How do I solder a JTAG connector to Asus WL-500

[noisyb]

I've done it.

No power LED. No failsafe mode.

Pushing the Reset Button while powering on doesn't work (of course).


I know there is a trick where I have to shortcircuit some pins on the mainboard?! Can someone give me a link to a confirmed HOWTO??? That would be great...

A HOWTO how I can solder a custom JTAG connector to the mainboard would also be welcome!

[zainka]

But?... Why did you destroy it? Whats the point?!!?

Heres a link anyway, found by searching for "pmon"
http://www.wl500g.info/showthread.ph...highlight=pmon

The JTAG tutorial, however, I cant help with. But I didnt do any search either...

Best regards
Vidar (Z)

[noisyb]

But?... Why did you destroy it? Whats the point?!!?

Heres a link anyway, found by searching for "pmon"
http://www.wl500g.info/showthread.ph...highlight=pmon

The JTAG tutorial, however, I cant help with. But I didnt do any search either...

Best regards
Vidar (Z)

Thanks, for nothing!!! That was a comment written by ME...

So is there someone who can tell me _which_ pin of _which_ chip I'll have to shortcircuit to enter a failsafe mode in spite of a messed pmon?

Or to which pins I'll have to solder the JTAG cable?

[zainka]

Well sorry for that one, however, this time nothing is everything you need, because if following the thread mentioned by responder in your other thread on same topic (why post two similar topics anyway?) it will bring you right to the source, but heres a direct link for you... Direct link for you

AND even a quote:

Antiloop wrote:

eventual do a very risky thing
just put the WL-HDD into recovery modus:

be sure unit is powered off
be sure LAN cable is connected
be sure your PC has a STATIC IP
be sure to have to firmware restoration tool at hand

do the following

shortcut PIN10 of the FLASH (AMD) chip with GROUND while powering on, release immediately. The unit should now enter recovery modus
(power led wil flash)

start firmware restoration of a old firmware 1.1.2.8 or something

Hopes THIS helps more

Once again
best regards
Vidar (Z)

[noisyb]

Well sorry for that one, however, this time nothing is everything you need, because if following the thread mentioned by responder in your other thread on same topic (why post two similar topics anyway?) it will bring you right to the source, but heres a direct link for you... Direct link for you

AND even a quote:



Hopes THIS helps more

Once again
best regards
Vidar (Z)

Yeah it does. But there is no chip from AMD on the board... A Picture that shows which chip is meant would have been nice...

[zainka]

Well, now I have to add a disclaimer. DO IT ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK.

First, the link is for the wl-hdd device from asus but the wl500g roter are using much of the same technology when it comes to firmware and linux sub system. Now, second, DO IT ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK. Third, the amd package is named AM29LV320 and is the flash/NVRAM used by system. This can be found youst beneet the leds (link wl500g pinup) and above the big Broadcom package and the shiny crystal. Pin number one is remarked with a bump in the corner of the package and is allocated at the top left corner of the flash.



NOTE: I have not followed these steps my self but have by curiosity found the datasheet from amd today to see which pin this is. This is an address pin for the address bus and by my knowledge I do not know why shortcircuiting this pin to ground would help (nor on the Wl-hdd device or the wl500g thingy) but according to link above this MIGHT solve your problem. but once again DO IT ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK. Shortcircuiting this device might damage your flash completely and you need service, or atleast the router does. If you anyway decide to do it, follow the steps given on reffered link above completely.

Good luck and best regards
Vidar(Z)

[noisyb]

OK, thanks! On my board it's not AMD.. it's a chip from "MX"... however...

I'd connect pin 10 with GND while powering on... but nothing happened (Power LED is still dead)...



Connecting PIN 12 with GND resets the whole unit (but Power LED remains dead).... Any other ideas? Anyone?

[kalijum]

Hello,

It seems that I managed to brick my Asus WL-500W. Now I'd like to build JTAG cable but I can't find anywhere layout of the possible JTAG connections for this router. Can anybody help me with this?

You can answer also in German or Russian.

Thanks in advance!

