Upgrade an ASUS WL-500gP to control my RIG

I have now purchased already two ASUS WL-500gP, because they are really well equipped and they make an excellent platform to do some really thrilling experiments.

1 Access the root shell through the serial port

This requires to purchase or build a level shifter.

2 Build a new case

Since I plan to do so many experiments and enhancements to the router, I need a new case. I have developed a technique to build new cases with one-sided PCBs.

• Photographs to follow

3 Integrate two level shifters into the new case

The new case will also contain according interfaces to connect to the serial ports on the board.

• Photographs to follow

4 Use another USB interface

The VIA USB controller chip actually has four pinout sets for USB interfaces. The first sub-experiment aims to connect at least one of them and to provide fixed storage over a USB memory stick.

• Photographs to follow!

5 Integrate a USB hub into the newly built case

Since I plan to connect a multitude of devices, I need more than the few slots.

• Photographs to follow

6 Build an electricity switch

Recently I have purchased a 8 relay card from a seller from Bulgaria which is controlled through an ATMEL Tiny chip, which again is accessible through a USB2Serial FTDI chip. Since I have compiled FTDI support into my OpenWRT image, I can access the ATMEL.

The control is fairly simple: I just need to set the interface speed to 9600 Bit/s and send a certain combination of characters to the serial device /dev/ttyUSB0.