I've had tomato installed on my wnr3500l for more than a year now, yesterday i got it in my head that i wanted to upgrade it. Stupidly of me i went straight to tomato's homepage, downloaded the latest firmware and tried to upgrade.. FAIL router seemed to reboot but i only got an orange power light.
Have tried everyting from the 30-30-30 reset to shorting pin tftp method and i cant even get a ip adress from it.
I've already gone and bought a new one but i'd like to breathe life in to the old one never the less..
I'd like to get my hands on a usb-ttl cable so i can debrick it. but all the links i check says its out of stock.
Anyone know a retailer in europe, preferebly sweden.
The shorting pin tftp method should work for you, I figured out how to do it yesterday.
Some pointers:
#1 Timing is everything when shorting the pins. It needs to happen right when the router first boots up and all the leds flash. If you have done it correctly the main power led should start flashing green soon after shorting the pins.
Quick guide to lights: (All guesses based on my experience of this week)
Solid Green - "Normal operations - why are you reading this?"
Flashing Green - In tftp mode, waiting for new firmware
Solid Amber - Bricked (sometimes pingable, sometimes not)
Flashing Amber - Updating firmware
The only time I have been able to successfully update using tftp the main power led has been flashing green.
#2 Make sure you keep the pins shorted while tftp is running. I believe that I kept it shorted until the flashing amber stopped, but I am not certain. IMPORTANT: Make sure tftp is in binary mode. By default from winXP it seems to work, but I did not have the same luck with unbuntu.
#3 The usb-ttl cable can be tricky to setup since the newer models of this router do not have the pins to connect it. You need to solder a terminal onto the board, or solder cables right onto the board. This should not be necessary if you get the timing of the short pins method correct.