Hi all – Just wanted to post that I figured out how to re-use old OM5P-AC routers you might have accumulated over the years instead of letting them become e-waste eventually. They are actually quite nice hardware: dual gigabit ethernet, 2x2 MIMO AC wireless, 30dbm max transmit power (on legal channels, most 24).
I found out the FRC radio configuration utility was using ap51-flash, so I just downloaded a newer copy from here and ran it: Releases · ap51-flash/ap51-flash · GitHub
Can’t post a link but the OpenWRT build I used is openwrt-22.03.3-ath79-generic-openmesh_om5p-ac-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Unfortunately, when running it with my network interface, I found out it was expecting a .sig file for signed firmware. This is because apparently they were released with locked down firmware due to previous OM5P-AN routers being able to run outside of legal channels.
All you need to do is start a tftp server and serve up those 2 files, then it will magically not require a signature file anymore.
I’ve made a small screencast of the process on an unmodified router. Once you do this there is NO GOING BACK. THIS IS ALSO NOT LEGAL FOR COMPETITION USE IN THE SLIGHTEST & WONT WORK AT ALL WITH DRIVER STATION OUTSIDE OF COMP EITHER.
From here, it’s basically just connecting to it on 192.168.1.1 (will have to play with ethernet stuff) and then you’re free to do whatever with it
Might just be having a dumb moment or maybe wrong ethernet port on router but I couldn’t get 192.168.1.1 to work so I ended up using the debug console (ftdi attached to internal uart) to edit /etc/config/network and set the ethernet protocol to dhcp instead’ve static and sharing the wifi over ethernet port on my PC using windows internet connection sharing.
Hi, just came across this thread after using the unlock method and having it succeed, but my tx pin is being pulled high by the om5p and I can’t get a connection over Ethernet even with the default openwrt ip. Did you ever figure out the connection over 192.168.1.1?
edit: I may have the wrong pin for tx, do you know what pinout you used?
So the router IP itself is 192.168.1.1, so you will need to plug into one of the LAN ports and visit the IP with either DHCP enabled or the following static set up:
IP Address: 192.168.1.5
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
This should get you far enough to change the stuff in OpenWrt to whatever you want, maybe… Be sure to try both Ethernet ports too because one is WAN and one is LAN and they are not on the same firewall groups.
Also worth mentioning if you’re using an OpenWrt snapshot build, there is no LuCi installed by default so you will need to ssh into the box and vi /etc/config/network
As for the pinout I’m not sure, I believe I just got a solid ground by checking continuity with a multimeter against other ground sources and then started trying pin orders with the ftdi adapter, won’t hurt anything as long as you stay on the low voltage pins
On the UARTs there is normally a GND, TX, RX and 3.3v, are you sure you’re not plugged into the 3.3v instead of TX? you’ve likely already tried to diagnose that though
Could it be the FTDI adapter you’re using that’s pulling it up? Is it possible that you’re using 5v logic instead of 3.3v maybe? Could it get cooked from something like that? I wouldn’t think so… but
Could it be the keymap or the COM port terminal program you’re using? What did you do to figure out it was pulling to 3.3v?
If you’re able to get into u-boot menu at all by mashing spacebar that tells me it could be a firmware issue and maybe needs re-flashed?
for some reason i couldn’t reply for a couple of hours with a 502 error, but there’s continuity on my om5p-ac v1’s board between both pins on the serial header closer to the ethernet ports, so I think it’s something with this specific board
