Recovering a "dead" Nanostation 2

[rncastro]

My company acquired several Nanostation 2 devices, for using with OpenWRT. After flashing one of them with an OpenWRT distro, we lost “contact” with the equipment. We followed the instructions at the Ubiquity site (http://www.ubnt.com/wiki/index.php/NanoStation2_RS232_Connection) for trying to connect to the RS232 port, but have been unable to recover from the situation. The Nanostation 2 doesn't even show boot messages...

Could you please let me know what type of JTAG cable do I need for recovering the Nanostations 2? And where can I buy it?

Best regards,
Rui

[Dave-D]

Sorry, Rui, there is no such thing as
a 'JTAG' cable for Ubiquiti radios.
That's why there is that article to
show how to make a cable and
connect it to a USB adapter.

Even that cable is a 'back door'
approach; there is no RS-232
connection accessible on the
NanoStation without disassembly.

Have you checked that your cable
will work on a known-good radio?
If not, that shows it's not working.

Note that cable works by adapting
the TTL (0 to 5v) signals in the
radio to external RS-232 serial
data. You can buy or make up
other kinds of cables that will
allow you to connect the radio
directly to a serial data (RS-232)
port on a PC. That may be more
reliable than this USB adapter,
which depends on a Windows driver. Dave

[rncastro]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your answer.

The cable isn't working even on a "sane" AP! The thing is: we are building a firmware image for the Nanostation 2, based on OpenWRT, and consequently we will have to flash the Nanostation repeatedly. I believe anyone developing a new firmware image needs to flash it repeatedly too, so this shouldn't be a new issue.

The question is: what can be done if the flashing process goes wrong and the AP becomes "dead", as it seems to have happened? There must be a recovery procedure, right? We have tried the Reset to Factory Defaults procedure (http://www.ubnt.com/wiki/index.php/Firmware_Recovery) but it also didn't work out. I need to have a recovery procedure, because we cannot depend on a new RMA everytime a problem occurs. If it's not possible to recover from this issue, then I may have to consider using another AP (for example, we have a JTAG cable for recovering the Linksys WRT54GL AP).

Please let me know how can I fix this problem?

Best regards,
Rui

[Dave-D]

Rui, it seems you'd like a reliable cable.
I don't know why this particular one
doesn't work. An easy way to test it
is to connect the TD and RD pins to
each other, open a terminal window
in Windows, and look for echo.

You could also buy or make an
adapter that works with a PC serial
port (although many don't have one).

If the TFTP-based flash recovery
procedure doesn't work, I don't have
any magic to fix a dead unit. This
relies on a LAN connection, of course,
and if you don't have that, it's all over.

Time to RMA? Dave

[rncastro]

Hi Dave,

Thanks again for your answer.

We managed to have the USB cable working with the sane AP! It was a cable's problem.

Then we tried it out in the "broken" AP but we still get nothing on the "serial" port.

Do you have any suggestion now? Will an RMA be the only means to fix this AP?

Thanks and best regards,
Rui

[Dave-D]

Rui, if you've done a proper hard reset,
you've tried the TFTP download sequence,
and you can't even get the 'backdoor'
serial port to work, I think that's all
she wrote.

I'd suggest trying to RMA. Not to be a
jerk, but it seems like you've already
spent more playing with this unit than
it would cost you just to buy a new one. Dave

[WHT]

If the TFTP-based flash recovery procedure doesn't work,The Wiki TFTP recovery is missing a step and as posted may not work in all situations.

[Dave-D]

WHT if you know the missing step,
why not make our day? Dave

[sar]

The Nanostation 2 has a serial interface.

http://wiki.ubnt.com/wiki/index.php/NanoStation2_RS232_Connection

Use the serial interface to recover, "urescue"

I have used this procedure and works.

[Dave-D]

Where have you been, sar?

This thread has covered that exact
cable and Wiki from the beginning.
That cable doesn't work for him. Dave

[WHT]

WHT if you know the missing step,
why not make our day? DaveBecause I got tired of people using my information and knowledge to write their own Wiki posts. I have several hundred personally authored App Notes of original information and data covering three decades. I don't contribute to the UBNT Wiki.

[WHT]

Use the serial interface to recover, "urescue"

I have used this procedure and works.It does work, almost all the time. We have proven here on the bench that it may require a missing step to properly work.

[Dave-D]

But it's just a tease to say an item
is missing and not provide it, WHT.

If you don't want to contribut to a
Wiki (your call), you could at least
post the one item here. Dave

[Dave-D]

WHT, I didn't say to sar the cable
doesn't work. I said the OP used
the same cable, and it doesn't
work for him on this specific radio.

It did work for him on other radios.

Doesn't anybody read the prior posts
before posting? Dave

[sweetdude]

HI m8 the only thing you can do is make a jtag very easy to do and download jtag software h**p://openwince.sourceforge.net/jtag/ or something like that i used power commander that works for me.And then jtag a good ns2 read the chip and copy the the dead onethe only problem i can see is the mac address would be the same you would have to ask how to change that unless you know already good luck hope this helps.

[1382]

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