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Rear of DWL-2100AP PCB with USB power cable

D-Link DWL-2100AP – USB Powered Mod

I obtained 5 D-Link DWL-2100AP ages ago and the power supplies have mostly all died. The requirements stated on the back are 5v 2amps. So I desoldered the power connector and replaced it with a cut off USB cable and tried it on a phone charger (5v 1amp) it booted and seemed to be OK. After that I tried my laptop USB charging port – again all seemed OK. Then I tried setting it up with my PC and plugging it into the back of a HP T5500 – All good and the wireless (I assume the most power draining component) was also working in client mode. So now I have it powered via the HP 5500 USB port and the ethernet connects the two for wireless communication with the rest of the network. Easy… Read More »D-Link DWL-2100AP – USB Powered Mod

Wireless Serial Convertor

WR703N Project Box’s

I’ve been inserting the WR703N’s into cases to make them more durable and less ‘touchy-feely’. The Serial to Wireless convertor – used when configuring Cisco switches, you an configure and upgrade the IOS on using it. This has been great for large installs then having to setup 20+ switches. Benefits include being able to sit comfortably at a desk while setting it up, and it runs off a phone backup battery so it doesn’t need to be plugged into a power outlet or USB – general run time is  > 2-3hrs. The case/enclosure allows it to be hanging from a switch without caring a lot for it’s safety. It can take bumps and drops very well. The external connections are RS232, Ethernet, and the hole on the right is for a micro USB power cable.… Read More »WR703N Project Box’s

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

HP T5500 series Squeezeslave V2

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’ve been keen on small network sound devices for a while, although this should be the last revision. As a carry on from this article, I’ve kept with OpenWRT but moved to a different architecture (arm -> x86) to support the thinclients I have and will be getting. In comparison the wireless router was easy to get the base image installed but Squeezeslave wasn’t. This time the base image was stupidly difficult, and Squeezeslave was a cut’n’paste job. The reason why I couldn’t use a pre-built image was because the x86 image doesn’t support booting from a USB device and it needed sound card support. This article doesn’t cover making the image from scratch, just installing the image I created for the HP t5500 series. I did however… Read More »HP T5500 series Squeezeslave V2

Turn a WRT350Nv2 into a Squeezeslave (networked audio)

Brought a WRT350N v2 from the flea markets last week ($20), installed OpenWRT 10.03.1 using the WinXP firmware upgrade utility. After that installed I then installed some additional packages (full list). So at this point I was able to insert a cheap USB sound card in the rear and it would detect it. I was able to change the volume using alsamixer for testing. Now for the frustrating part, cross compiling squeezeslave to execute it on the WRT350Nv2. I tried a few precompiled binaries, but they were no good. The basic steps I took were: Download OpenWRT SDK. Make sure you’ve gotten the required packages installed in your host machine, check here as a reference. Download additional packages for the router using opkg or the web-interface, this will allow the use of the USB port and install alsa for… Read More »Turn a WRT350Nv2 into a Squeezeslave (networked audio)