{"id":480,"date":"2008-10-30T10:06:55","date_gmt":"2008-10-30T17:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=480"},"modified":"2022-12-28T12:00:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T20:00:18","slug":"building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Wifi Radio &#8211; Part 3, Hacking the Asus WL-520GU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is the third part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-1-introduction\/\">part one<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-2-choosing-an-embedded-platform\/\">part two<\/a> for some background about the project.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Hacking the Asus WL-520GU Wireless Router:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In the <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-2-choosing-an-embedded-platform\/\">last part of this series<\/a>, I selected the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asus.com\/products.aspx?l1=12&amp;l2=43&amp;l3=0&amp;l4=0&amp;model=1671&amp;modelmenu=1\">Asus WL-520GU<\/a> wireless router as a suitable embedded platform for my Wifi Radio project.\u00a0 I have since posted <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/detailed-specs-for-the-asus-wl-520gu-uber-hacking-platform\/\">some detailed specs<\/a> on this impressive low-cost router, revealing it&#8217;s powerful <a href=\"http:\/\/www.broadcom.com\/collateral\/pb\/5354-PB01-R.pdf\">Broadcom BCM5354 core<\/a>, 4MB flash, and 16MB SRAM.\u00a0 Granted, there are many more powerful routers out there that have USB support, will run Linux in various forms, and have built-in WiFi.\u00a0 However, the WL-520GU does almost everything we need to build a streaming internet radio and costs under $50 (I have seen them for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tkqlhce.com\/click-3238164-10440897?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newegg.com%2FProduct%2FProduct.aspx%3FItem%3DN82E16833320023%26nm_mc%3DAFC-C8Junction%26cm_mmc%3DAFC-C8Junction-_-Network%2B-%2BWireless%2BRouters-_-ASUS-_-33320023&amp;cjsku=N82E16833320023\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">as little as $26 after rebate<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.awltovhc.com\/image-3238164-10440897\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>), which is very impressive indeed.<\/p>\n<p>To convert this router into a powerful <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Embedded_system\">embedded system<\/a>, we need to make a couple modifications.\u00a0 First, we need to throw out the stock <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Firmware\">firmware<\/a>. It turns out that this router, like many others, <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/wl520gu-stock-firmware-boot.txt\">runs Linux from the factory<\/a>.\u00a0 However, because it was designed to be a wireless router and not much else, the stock firmware doesn&#8217;t include a very wide set of features (and certainly was not intended to be accessed by the customer).\u00a0 Thankfully, there are several open source Linux distributions available that support this router, including my favorite, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openwrt.org\">OpenWrt<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asus.com\">Asus<\/a> has made it fairly straightforward replace the stock firmware with our own custom Linux build which can include all the programs, drivers, and utilities we can cram into 4MB of flash.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Warning:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Before we start hacking the router, there are a couple things I should mention:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>From this point onward, your warranty is toast. <\/strong> Don&#8217;t even <strong>THINK <\/strong>about trying to send a modified router back to Asus for warranty service.\u00a0 In the end it hurts people like us, because Asus will try to make it harder for people to perform the same modifications in future products.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You may inadvertently destroy your router.<\/strong> If you are not comfortable with the fact that a misstep during the reflash or a stray solder bridge could ruin your hardware, stop now.\u00a0 Sorry.\u00a0 If you really take a wrong turn, you could damage your PC as well, but this is extremely unlikely.\u00a0 <em>If you do somehow damage your router or PC doing these modifications, I assume no responsibility for any damages! <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This tutorial assumes that you have already established the router is basically working by assembling it, plugging it in and checking for it&#8217;s wireless signal and internal webserver.\u00a0 The user manual does a good job of leading you through this process, but don&#8217;t use the supplied CD &#8211; follow the advanced\/manual instructions instead.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Accessing the internal serial port:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openwrt.org\">OpenWrt<\/a> install will be easier if we can find a way to access the internal serial port of the router.\u00a0 The built-in serial port gives us a way to view Linux boot and status messages and get <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shell_access\">shell access<\/a> as well.\u00a0 The serial port will also come in handy later when we want to add a user interface to the radio.