Page 335 - Hacking Roomba

316 Part III — More Complex Interfacing

Listing 14-1 Continued

root@OpenWrt:~# ipkg install ntpclient
Installing ntpclient (2003_194-2) to root...
Downloading
http://downloads.openwrt.org/whiterussian/packages/ntpclient_ i
2003_194-2_mipsel.ipk
Configuring ntpclient
ntSuccessfully terminated.
root@OpenWrt:~# date
Sat Jan 1 00:29:08 UTC 2000
root@OpenWrt:~# ntpclient -c 1 -s -h pool.ntp.org
38914 01341.848 19061.0 2251.5 9917.4 50613.4 0
root@OpenWrt:~# date
Mon Jul 17 23:21:59 UTC 2006

Reverting to Factory Firmware

In the event you run into some problems with OpenWrt or if you want to sell the WL-HDD,
you can always re-flash with the factory firmware. The steps are almost exactly the same as
flashing OpenWrt:
1. Go to http://support.asus.com/ and find the latest firmware file for the WL-
HDD. You will download a ZIP file and inside it will be a file named something like
WLHDD_1.2.3.9_en.trx. Notice how the .trx extension is the same as the OpenWrt
firmware you flashed.
2. Use the method above with flash-wd-hdd.sh to reflash the WL-HDD. There is a
utility program for Windows on the ASUS site that also supposedly will help you
reflash. Also, inside of OpenWrt, there is a Firmware Upgrade page under the System
category.
There have been no reported cases of irreparably bricking an ASUS wireless router by using
OpenWrt, so you shouldn’t be reluctant to try it.

Controlling Roomba in OpenWrt

Now that you have a working tiny Linux system, it’s time to figure out how to get it to talk to
the Roomba. As mentioned earlier, most of the chips OpenWrt supports have one or two
built-in serial ports (UARTs) that you could solder to if you opened up the box. The WL-HDD
doesn’t appear to have one of those chips.That’s okay, because not only does the WL-HDD have
a USB port, but OpenWrt has several USB serial drivers.