Hello, yesterday I got new WR720N and want to share some "inside" info , with hope that will be useful.

It's not as small as his bro - WR703 and MR11U. It has space for mounting external antenna and build-in battery or USB hub.
It has build in Power supply + mini-USB for external power source ( like battery pack ) also has build in DC-DC converter - have't look at the chip spec but it looks like not only 5V but wide range voltage is available ( 3.6V to 9V?) still need to look and confirm what are the spec, manual does not say anything about battery specifications.

It has AR9331 it's basically the same as WR703 and MR11U, 4M flash + 32M RAM more significant is that it has two LAN/WAN ports + standard USB.
It has acceptable coverage in 150sq.m concrete one level apartment building without modification. ( tested with two laptops )
 
As you can see I got ver.3.0 this it's just coming out of production. board version is 1.0.
Board have serial tp_out tp-in!
TL-WR720N-USB-2xLAN

TL-WR720N-min-USB-PSU

TL-WR720N-multy-fn-switch

TL-WR720N-led

TL-WR720N-top-cover-off

It top cover is glued so be careful when open, it needs force to be opened!
TL-WR720N-board-top-closer

TL-WR720N-board-bottom-closer

TL-WR720N-LAN-USB-reset

]TL-WR720N-32M-ram+

TL-WR720N-4M-flash Serial TP-out-TP-in

Terminal boot original firmware:
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jun  5 2012 - 17:17:34)
AP121 (ar9330) U-boot
DRAM:  32 MB
led turning on for 1s...
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 4194304, sector count = 64
Flash:  4 MB
Using default environment
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7240_enet_initialize...
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
: cfg1 0x5 cfg2 0x7114
eth0: 00:03:00:00:00:00
ag7240_phy_setup
eth0 up
: cfg1 0xf cfg2 0x7214
eth1: 00:03:00:00:00:00
athrs26_reg_init_lan
ATHRS26: resetting s26
ATHRS26: s26 reset done
ag7240_phy_setup
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
Autobooting in 1 seconds
## Booting image at 9f020000 ...
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
Starting kernel ...
Booting AR9330(Hornet)...
full boot log

Greetings,

(Last edited by mveplus on 6 Jul 2012, 13:21)

imperfectly using wr703 firmware
http://www.right.com.cn/forum/thread-81640-1-1.html

Hello mveplus,

I was looking for a device with 2 ports (WAN+LAN) as small as possible and found this device. I see it in front of me delivered from China this morning.

I want to put open/dd-wrt/whatever on top of it to run asterisk + USB 3G modem for voice.

I googled a bit and it looks like it is possible to flash it with TL-WR703N's custom firmware.

Do you have any progress with custom firmware so far?

(Last edited by gently on 10 Aug 2012, 12:36)

upgraded mine with "[20120825]720N-4M-USBTethering-MWAN2-NAS-3G-Printer-sysupgrade.bin" - works great, however has a lot of unnecessary services on board
2 NICs are working just fine:

upgraded the device with pure pack of wr703n - only one NIC is working, kernel doesn't seem to know about it

what is the way to enable the second port?

(Last edited by gently on 30 Aug 2012, 14:55)

@gently:
I am going to get one also.  Can you tell me you will need to do anything special when flash the 703n to 720n such as change the header?  Do you flash it from the web interface or tftp?

On chinese forums, people have released several roms made for the 720N. I would rather use these if I were you. Here is the link (direct one + translated with google):
http://www.right.com.cn/forum/thread-91571-1-1.html
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ … 1-1-1.html

Some other link:
TP-link official page on the 720N (in chinese also): http://www.tp-link.com.cn/pages/product … 64&t=1
Openwrt for Chinese (they speak a lot about the 720n there): www.openwrt.org.cn/

What it has inside:
-    Atheros AR7240 CPU (400Mhz)
-    Atheros AR9331 Chipset (integrated wireless)
-    802.11 b/g/n 150Mbps (130Mbps real)
-    wireless power output 20dBm - 100mW
-    4 MB flash memory
-    32 MB RAM (some older version has 16 MB?)
-    USB 2.0 port
-    1 WANT+ 1 LAN
-    Tiny form factor: 91mm x 75mm x 29mm

If you flash you router, please post your result here or, even better, in the wiki (in http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start#tp-link )

(Last edited by Chris000 on 14 Sep 2012, 15:52)

I had checked some of the Chinese links also regarding WR720n.  The one you mentioned (http://www.right.com.cn/forum/thread-91571-1-1.html) is the best.  If you register, you can see the full instruction for building the firmware.  The only issue is it will compile as 703n .bin files and you will need to change the header.  There are programs that can do that, e.g., the one mentioned here: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=36596 #7.
I already compiled one, but unfortunately, I will not be able to get one until October/November so I cannot try it out yet.  Once I get it and verified it works, I won't mind to post a wiki, if no one has done that yet at that time.