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>You will need:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>A desktop or laptop computer with an open USB and Ethernet port. <em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Your shiny new ASUS WL-520GU wireless router (R1.02)<\/li>\n<li>A strip of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparkfun.com\/commerce\/product_info.php?products_id=116\">breakaway 0.1&#8243; male header<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftdichip.com\/Products\/EvaluationKits\/TTL-232R-3V3.htm\">FTDI-232-3V3<\/a> USB to serial adapter cable ($20 @ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adafruit.com\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;products_id=70&amp;sessid=6248f75fb3ff275fdfa9bacf419ca4e5\">Adafruit<\/a>) or some other means of connecting a 3.3V level serial port to your PC<\/li>\n<li>A small scrap of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparkfun.com\/commerce\/product_info.php?products_id=8814\">perfboard<\/a> and a strip of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparkfun.com\/commerce\/product_info.php?products_id=115\">female 0.1&#8243; header<\/a> (not strictly necessary, see below)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">-and-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A basic electronics workbench with ample light, a temperature controlled soldering iron, a solder sucker, solderbraid, wirecutters, and pliers.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.servomagazine.com\/\">Servo Magazine<\/a> recently held a contest to see who could build the best electronics workbench for under $100, <a href=\"http:\/\/forum.servomagazine.com\/viewtopic.php?t=8370\">the results<\/a> should be helpful for anyone just starting out.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re uncomfortable soldering, find someone else to help you with this part at your local <a href=\"http:\/\/hackerspaces.org\/wiki\/Hacker_Spaces\">hackerspace<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>Step 1 &#8211; Open the router<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Remove the power cord and antenna (the base unscrews).\u00a0 Flip the router over and look at the bottom.\u00a0 You should see something like this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2980057258_b14b4fbd5b.jpg\" alt=\"Asus WL-520GU\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Note there are four screws that hold the router together, two are hidden underneath the rubber feet.\u00a0 The feet are stuck on really well, but persistent prying with a fingernail will get them off eventually.\u00a0 Remove the four screws and set them aside.\u00a0 The top cover should come off without too much trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Now that the router is open, you should see something like this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2950280015_910ea93e73.jpg\" alt=\"Asus WL-520GU Wireless Router\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Step 2 &#8211; Add a serial port header<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Remove the PCB from the plastic enclosure by gently pulling it up and towards you (ethernet ports facing away).<\/p>\n<p>Just to the left of the ASUS logo in the photo below, you will see a 4-pin header that I have installed to access the internal serial port of the router, the router ships without this header.\u00a0 Instead, you will see four solder filled vias in a row in the same spot.<\/p>\n<p>You will need to use your soldering iron and a solder sucker to remove most of the solder so that the header can be installed.\u00a0 A higher power soldering iron will help with removing solder from the first via on the left (mine is a 60W <a href=\"javascript:OnClick=self.openwindow('037103001146')\">Weller WTCPT<\/a>).\u00a0 This via connects to a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ground_plane#Printed_circuit_boards\">ground plane<\/a> which sucks heat away from the iron and makes the job more difficult.\u00a0 Be patient and persistent and you should be able to wick any remaining solder away with some soldering braid if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Break a 4-pin chunk of male header off the strip.\u00a0 Pop the header into the board and carefully solder it into place.\u00a0 If it doesn&#8217;t fit, chances are there is still some solder left in the vias.\u00a0 You should end up with something like this:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2980058214_09a5945b38.jpg\" alt=\"WL-520GU serial port\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The pin functions are, from left to right in the photo:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>GND\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0TX\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0RX\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.3V<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Step 3 &#8211; Connect your PC<\/h4>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftdichip.com\/Products\/EvaluationKits\/TTL-232R-3V3.htm\">FTDI-232-3V3<\/a> USB to serial adapter cable provides a handy way to add a 3.3V TTL level serial port to a PC or laptop.\u00a0 The cable has a flat connector on the serial end that can plug directly onto 0.1&#8243; male headers like the one we are using on the router.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the pinout of the FTDI cable (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftdichip.com\/Documents\/DataSheets\/Modules\/DS_TTL-232R_CABLES_V201.pdf\">given in the datasheet<\/a>) does not match that of the router.