There was no problem. In the end, I stopped memtester with ctrl-c and powered off the device.

About 1 or 2 hours later, I came back and powered on the device, but the power led never turned on:

no more power led
no network (no ping response on 192.168.1.1)
no recovery (restore button on power up)
no messages on UART_TX0 and UART_TX1

What could have happened, and how could I repair the device?
My OS: OpenWRT 10.03

TIA for any help!
Peter

expert_vision

18-10-2011, 12:16

I'm not an expert, but I think is because of the RAM .. if there is no RAM, there is no CPU, and if is no CPU there is nothing .. no response. When I first upgraded my RAM, router didn't start .. all LEDs went on. Then I reheated all connections and it worked.

Your problem might be a cold solder joint too .. recheck connections (even though it worked first time you tried .. a little shake and a bad joint won't work). Though, I'm not sure what does it mean the fact that your power LED doesn't turn on. Maybe you got in a nasty coincidence and your AC-DC adapter went faulty .. also check the 5V power input port under load.

edit: :)) .. I just noticed that the thread was started almost 3 weeks ago. Hope is not to late ...

pmrb

18-10-2011, 20:16

Hello,

It was a silly bug in openwrt-backfire. See also
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=32282 and
http://www.mail-archive.com/openwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.org/msg05660.html

Pin9-trick solved the problem.

Cheers, Peter

mielu80

21-02-2012, 07:35

Hello.
I have a little problem with my router after memory up-grade to 128MB.
After each reboot or power off of the router my total available memory is only 64MB.
Each time I have to enter the commands

nvram set sdram_init=0x0011
nvram set sdram_ncdl=0
nvram commit
reboot
to actvate the whole 128MB.
Everyoane else having this issue ?
If this is normal,could a script be made to execute those commands on each start-up ?

Thank you.

tmsulica

21-02-2012, 08:08

hy , i think you have to use flashfs command to do it permanently,
try

flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot

instead of commit

but , yes you can make a script too to start automatically. i think

expert_vision

21-02-2012, 18:23

I don't think an startup script will make any difference since the nvram value is used during early CFE loading, you have to reboot to apply changes .. I think.
The flash chip is repartitioned in few areas :
-CFE boot loader
-NVRAM settings
-kernel -- linux firmware/system files
Nvram tool operates on NVRAM section and flashfs tool operates on file system section, so I don't think "flashfs save && flashfs commit..." will work either.
What probably happens is that during CFE loading, luckily, it recovers a correct value for sdram_init. I made a typo during configuring NVRAM once (my correct value is 0x0013 and I typed 0x013 or something) and I had to revive my router with a JTAG cable to erase NVRAM(here (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Recover_from_a_Bad_Flash#Recovery_by_JTAG_cable) is how to use tjtag, here (http://www.routertech.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3732) is the software)
To see if the value of sdram_init remains after reboot use:
nvram get sdram_init
Are you sure 0x0011 fits your RAM geometry?
Here (http://wl500g.dyndns.org/sdram.html) is a explanation of sdram_init value.
I would arm my self with a JTAG cable before any experiments.
What router, RAM chip and firmware do you use ?