Under the impression that I bricked my C7 while trying to solder in a UART (it would only work as a switch) I bought another one off of ebay. Like an idiot I didn't test the new one (with stock firmware) before I soldered in the wires and connected it to a FT232R, then connected the FT232R to my pc via a MicroUSB cable. I didn't get any output once again, and I noticed that the USB lights stayed on (once again) while I had the chip connected. I turned it off and disconnected the USB cable and booted it back up again, this time the USB lights only stayed on for a few seconds and it continued to boot.

This time I got an IP address from it, and I was able to ping it, but it refused to connect to the web interface (tried both HTTP and HTTPS on the gateway IP that it gave me). So while it was on I held down the WPS/Reset button for about 20 seconds and all the lights lit up and then went dark, then I released the button and it rebooted. I'm still getting an IP from it, I can ping it, it is broadcasting on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (they're protected, I don't remember if this is normal), but I still can't access the web UI.

The status lights seem to dance back and forth: the power light is steady, the asterisk (system light?) blinks slowly, and the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz lights alternate quickly (0.5-1 second). I did a 30/30/30 reset and that didn't seem to help at all.

Anyone have any idea what's up with it?

(Last edited by brando56894 on 8 Apr 2016, 03:35)

My telepathic abilities tell me that you flashed a firmware which doesn't have Web UI.

Your telepathic abilities are no match for me! :-P I didn't flash anything, I never even turned it on before soldering in the leads (it's all above hahaha) I think the problem is that it has to be connected to the internet for it to work. The sticker on the bottom has a web address and I don't have mine connected to my working network nor the internet at large.

Hopefully I can just connect it to my working network since it defaults to 192.168.0.1 and I'm using 192.168.1.1, otherwise swapping out my pfSense router with the C7 would be annoying with Verizon Fios since the DHCP lease timeout takes forever.

Edit: What I proposed above works, and I can access the normal config page! I don't have the FT232R connected at all but at least I know it works now. Now on to flashing OpenWRT.

Edit 2: I got it all to work.

(Last edited by brando56894 on 8 Apr 2016, 03:34)