\u00a0 To resolve this, you have two options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use a tiny screwdriver to pull out the pins from the housing at the cable and rearrange them.\u00a0 Do not connect anything to the 3.3V pin on the router, and swap the TX\/RX so that the TX on the router feeds RX on the cable, and vice-versa.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t forget to connect the grounds!\u00a0 The downside of this is that now you can&#8217;t use the FTDI cable for things like the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ladyada.net\/make\/boarduino\/\">Boarduino<\/a> without swapping the pins back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">-or-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fabricate an adapter board using a small piece of perfboard and some headers, shown below (click for a larger version):<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2979200785_01c8d3c294_m.jpg\" alt=\"Asus wireless router serial port adapter\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2980057458_e364b3857d_m.jpg\" alt=\"Asus wireless router serial port adapter\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here is a schematic of the adapter board:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"481\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu\/asus-serial-port-adapter\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter.png\" data-orig-size=\"528,393\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Asus Serial Port Adapter\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Adapts WL-520GU serial port to FTDI-232-3V3 USB-serial cable&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter.png\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-481\" title=\"Asus Serial Port Adapter\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter.png 528w, https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/asus-serial-port-adapter-300x223.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shown here are the cable and adapter installed on the router.\u00a0 Make sure the ground side of the cable is connected to the pin on the header that is <strong>opposite<\/strong> from the fat angled trace (the 3.3V line).\u00a0 Ground is the black wire, on my adapter I marked this with a black dot so I won&#8217;t forget and plug it in backwards.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2980057918_e1b12e577a.jpg\" alt=\"WL-520GU with serial cable installed\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Step 4 &#8211; Test the connection<\/h4>\n<p>Plug the cable into your PC (you may need some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ftdichip.com\/Drivers\/VCP.htm\">drivers<\/a>) and open your favorite terminal program.\u00a0 (I like <a href=\"http:\/\/homepage.mac.com\/dalverson\/zterm\/\">Zterm<\/a> for the Mac or Hyperterminal on the PC.) \u00a0 Using the terminal program, open the serial port corresponding to the FTDI cable (something like <em>usbserial-FTDQ23LB<\/em> on the Mac or <em>COM3<\/em> on the PC, but your setup may be different.)\u00a0\u00a0 Set the port options to 115200 baud, 8N1.<\/p>\n<p>Connect the antenna and power supply to the router and plug it in.\u00a0 You should see something like this appear in your terminal program:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<pre>Decompressing..........done<\/pre>\n<pre>CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)<\/pre>\n<pre>Build Date: Thu Mar\u00a0 6 10:05:04 CST 2008 (root@localhost.localdomain)<\/pre>\n<pre>Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.<\/pre>\n<pre>Initializing Arena<\/pre>\n<pre>Initializing Devices.<\/pre>\n<pre>Boot partition size = 131072(0x20000)<\/pre>\n<pre>et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10\/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.130.31.0<\/pre>\n<pre>\r\n<pre>Total memory: 16384 KBytes<\/pre>\n<pre>CPU type 0x29029: 240MHz\r\n...<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you do, congratulations, your serial port is working!<\/p>\n<p>The lines that scroll by are boot messages from the Linux <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Linux_kernel\">kernel<\/a> of the stock firmware on the router.\u00a0 These messages give you a lot of information about the hardware in addition to information about the operating system and software drivers.\u00a0 Here is a <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/wl520gu-stock-firmware-boot.txt\">complete transcript of the boot log<\/a> from my router.\u00a0 If you wait a couple minutes for the router to finish booting and hit enter, you should see a command prompt.\u00a0 From here you can explore and play around with the stock firmware, there is really not much to do here until we reflash the router with OpenWrt.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it for part three.\u00a0 In <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-4-installing-openwrt\/\">part four<\/a>, I&#8217;ll talk about installing OpenWrt and connecting the router to your wireless network.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-4-installing-openwrt\/\">Part four is now available.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 2:<\/strong> There is a new <a href=\"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/forum\/viewforum.php?f=2\">Wifi Radio Discussion Forum<\/a>, hop over there to ask questions about the project or see what other people are working on!