Hi all,

I've started tinkering with an Asus WL700Ge router in order to get a custom firmware on it. I started with OpenWrt which I can now compile and also flash using TFTP, however the build does not seem to function on the router (the router starts blinking as if it is in 'ezsetup mode'). When I put the Asus firmware back (again using TFTP) the router functions as normal. So my conclusion is that the firmware is not correct / appropriate for the router. I want to fix this by debugging it through a serial connection between my PC and the router. I used these pages to add this interface:
   http://static.freesa.org/WL-700gE/
   http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=17271

I've used both pin setups (first says Tx, Rx, GnD, second says Rx, Tx, GnD). As for the serial communication I'm using a Eminent EM1116 USB to serial converter cable. The problem is that in either case the router does not seem to boot (no lights start blinking) and I receive nothing on my serial port...

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks you in advance,
Frens Jan

You serial adapter seems to provide standard RS-232C voltage levels, whereas the WL-700gE uses 3,3V TTL.
You will need an adapter with integrated voltage converter, usually found in data cables for mobile phones.
There are data cables with USB interfaces or plain serial ones (e. g. Nokia DLR-3P).

Anyhow, the ASUS WL-700g Encore is not supported because of the little 2MB flash is too less even for the basic system you need to pivot_root to the HDD.

Minimum for OpenWrt is 4MB flash and 16MB RAM.

(Last edited by Dogge on 11 Jul 2009, 10:53)

Thanks for the info! As for the small flash: I was aware of that and was planning to use the HDD indeed. As for memory it should have 64mb so that should work... I'll go and find me some mobile phone data cable then