Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:20 Post subject: WRT54G serial project
OK, I will need some community help with this one. My idea is to take my old WRT54G Ver 3 router, install 2 serial ports and an SD card slot, as per projects I have seen online, plug in a 4 port relay board into one of the serial ports, and use the router as a controller for certain power plugs in my house. Basically, I can do the hardware thing, have the stuff ordered, but I am seriously lacking in the software department. I want to be able to access the control program via web interface, and change settings if need be. This seems to be a neat little home automation project, and with the variety of serial interfaced relay boards out there, the possibilities are endless. So, if any of you have any ideas as to the programming aspect, and how to interface it with DD_WRT, that would be great! Eventually, I would like to add inputs, such as temperature, light sensors, motion sensors, etc. But for now, I am starting small...lol. Let me know your thoughts. And thanks.
Anyone have any good ideas on how I could modify a gui in order to control an external relay board on a serial port run off the wrt54G? I've got all the parts on order, I know that dd-wrt has sd support built in, I just need an easy interface to control the 4-relay board via serial port. I also know that open-wrt has some external gui support available, but I really have no idea how to edit anything like that...any ideas?
Well, I got the serial ports and SD card reader in, did all the soldering and loaded one of Eko's builds onto it. Only to find out the walkthrough I had was for a v3 of the wrt54g, not the v2.2 as I need. That's ok, I did figure out that my gpio3 is not soldered to the correct spot, so I will fix that when I have time, so my sdcard works. Otherwise, project is progressing nicely. Another thing I realized, is that I will probably need another microcontroller to control the 4 relay board I bought, as the control on the relay board has 4 seperate pins, one for each relay. That's ok though, I may end up making one myself, just to control the 4 relays. Anyway, just thought I would update this thread as to the progress. Really, my next big hurdle will be software, but I have found some nice open source that may work. I mean, the router has a 200Mhz processor, more then enough speed to send zero's and one's
Alright, just a quick update. I have installed both the dual serial ports and the SD card slot, loaded up DD-WRT and all is working. Now, on to bigger and better things. Once I have time again....gotta love summer for all the outdoor projects.
I have access via hyperterminal in windows XP through serial connection to the router, which is good, as I wanted this port to be an input port. Haven't tested the second port, as they share an IRQ, and I haven't had a chance to bugger around with the settings. Any ideas on how to separate the 2 com ports? Please let me know.
Just curious, what serial relay board did you use? How much did it cost and where did you get it? I'm in the research phase of a similar project myself.
For sure, let me first do my homework so I don't annoy you with questions I could easily answer with some reading. Nice vids, I'm thoroughly intrigued.
I'm fairly well versed in various programming and scripting languages, but my electronics knowledge is next to nill.
However playing with some arduino projects might help me out a little.
