I attempted to install the ath79 upgrade without preserving my settings. Now I can't interact with the router in any way. It just sits there with the power light on.
Is there any way I can get it into some kind of fail safe mode to attempt another flash?
Just a thought;
How do you know it is bricked?
The ath79 is a snapshot without the GUI. So you have to SSH to get access to the router (and install Luci)..
plug it into the wan port instead of the lan port. (and/or check all of the switch ports)
My guess is that the lan/wan have swapped during the transition to ath79.
and/or enable wireshark on your access computer and see what comes out of the router. There should be some ARP requests and maybe something with a source IP on it in case the router has changed it to something else.
Thanks everybody. I eventually forced my laptop to the correct IP, powered on the router with the reset button in, put on tplink factory firmware, then moved to 19.07rc1. it's nice to have the router back.