I bricked my router by flashing the wrong firmware to it.
I bought a nokia dku-5 cable and have got it connected as a serial port to the TL-wr703n
I can't seem to enter "tpl" at the U-boot prompt. I've tried absolutely everything.
I originally posted a thread on Reddit, with more detail about my situation:
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ … _tlwr703n/

My U-boot output:
http://pastebin.com/HFsPqtzB

If anyone could help me it would be greatly appreciated.

It's quite a small time window to be able to slam those keyboard buttons and I'm simply not that fast so I do it a bit more simplified. Instead of typing, copy "tpl" to your clip-board and before booting the router firmware you rightclick in the terminal window....bang, your in!

1. connect serial cable and open terminal window
2. type "tpl" in notepad and then select it and right! click to choose to copy the string to clipboard
3. activate the terminal window by left! click on the window frame, and put the mouse pointer inside the window
4. start the router, when you see "Autobooting in 1 seconds" you simply press the right! button on the mouse and you should be in recovery mode instantly

I've tried that but it still doesn't let me in, it just keeps booting.

Ok, sounds like you possibly don't get the signal through. Try to connect the two signal cables with each other (tx, rx) and see if you get an echo in the terminal when hitting the keyboard. If that is working you might want to check the soldering on the router.

(Last edited by Lennong on 14 May 2012, 18:33)

I haven't soldered anything to the router, I'm just using sticky tape to hold the wires onto the board. When I hold the transmit and receive wires together my typed text comes up in the terminal, So I know that the cable is working.

That's probably why it's not working, bad contact to the pads.

is hardware handshake disabled ?