Router debricking > Help in defining the right connector

[adyagdam]

Hello Community

Please take it easy with me as I am a complete novice.

I am planning to debrick a router however after getting all the tools I need I think I need more but I don't know the name for this specific connector which I hope some of you will recognize and help.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/_detail/media/tl-wr1043nd.rxjumper.png?id=toh:tp-link:tl-wr1043nd

I have the following tools:

-PA21 crimp tool
-Various precision pliers
-wires

My challenge is to connect to the pins of RS232 without cutting the cable of it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A16DOJNYBMLIQ3

is this above the same as below?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Molex-Fem...uting_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item565ae70631

It is so I can connect to GND, Tx, Rx of this cable to my router's serial connections.

I thought about buying an RS232 female chasis socket and solder the wires but it seems pointless extra bulky connector.

Old story: I had tried a cheap Nokia CA-42 cable wishing that it would have the right serial converter chip (Prolific 2303) but it did not work under Windows 7 64bit < driver installs and it fails to initiate, same happens under Windows XP.

Anyone willing to help ?

 

[pebe]

I am a complete novice at modern jargon. What is 'debrick'?

 

[(*steve*)]

Let's assume you have some piece of equipment that you want to place custom firmware onto.

Let's assume that you make a mistake and the firmware (for whatever reason) doesn't work.

Then assume that the firmware itself provides the means of both providing all the device's functionality AND the ability to update the firmware.

Without working firmware the device will do nothing. It will do no more than a house brick.

You have "bricked" the unit.

Clearly the device was programmed from scratch when it was built (but perhaps they used a pre-programmed microcontroller). Typically there will be some programming adapter (or the vestiges of one) on the board. Often this will be a JTAG port. Properly addressed the JTAG port can provide access to whatever the designer connected it to -- perhaps several chips.

With a JTAG adapter and some knowledge, you can often reprogram the microcontroller with either the bootloader program or the desired firmware.

Once you have done this, the device is useful again, and no longer a fancy shaped and coloured brick. You have "de-bricked" it.

I am no JTAG wizard, in fact the original poster is just setting up an RS232 connection. Clearly the firmware is still working, it's just badly mis-configured.

In answer to adyagdam, her's what he should do:

1) don't cut the cable of the USB to RS232 adapter. All of thee smarts is in the RS232 end and cutting the USB cable would not be useful.

2) get a female 9 pin solder-cup D connector and solder wires to that and plug it into your adapter.

3) the molex pins seem correct, although you might consider a three pin header socket like one you can steal from an old CPU fan

4) it looks like the connector on the router's board is a three pin single row pin header (with a 90 degree bend). As long as you fet a single row header, you can snap them off wherever you want, so if you can only get 4 or 6 pin headers, that's fine.

5) The small jumper wire needs to be soldered very carefully. I would recommend wire wrap wire and pre-existing experience with soldering. If you don't have experience, get an old motherboard or something and practice soldering small jumper wires onto it in places similar to this (i.e. onto the end of surface mount components.)

 

[pebe]

In short ....... to repair it!

 

[(*steve*)]

In short ....... to repair it!

No, to get the software inside it to talk again when you have borked something up.

A "bricked" device is typically totally functional from a hardware point of view, it just won't do anything because the software has ceased functioning.

 

[pebe]

Dictionary definition:

re·pair [ri-pair]
verb (used with object)

1. to restore to a good or sound condition after decay or damage; mend: to repair a motor.
2. to restore or renew by any process of making good, strengthening, etc.: to repair one's health by resting.
3. to remedy; make good; make up for: to repair damage; to repair a deficiency.

 

[(*steve*)]

Yes, so it's definitely not repair. It's reprogramming.

The device when bricked is operating perfectly according to its hardware design and programming. It's just that the program isn't doing what YOU want it to and you have no trivial way to fix it.

That's not to say that a fault can't brick something. In that case you have 2 problems, a fault needing repair and a bricked device needing reprogramming.

In any case, it's not really a technical term. It's slang. I'm sure some people's usage differs from mine.

 

[pebe]

Let's assume that you make a mistake and the firmware (for whatever reason) doesn't work……
……… You have "bricked" the unit.

Yes, so it's definitely not repair. It's reprogramming.

If when you make the mistake and the firmware doesn’t work (presumably it did before your action) then you have rendered the unit faulty. If putting the fault right is not repairing it, then we speak different languages.