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WR703N – Wireless Serial Port

The following guide is what I’ve used (twice) to turn a WR703N into a wireless serial port for configuring Cisco network switches/routers. I have already installed OpenWRT onto it before this guide starts. Tap the reset button on the side while inserting the power cable and the status light should flash blue fast. Set you PC’s IP address to 192.168.1.* (last octet cant be 1). Telnet to address 192.168.1.1 and type the following: Setup LAN Networking uci set network.lan.ipaddr=<Ip Address> uci set network.lan.gateway=<default gateway> uci set network.lan.dns=<DNS-Server address>  uci commit /etc/init.d/network restart Install Minicom and USB serial driver opkg update opkg install minicom opkg install kmod-usb-serial-pl2303 <- This is a very common driver but you may need a different one, check online or with the manufacturer to see what you should use. If it’s correct… Read More »WR703N – Wireless Serial Port

DIY MAME Cabinet

Raspberry Pi

Thanks to a very generous teacher at an educational institute (cheers Trevor), I now have a Raspberry Pi (model B) for testing. I’ve been interested in this project: Porting LinuxMCE MD to Raspbian, and hopefully will contribute when I have time to test/compile. To check the CPU/GPU speed, I tried installing Quake3. Had to compile from source code to fix library errors, and about an hour later, I had some Y2K era gaming fun. The FPS are a little laggy, but still enjoyable. Next tried an XMBC distro XBian. Initial play back was smooth, but then decayed and the audio was out of sync for movie clips. Audio visualizations weren’t accurate using HDMI (analog may be different). Which is a pitty because my original XBox played them fine. The main difference is the higher resolution… Read More »Raspberry Pi

TP-Link WR703N Re-purpose Reset Button

I needed an easily accessible button and rather than re-opening the case and soldering one to the PCB, I’ve found a way to re-purpose the reset switch to perform tasks. For the while loops and if statements I had to install bash because the default shell is ash. Summary When the router is turned on it now boots, starts kismet-server and when the rc.local is just about finished the blue status LED turns off. When the reset button is pressed the kismet-server is killed and it connects to my home wireless network. When the status LED flashes fast, I can then download the *.netxml files, telnet/ssh into it, etc… When reset is pressed again the wireless config is set to disabled, the wireless card is reset, Kismet fires up again and the status LED turns… Read More »TP-Link WR703N Re-purpose Reset Button

Assembled

TP-Link WR703N Backup Battery

As a test, I purchase a 1900mAh iPhone external backup battery to see if it would be able to run the test WR703N I’ve been working on. Broken it open to expose the internal circuitry and battery. Solder a micro USB connector onto the battery leads. De-soldered the iPhone connector and cut a space to push the Micro USB lead through and reassembled. Checked the voltage on the leads before adding the external Micro USB make sure it’s still good to use, then checked it running with the external charging cable – All good. The blue lights indicate the current battery charge levels. Features Full micro USB pass through (voltage and data) – allows charging and data through laptop/PC – Good for other projects, but the WR703N only excepts power in through the micro USB… Read More »TP-Link WR703N Backup Battery

Cisco 857W

Cheap Pickups: Cisco 857w = $20

Bought a used Cisco 857w modem/router/switch at a market for $20. After taking it home and finding an antenna and power lead for it discovered that the power pack was…Err… Smoking. Not sure if it was a “hidden feature” so I cut the cable and Jerri-rigged an old PC PSU to suit.  Lucky it only needs 2x5v and 1x12v, so a molex connector is fine for testing. Plugged it in and the status lights lit up – All good. Taped off the cables to make it a little safer, and connected a console cable – Still all good. Ordered a replacement power pack for it on eBay – $40 couriered from Hong Kong. In 5-8 days the total cost will be $60 for a second hand 857W (The wireless ADSL2 model of my current modem… Read More »Cheap Pickups: Cisco 857w = $20

Insert PCB's back into the case and resolder leads

TP-Link WR703N USB Mod

Read this post on installing an internal USB hub into a WR703N. The main difference I have is the WR703N I’m currently working on is just for prototyping (I have 3 more in the mail), I want all USB ports external to allow for different device testing. I was able to find the same USB hubs on eBay. Found a post that explains how to safely open the case. Once open you can see this is version 1.6 of the router, although the main PCB has version 1.1 on it…?? Dismantled the USB hub and desoldered the USB leads. Used a pen knife to slice thin strips of plastic of the leads to make them fit in the USB hole that already exists. De-soldered the on board USB connecter and connected the USB hub PCB into… Read More »TP-Link WR703N USB Mod

LinuxMCE/Ubuntu Vlan tagging with Cisco Switches

The server I’m using for my LinuxMCE setup has the 1 NIC so I’ve been using eth0 and eth0:1 (eth0:1 is a virtual interface for eth0) for internal and external. It works fine, although not ideal to have 2 broadcast domains running on the switch ports. By using Vlans  I can designate the devices that have access to which interface. This gives a closer configuration to having 2 cards without the need for an additional NIC. Considerations I read that not all NIC drivers support Vlan tagging. The one I used:  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5723 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10).To support Vlans you need to be using atleast 1 managed switch, the switches I’m using are Cisco 2960-24-TTL’s. This post was also written using LinuxMCE 10.04 and the Vlans I’m using are 2 and 3.… Read More »LinuxMCE/Ubuntu Vlan tagging with Cisco Switches

TP-Link WR703N – Small packets, lots of options

The WR703N is advertised as a mini 3G/WIFI travel router. You can get for about $23 on ebay. There are 2 similar models: WR702N and WR700N, both not as good; WR700N requires mains power, and the WR702N has half the flash, to point out just a few differences. I’ve used OpenWRT in the last few posts and have been very happy with the package selection and setup options, so it was a pretty obvious choice and luckily it’s available for this device. Interfaces: 1x ethernet (10/100Mb), 802.11N wireless (150Mb), USB host. Features: Powered by 5v usb, 32MB RAM, 4MB flash, small foot print (5.7cm x 5.7cm x 1.5cm), CPU:Atheros AR9330 rev 1. I used to use a Nokia N95, then an E63 to do passive war driving (collected about 8000 AP’s), which is what I’m… Read More »TP-Link WR703N – Small packets, lots of options

Network UPS Tools Screen Shot

Cheap Pickup: HP T1000RX (1KVA UPS)

I bought a HP T100RX last year, but when testing it, it’s alarm activated for seemingly no reason after about a week. So it was considered faulty and to be disposed of. The recent power spikes and bad weather lead me to look at it again, which lead me to this page: FIRMWARE UPGRADE RECOMMENDED In Summary: “T1000XR and T1500XR UPS with Firmware Version 2.00 or T2200XR UPS with Firmware Version 2.02 May Falsely Report Fan Failure and Shut Down After Running for Several Weeks” So I applied the firmware update from a windows XP machine, then spent 45 minutes to get the management software installed in XP,win7, and LinuxMCE… All failed due to the age of the java used to write both the installer and applications. I did find this gem though: “HP T1000XR… Read More »Cheap Pickup: HP T1000RX (1KVA UPS)