Sharing my "What a newb" moment..

[Gurjeet Clair]

  So I've started diving into some, well I guess you could call it Hardware Hacking.  One of the things you need is to communicate with the device from a computer, which is handy if the device to hack has a serial (UART) connection. Since it isn't your old school RS-232 connector, there would be a voltage issue, so you need a way to get it down to the right levels, and on top of that to a USB port.

 As a simple solution, I bought an OSEPP FTDI UART->USB conversion board, and all is good (still got to test it out, i'm assuming it'll be good).

I also wanted a JTAG dongle so I could dump firmware, and prices are kinda high for things like a Bus Blaster or a Segger J-Link. Got some good advice via Twitter, started reading around more then stumbled into a page on the WRT site that talks about using the RPi as a JTAG dongle.

This is the smack myself in the face for being a newb moment. I have 2 Rpi's just hanging about doing nothing. I could have also use the RPi as the UART->ethernet adapter:)  Bit more bulkier but cheaper since I already had it. Oops:) However in the long run I'm sure i'll be happier with the conversion board.

Still, maybe this will help someone down the road!

G