Serial is the only hope at this point. As shown in mrjcd's guide at the very top:
This is intended to assist you installing DD-WRT on your US Linksys EA8500
if you have Linksys firmware newer than ver 1.1.4.168206.
Also, at the very bottom of mrjcd's guide a link to DD-WRT webrevert by LOM.
Unfortunately modern PCB soldering requires experience and steady practice.
Good news, in most cases you can simply manually hold pins header in place.
Are you sure your serial parameters are correct? Garbled output usually is a sign of wrong baud rate or something similar.
I didn't solder any pins either on the three I have flashed, and opted to just hold the connections in place with a small weight so I had both hands free. lol _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
Joined: 03 Nov 2015 Posts: 317 Location: Florida, USA
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 2:32 Post subject:
lexridge wrote:
Are you sure your serial parameters are correct?
Yes lex, I`m sure. I tried right after it began working again (on its own, by the way) All I did was go 2 builds back on both partitions and it began working with factory firmware. Even tested it for a day. When I hooked up the serial it was garbled after that. Who knows if I ever got back to DD-WRT it may be missing the wireless tab again. I have soldered the header so many times I may have burned up something myself. The serial output is corrupt. It doesn't look like anything I`ve seen before, and its there even with only 1 wire and the power shut off. Its a hardware issue thats been there. I got it for free. (the seller replaced it). It might make a good factory router for someone. I`ll give it to someone needy. I`m bidding on others now. Thanks for all your help. _________________ ......All GOOD here... Just Handshakes and Time Stamps !......
Yes lex, I`m sure. I tried right after it began working again (on its own, by the way) All I did was go 2 builds back on both partitions and it began working with factory firmware. Even tested it for a day. When I hooked up the serial it was garbled after that. Who knows if I ever got back to DD-WRT it may be missing the wireless tab again. I have soldered the header so many times I may have burned up something myself. The serial output is corrupt. It doesn't look like anything I`ve seen before, and its there even with only 1 wire and the power shut off. Its a hardware issue thats been there. I got it for free. (the seller replaced it). It might make a good factory router for someone. I`ll give it to someone needy. I`m bidding on others now. Thanks for all your help.
Understood. I wrongly assumed since your lack of Linux experience, that you had no hardware experience as well. My bad. That's on me and sorry about that.
Could very well be that you fried something when soldering. However in this case, I would think you would get nothing. No garbled at all, absolutely nothing. It data is showing up (garbled or not), something else has to be wrong. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
Joined: 31 Jul 2021 Posts: 2146 Location: All over YOUR webs
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 11:40 Post subject:
ramblin wrote:
snip...Sits on the table like a tripod with a few magnets on the end for weight. Clip on a jumper. Still got garbled output with it turned off. snip...
Maybe use a different USB to TTL serial adapter. I have this: DTECH FT232RL 3.3v 3 pin (Amazon, eBay).
Never had to disconnect ground before power on for EA8500 with DTECH FTDI cable so something to try.
Other common chips than FTDI: the drivers SiLabs CP2102 and Prolific PL2303 series (Windows, macOS).
Something else to check than driver: COM port settings, speed or baud rate bits per second 115200 8N1.