ECB-9500 - pinout? monitor-mode? do we know?

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PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:39    Post subject: ECB-9500 - pinout? monitor-mode? do we know? Reply with quote
Okay now I got an Engenius ECB-9500 (aka ECB-9750) here it was the next best thing I could get at fry's after I tried the ASUS RTN-66U. I had to take the Asus back to the store because broadcom decided to withhold monitor mode in their driver and b43 / b43_legacy don't support the bcm4331 in that box. Broadcom sucks ass, I hate their guts, they owe me hours of research and work.

So I got the Engenius ECB-9500 instead because it looks like it has a Realtek chipset I might get monitor mode to work on. So I got the box open and voided $99 worth of warranty (meaning I can't bring it back if I don't get monitor mode). Well if that's the case then I just bought 3 2.4GHz antennas for $33 each.

Oh yeah I explored the redboot port tcp/9000 theory on it, but I don't think it's configured for ethernet. I tried like a dozen times with all sorts of ip's 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2 (because it changes to that ip when it's in client-bridge), 192.168.1.10 (because some other engenius box uses that address). The thing however is once power is applied to the board it takes like 10 seconds for the ethernet interface to go active. If redboot was set up for ethernet the ethernet should come up much earlier.

Anyhow looking at the board (board version 1.0.3) I notice two things right away.. there's a connector with 6 pins nested between the L-shaped and the rectangle shaped shields, and right next to that are 8 contact points evenly spaced in row which are most likely for jtag.

So the questions are:

****
Does anyone know what the pin-out is for either the serial or the jtag?? The last posts from people getting it to work are from years(!) ago and they didn't share their info.

Am I going to get monitor mode? Doesn't matter if you guys didn't compile it in, if there's a known way for me to enable it in the chipset I can get to it.

****
Let me know, thanks guys!
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LOM
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:18    Post subject: Reply with quote
It is most likely the 6-pin header connector which then will have 2 ground pins in one end, 2 3.3V pins in the other end, tx and rx pins in the middle.
You'll have to find out yourself which one is tx and which one is rx, signal level is 3.3V TTL.

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PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 13:09    Post subject: Reply with quote
LOM wrote:
It is most likely the 6-pin header connector which then will have 2 ground pins in one end, 2 3.3V pins in the other end, tx and rx pins in the middle.
You'll have to find out yourself which one is tx and which one is rx, signal level is 3.3V TTL.


Awesome bro, thanks for getting back on this, I know a lot about hw from a programmer's perspective but I've handled a soldering maybe once or twice in my life. Yeah I can figure out with a multimeter which pin is which, at least I'm going to find the 3.3V pins. I'm not sure if attaching an USB2Serial converter directly is a good idea though..

Looking at wikipedia's article on RS-232:
Quote:

...The standard specifies a maximum open-circuit voltage of 25 volts: signal levels of ±5 V, ±10 V, ±12 V, and ±15 V are all commonly seen depending on the power supplies available within a device. RS-232 drivers and receivers must be able to withstand indefinite short circuit to ground or to any voltage level up to ±25 volts...


I really don't know, is that a concern? Obviously the USB2Serial is going to be powered from USB, so could that just fry the RX on the device?
LOM
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 14:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is not RS-232 so you can only use a std USB to Serial RS-232adapter of the kind you buy in a computer shop if you put an RS-232 to TTL level converter in between.

Better is to get a USB to TTL serial adapter like the Nokia DKU-5/CA-42 which can be had for a few bucks on Ebay or Amazon.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Serial_Recovery

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 19:02    Post subject: Reply with quote
LOM wrote:
This is not RS-232 so you can only use a std USB to Serial RS-232adapter of the kind you buy in a computer shop if you put an RS-232 to TTL level converter in between.

Better is to get a USB to TTL serial adapter like the Nokia DKU-5/CA-42 which can be had for a few bucks on Ebay or Amazon.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Serial_Recovery


I kind of figured I could put a bunch of resistors in between to limit the voltage but then I looked it up on the web and there they are also using diodes, the reason for which those are needed I do not understand and I am a noob with electronics. Probably easier just to use the cable, thanks bro.
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