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By brando56894
#188822
Hi I purchased a MicroUSB to Serial Breakout - FT232RL to access the serial connection on my TP-Link Archer C7 router since it won't boot OpenWRT, but still seems to work fine as a switch. After soldering in the leads and powering on the router I don't see any console output, the guys over at OpenWRT have been trying to help me to no success, but I want to make sure that I'm using the board correctly since this is my first time doing something like this (soldering in a serial connection).

Here's all the specs of the router: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/ar ... 500#serial

Here's my thread about my issue: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=63516

Underside of the board, Ground connection
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top of the board Rx (Top, Yellow) and Tx (Bottom, Blue) connections
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The FTDI Chip
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The router PCB looks a little worse for wear because the soldering iron I had started with originally was old and had a pretty blunt tip. So when I ordered the chip and the other stuff I ordered another iron, which had a really pointy tip and works a lot better.
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By Ross Robotics
#188829
I don't see any reason why it would be the FT232 giving you trouble. I read your post over at OpenWRT and looks like you have went through all the normal troubleshooting steps. I don't have any advice but maybe someone else will reply.
By brando56894
#188834
Good to know I didn't screw anything up haha Thanks for the confirmation! I may have killed something when I initially soldered the first pin header on since I was using an old soldering iron with a blunt tip, or maybe the TTL to USB I was trying to use before burnt something out, because after that was when I started to have problems. I'll probably just end up buying another router. Sucks that I brought it back from the dead (had a bad flash of OpenWRT and I never fixed it, until a week or two ago) only to kill it again hahaha At least they're relatively cheap now.