[wpte]

Never opened up my router, but I tought the wl500w would be almoast the same as the gP

I found something in this post that might help you:
http://wl500g.info/showpost.php?p=102889&postcount=13
and the thread: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=14170

[bogd_A]

Hy,

I had a similar issue, and I did the following:

- unplug your router
- open the box
- connect your router to the PC using a cable connection
- on your PC you have to set the IP: 192.168.1.10; SUBNET: 255.255.255.0, Default gateway: 192.168.1.1, Preffered DNS: 192.168.1.1
- you have to make a temporar connection between the grount connector and the R56 pin of the router
- plug the power cord to the router, wait about 2 seconds and then remove the connection between the ground and the R56 pin
- the power led on the router will start to blink
- using the firmware restoration tool from the asus software upload to the router your desired firmware

And now it works

[newbiefan]

Be so kind and don't do the pin 9 trick or any kind of grounding......
it's too dangerous to finally brick your router.
I've done the following procedures several times:

read the section: Asus WL500G (Original)
from here (somewhere in the middle): http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...WL500G_Premium
just use your firmware instead of ddwrt


the needed files from oleg:
http://wl500g.dyndns.org/wl500g-clear-nvram.trx
http://wl500g.dyndns.org/wl500g-recover.trx
Hint: wait after each flashing min. 5 Minutes

If you need more infos, let me know....
have fun with your router again.

edit: if you wanna use windows, open a dos box (start,run,cmd), and cd to the directory with your routerfirmware.
then use windows-tftp: tftp -i 192.168.1.1 PUT name_of_your_firmware

[bkiss]

Hi bogd_A,

Unfortunatelly your router is 500gP V2, and our is 1.1 (pcb 1.14)

And hi newbiefan,

sorry, but our router doesn't respond for tftp, ping , nothing . .

Thank you anyway... and i wait, maybe Oleg will help us.

Barni

[al37919]

actually, you have the two possibilities: either you already killed CFE (in other words bootloader located in separate partition of the flash), or not yet.

In the first case --- for 500gPv1 there is no other way, but searching for somebody who is able to desolder flash chip, put the CFE in it by external programmer, and soldering it back again. May be if you have somewhere around asus service center this could be not the worst idea.

If it is not yet the case you have to get response from your router somehow.

I think you are close to the chance #1 (especially in the first case), however, I can't say for sure.

[suckmypin9]

Background:
I recently acquired a WL-500gP. Yesterday I finally got the time to update the default firmware. The Asus Tool didn't work for me, so I used the TFTP method described here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_TFTP_Flash
The basic idea of this method is to clear the NVRAM with dummy-firmwares(?) and then install a mini-DD-WRT and then use that to update to other 3rd party firmwares.

So I tried to update to Oleg's firmware with DD-WRT. I think it was a success (however at that time I thought the original Asus firmware had mysteriously returned and only later I found out that web guis looks exactly the same).

Then I installed DD-WRT again and then updated to basic Tomato through DD-WRT updater. This almost bricked the router. 30/30/30-reset didn't help, recovery mode didn't work, but then I found a thread where someone described that he managed to unbrick his asus by pressing the EZSetup while powering the router. This solved the problem (don't ask how) and now I had a working Tomato.

Next I wanted to have Tomato with USB, so I updated to Teddy Bear's mod through the Tomato updater. Well this made the router almost completely unresponsive, and I still haven't found a way to fix it.



Current situation:

• some kind of a Tomato should be inside
• the 30/30/30-reset doesn't work
• the router does not respond to ping, thus no telnet/web access or any other way to control it. Ping responds "no route to host".
• However after pressing the EZSetup when powering on, ping almost "works". It still doesn't create any replies, however the router is there because ping doesn't say "no route to host" like above. Also Wireshark sees the Asus sends "gratuoius ARP" packets...
• I cannot get the router to recovery mode by the usual method of "1. power off, 2. press the reset while plugging power back on". The power LED does not blink slowly like it used to when it was in recovery mode. (Well actually there is one way it goes into recovery mode, and that's when I power the router while pressing the reset button AND when there are no ethernet cables plugged in... but this is quite useless as I can't send any firmwares without ethernet cables. And as soon as I attach an ethernet cable the led stops blinking -> router exits recovery mode.... )

What could be wrong? I'm seriously losing my nerves!

I'm already preparing to short pin 9. I've opened the box and the tedious tin box covering pin 9... But I would not want to do this. I hope there's another solution.


Oh boy... flashing a firmware to WL-500gP is a real pain in the ass... So far I've used Buffalos and had almost no problems flashing them...

[Tamadite]

have you thought about using the jtag to see what's going on?