Hi,

Well, it doesn't have much to do with reverse engineering, but after some thinking I decided to endure this project. I have a bricked router (Aolink DR814Q ("http://www.h3c.com/portal/Products%5F%5F%5FSolutions/Products/SOHO/Aolynk%5FDR814Q%5FADSL2%2B%5FBroadband%5FRouter/")) laying around the storage room, so I decided to try to revive it. Maybe I could get access to low level functions of the router and bring it back to live.

After some "googling", I found myself looking at a RS232 to TTL ("http://radikaldesig.blogspot.com/2007/01/conversor-rs232-ttl.html") converter. That's all cool, but I don't have a serial port on my laptop... If I make a RS232 to TTL converter, I would have to get other converter, USB to RS232. That isn't cool, and RS232 is so last decade, USB is the new black, it goes well with everything.
I "googled" again, but this time for, USB to TTL. The first result was the FDTI Chip ("http://www.ftdichip.com") company, they developed a chip that does all the work, it just needs some external components and its good to rock, not to forget that it has a very good driver support, from Windows, passing trough Linux, and ending up in Mac. There are many kits already made with this chip (FTDI TTL-232R USB ("http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/TTL-232R.htm"), evaluation kit), but there's no fun in that.

So guess what, I decided to do it on my own. It will be hard since I'm a little bit inexperienced in electronics, specially when it comes to SMD components, but it will be fun. Its like riding a bicycle, or having sex, you will end up to screw up on the first time, but you will get it right on the second, or third, or with alot of practice.
And hey, it will be my first zombie. I just need to wait for the first semester tests on college to end, and I will be good to go.

Schematic USB to TTL ("http://www.ftdichip.com/Images/ttl232rsch1.jpg")

Best regards to all the readers,
saphex

https://www.openrce.org/blog/view/1040/Something_different