Edit:
I was too impatient to wait for getting the 720n so I tried the firmware compiled on a 710n.  I replaced the flash with a 703n 4M one and tried the firmware compiled with modifications for 720n.  it appears that it worked fine.  Both eth0 and eth1 were detected and functional.  However, the router then restarted because the 16M ram was overflown.  Oh well, I still have to wait for 720n or replacing the 16M ram.  I am not confident if I can do such a job or not, though.  There are just too many pins on the ram.

(Last edited by twinclouds on 15 Sep 2012, 05:15)

Same for me: I'm waiting mine and it should arrive in 2-3 weeks.

Thks for the tip regarding the extra info available once registered on their forum.

(Last edited by Chris000 on 17 Sep 2012, 09:26)

Hi Guys,

I flashed mine with the chineese modified firmware via standard web-interface ([antclan][20120825]720N-4M-USBTethering-MWAN2-NAS-3G-Printer). I assume that header was simply modified (703->720) and it fooled the device.

Later on, when openwrt was there, I flashed with 703 firmware via command line which worked with one NIC only.
I flashed back to 720 version to have 2 NICs, however did not really have time to play around with it.

(Last edited by gently on 17 Sep 2012, 10:40)

For enabling all the lan ports, you could test the 740nv4, but you would lack of usb support (but they're the same hardware).
You can use my build for 740nv4 with usb support which is on the Hardware hacking section.

I wonder if somebody will ever build/include this device into supported list? Or what is the way right way to have a kind of "official openwrt" firmware?

I built one already and tested on 710n.  Both eth0 and eth1 works.  Since it is based on 703n, the USB port should also work.  Just haven't test it on 720n yet because I don't have one on hand.  I don't know enough to add a new device to the openwrt build list so I just used a modified 703n instead.
Maybe someone should open a request to openwrt.

(Last edited by twinclouds on 17 Sep 2012, 17:16)

http://patchwork.openwrt.org/patch/2609/ - is that what you are mentioning (request to openwrt)?

Is your 710 stock? if so can I get a link to how you did flashed it?

I changed the flash of the 710 (2M) to an 703n flash (4M), which was replaced by an 8M flesh previously.  701n's 2M flash is too small for the firmware.

Not sure about the process.  The patch published cannot be used for the current trunk.  I tried to modify it without success.  Eventually, I used the method posted in the Chinese thread mentioned previously and it worked.   They are not the same.

Bump... Any recent changes?  Has anyone had any success building trunk for this?

I spent an hour or two trying to apply against trunk the submitted patch, and failed at patching 610-MIPS-ath79-openwrt-machines.patch correctly. A patch for a patch is less than ideal because line numbers changed and the patched patch does not apply. Getting this working is not very hard, but I didn't have time recently.

I just got my wr720n.  Looking to hook up the serial port.  Where are you guys connecting the ground for the serial connection?

Just an update...

I attached a serial console and installed openwrt trunk.  I did it by updating the patches submitted here:

https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/12312

Works pretty well.  I took some pics and notes, as well as posted the updated patches here:

https://oneitguy.com/blog/openwrt-tp-wr … vel-router

(Last edited by netprince on 27 Dec 2012, 04:18)

Thanks! I confirm it works. I applied the patch in my git branch here:

https://github.com/elecnix/openwrt/tree/wr720n-12312

I flashed with openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr720n-v3-squashfs-factory.bin from the factory web interface (in Chinese). The binary image and some packages are hosted here, if anyone wants to test:

http://marchildon.net/openwrt/tplink-wr720n/

Hi guys,

thanks for the great job done!

Am i right that if I want to update mine (currently with 703 firmware, single NIC) I should use this build:
http://marchildon.net/openwrt/tplink-wr … pgrade.bin ?

And can it be added somehow to the official trunk?

Since you already have OpenWrt, then yes, the sysupgrade image is the right one.

The patch was submitted, but I don't know what the acceptance process is. I have submitted one that no one seem to have looked at for months!

I just posted patches for r35052.  Builds but untested.

(Last edited by netprince on 8 Jan 2013, 18:23)

great!

(Last edited by gently on 28 Jan 2013, 16:31)