This wifi router has Chinese Interface, which is almost impossible to read for me

(1) Does anyone know for which TP Link model/type this is the clone
(2) Any idea to reflash firmware into English?

Thanks

If you can take some photos of the PCB, Maybe i have some advice to offer.

See attached photos (if I can upload them)
I hope with this you can give me advice.
Thanks

I do not understand how to enclose pictures into message
The blabla for the help does not help....
any idea for a stupid nerd like me to upload pictures into this topic??

The best way is to put your pictures on a dedicated site, such as ImageShack, then link here to the pictures!

Simply list the part number of the CPU and memory
Or connect serial cable, copy the boot log which contains the chipset information is ok

OK, here it is. As I am not sure about, which chip is what, I've listed everyone of them:

1 x Atheros AR9582-AR1A PHH142-008 122 Taiwain
1 x Atheros AR9344-BC2A PCY303.99B 1210 Taiwain
2 x Hynix H5PS5162GFR Y5C 224V NWKH0585HZ2
1 x Sealed bracket MOG H7201DG 1221E
Motherboard:  PCB 2050500263 Rev 1.0 (no brandmarking found)

I hope this helps in determining the correct replacement/compatible firmware

(Last edited by boldiekopf on 2 Mar 2014, 16:10)

I'd say it's a clone of WDR3500

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr3500

I can prepare a test image but you should have a ttl serial interface up and running in case of brick!

I am sorry, but there is no serial connection at the modem.
It only contains 1xWAN- and 4x LAN- port. Any idea how? Maybe virtual port?

(Last edited by boldiekopf on 3 Mar 2014, 06:52)

look in wiki... there are serial pads on the board, and you will need a ttl serial adapter...

I found some kind of header on the PCB, but unsure about conversion.
Can I just solder the stuff on, or do I need some kind of conversion pcb TTL adapter.
I am not a electronics geek, but the wiki article assumes extended knowledge of digital signals.
I found some kind of TTL convertor, but unsure if I can use it without frying my usb port.
Some kind of assistance would be nice, else i have to try it as is with risk of full loss.

btw I have no firmware file, so i need first to download the current firmware to somewhere safe, before updating it.....?

have a look at http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/hardware/port.serial

I will take my chances with the new firmware as the information of this wiki page is too unclear for me to execute properly. Worst case I loose the router .........
I will wait for the test image you promised to create for me..

Well, You have 128MB DDR RAM.
You did not list the flash memory P/N, in general it's an 8 pin chip.
I think TP-link WDR3500 is a good indication.

Anyway, if you have a flash memory programmer,
You can simply backup the current firmware and program an Tp-link or OpenWrt firmware.

Well thanks for the info
Just to make sure it is still the supposed wdr3500, i checked and registered the supposed mem chip:
cFeon a.32B-104HIP AJD406A7 1216 TMA
can you verifiy this?

I also decided to go for the thing to buy a TTL -USB convertor (see http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product … 0657.html) and (http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Safe-Shi … 82135.html) and locate the correct connections first as my initial reaction was to take the risk, but I re-evaluated that remark and decided to go the safe way.

test build based on WDR3500, as promised.

it's trunk r39203 + Luci:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bysok4ufqp8yn … actory.bin

EDIT: seems it have 4mb flash instead of 8mb like wdr3500?

NOT TESTED!

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 7 Mar 2014, 20:33)

Thanks for the bin file.
I will wait for the delivery of the TTL-USB convertor before i flash it.
I read somewhere not to flash using GUI, but the console ....? How to do that??
and .... what/how effects 4mb flash the trunk install? any idea?

the standard method is flash using stock firmware GUI.

flash from uboot console is necessary for debrick, you can follow same steps of other models:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl- … inal.image

obviously using firmware image from mercury. BTW do you have a link to download the firmware you are "using" now, that hopefully is accepted by the GUI?

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 9 Mar 2014, 15:43)

The flash is 4MB. Don't flash fw larger the 3.9MB in 4MB flash.
You need the usb2uart cable to access the console.
before you try to flash the new FW, Beware to backup your original FW, especially for the art partition.
If the art data lost,  you can not start the wlan in Openwrt.
Unfortunately have no idea how to backup data use uboot.

Sorry to revive a 2014 post, but I also own one of these routers and its chinese interface just drive me crazy!

I'd like to inform that I've tried nebbia88's firmware and unfortunately it didn't work, but at least it didn't bricked my router either. It just tells me that the firmware is wrong and I should check for a correct firmware (thanks Google Tradutor).

If anyone still would like to work on these routers, I'd gladly offer mine to tests. I'm not exactly a programmer, but I'm very good in following directions! Just let me know.

Cheers.