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Forum Discussion
Accessing Bootloader via Putty on RBR50
My orbir router got bricked while I was at the office and when I got home, I was greeted to magenta lights on my satellite. I was able to factory reset the satellite, but my router is unresponsive to...
30-30-30 did not correct anything... but I didn't watch the serial terminal during the procedure.
Switching the RX and TX did not work.
FYI, I did use my multi-meter and confirm that the 4 pin headers from top to bottom are:
3.3V
Serial (not 100% if Tx or Rx)
Serial (not 100% if Tx or Rx)
Ground
...and the USB has 5V on the pin nearest the bottom.
Point is that what ever power regulating chip converts 12V down to 5V and 3.3V... it's functioning properly. đ
FYI, my oscilloscope didn't see any square waves on the jumpers above the serial pins either. I enjoy this sort of recovery work, but I don't see what else to do... if it's a general purpose microcontroller (not an ASIC) the serial connection would be a peripheral as would the ethernet ports... you'd need some sort of JTAG interface to reprogram the chip... right? (honestly that level is beyond my skill-set.)
Not an ASIC:
https://techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_Orbi_Router_(RBR50)
...so yeah, if something is broken in the bootloader or Linux before serial terminal is activated - serial would be silent... I think?