\u00a0 (<em>4\/12\/09)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the third part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out part one and part two for some background about the project. Hacking the Asus WL-520GU Wireless Router: In the last part of this series, I selected the Asus WL-520GU wireless &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Building a Wifi Radio &#8211; Part 3, Hacking the Asus WL-520GU<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,443],"tags":[83,85,66,84,71,82,162],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","category-projects-2","tag-asus","tag-ftdi","tag-linux","tag-serial","tag-streaming-radio","tag-wifi","tag-wifiradio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-7K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/detailed-specs-for-the-asus-wl-520gu-uber-hacking-platform\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":0},"title":"Detailed specs for the Asus WL-520GU uber hacking platform","author":"Jeff","date":"October 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous post about the Wifi Radio project I'm working on, I concluded that the Asus WL-520GU wireless router was the perfect choice for an embedded wireless platform, thanks to its builtin 802.11g WiFi, Linux support, and extremely low cost. (In fact, the price after rebate has dropped since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Projects&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Projects","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/projects-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Asus WL-520GU Wireless Router","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2950279643_374493fa81.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-2-choosing-an-embedded-platform\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":1},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio &#8211; Part 2, Choosing an Embedded Platform","author":"Jeff","date":"October 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the second part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 if you haven't already, check out part one for some background about the project. Onward... In part one, I discussed the merits of streaming internet radio and the motivations for my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electronics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/hammer_01-large-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":888,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/asus-wl-520gu-for-1999-after-mir\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":2},"title":"Asus WL-520GU for $19.99 after MIR","author":"Jeff","date":"December 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Newegg.com has the ASUS WL-520gU Wireless Router on sale again for $19.99 after MIR. This is the cheapest I have seen it this year.\u00a0 You can do a lot of cool stuff with this device, aside from using it as intended - as a very low cost wireless router +\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asus\"","block_context":{"text":"Asus","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/tag\/asus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wifi Radio Project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/2950279643_374493fa81.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1655,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/video-hacking-the-asus-router-for-the-tweet-a-watt\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":3},"title":"Video: Hacking the ASUS router for the Tweet-a-Watt","author":"Jeff","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned last week, Adafruit Industries is hacking the Asus WL-520gU wireless router to talk to the Tweet-a-Watt. Their hack is based on the work I did to create my Wifi Radio project. Check out the video below to learn more about their cool hack!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electronics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1938,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/wl-520gu-for-3499-after-rebate-neweggcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":4},"title":"WL-520gU for $34.99 after rebate @ Newegg.com","author":"Jeff","date":"June 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Newegg.com is currently offering the Asus WL-520gU for $34.99 after rebate. This is the lowest price I have seen in a while, so if you've been debating picking one of these up to play with, it might be a good time to buy. The WL-520gU is the very hackable wireless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asus\"","block_context":{"text":"Asus","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/tag\/asus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.ftjcfx.com\/image-3238164-10440897","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2152,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/david-nichols-tweetster-a-wireless-tweets-display\/","url_meta":{"origin":480,"position":5},"title":"David Nichols&#8217; Tweetster, a wireless Twitter display","author":"Jeff","date":"July 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"David Nichols made this awesome wireless twitter display by combining a hacked Asus WL-520gU wireless router with a Sparkfun serial-enabled LCD display.\u00a0 The router is running the same OpenWrt distribution I used for my Wifi Radio project, plus a USB thumbdrive that provides some additional flash storage space.\u00a0 I really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asus\"","block_context":{"text":"Asus","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/tag\/asus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/tweetster2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15808,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/15808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}