The device is a wireless N router with:

• 2.4Ghz (HT40 capable)
• 3 detachable antennas
• 4 Port 100/10 Switch
• 1 Port 100/10 Wan Interface
• Unpopulated serial and USB headers
• 4 MB Flash or 8 MB Flash (v1 is 8 MB)

OpenWrt firmware can be flahsed via the OEM WebInterface.

These instructions use as example a v3 model, browse the trunk snapshot repository for the binary that matches your hardware version. Pay also attention that we can find for each model version two similar files, one the -factory and the other one -sysupgrade, on this section we will use the -factory one.

1. Download the firmware binary from here.
2. Login to the default WebGUI and flash the router.
3. Wait for the router to reboot, SYS LED will stop flashing and become static.
4. Telnet to 192.168.1.1, set a root password and enjoy.

If you have already installed OpenWrt and like to reflash for e.g. upgrading to a new OpenWrt version you can upgrade using the console/terminal. It is important that you put the firmware image into the ramdisk (/tmp) before you start flashing otherwise crazy things can happen.

We will use the -sysupgrade firmware file, for more information about this read the OEM Easy Installation section. To start the upgrade process login to your router using SSH and make sure you've Internet access in order to download the new firmware file.

# cd /tmp
# wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr941nd-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
# sysupgrade -v /tmp/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr941nd-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Warning! This section describes actions that might damage your device or firmware. Proceed with care!

A 3.3v TTL serial connection is required ! (Forum post) Do not try this method unless you're really sure what you're doing.

ar7100> setenv serverip 192.168.1.254; setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.1
ar7100> tftp 0x80800000 openwrt-ar71xx-tl-wr941ndv2-squashfs.uni
ar7100> erase 0xbf020000 +0x3c0000
ar7100> cp.b 0x80800000 0xbf020000 0x3c0000
ar7100> reset

Note #1: 0x3c0000 is the size of the firmware, be aware that you may have a different size thus bricking your router.

Note #2: 0xbf020000 is the from addr, for your device version you can get it by issuing the command: "printenv bootcmd", not doing so will turn your router into a brick.

Warning! This section describes actions that might damage your device or firmware. Proceed with care!

You can download the original firmware from the TP-LINK support section and flash it without modification.

dd if=orig.bin of=tplink_boot.bin skip=257 bs=512

Flash via uboot or mtd, you cannot flash via WebGUI otherwise you will turn your router into brick.

First you need to get the firmware file onto your box. If you are able to connect to your OpenWrt console and you have your network configured properly, you can use wget or scp to copy the firmware binary into the /tmp folder.

To start flashing via mtd you have to call (wr.bin is the file containing the firmware you previously downloaded):

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# mtd -r write wr.bin firmware
Unlocking firmware ...

Writing from wr.bin to firmware ...
Rebooting ...
Terminated

→generic.failsafe

• While the SYS LED is on immediately press the QSS button.
• If done right the SYS LED will start flashing very quickly.

TODO.

Note: This will void your warranty! These instructions are not very good! (yet…)

1. There are two screws underneath the rubber feet at the back (were the RJ45 jacks are) of the device. Remove those.
2. Remove the front plastic piece.
3. Try to open the white plastic cover at the top only a little bit.
4. Unhinge the plastic cover at the front.

Main PCB (not V3.2)

serial pin ver: 5.1

Look at the PCB picture. Serial port is located were the 4 wires are soldered to the board. The left one (green) is soldered to the pad labeled "P1".
Pinout of the port is : |TX|RX|GND|VCC(3.3)| (direction as seen in PCB picture below; Pad "P1" is TX)
Before you can use the serial port you have to bridge R356. (A smd pad right underneath the serial port pad "P1").

It is not possible to directly connect the serial port to one of your computer (voltage mismatch). You have to use a converter (i.e. a Nokia CA-42 cable, serial to USB converter or something similar. An Arduino MEGA with a simple serial bridge also works).

PCB WR941ND Ver: 3

PCB WR941ND Ver: 6

Once the original firmware has booted up completely, you can press return to activate the Linux login prompt.

The password to get a root Shell access is 5up:

TL-WR941N mips #32 Wed Oct 17 18:08:12 PDT 2012
TL-WR941N login: root
password: 5up

TODO

The default network configuration is:

Setting up VLAN is a bit different from other devices:

First, you have to edit /etc/rc.local (sample config for VLAN 100 and 200 on trunk port lan4): # Put your custom commands here that should be executed once # the system init finished. By default this file does nothing. vconfig add lan4 100 vconfig add lan4 200 ifconfig lan4.100 up ifconfig lan4.200 up exit 0

Then, you have to edit /etc/config/network and reboot the device (that /etc/rc.local is executed): config interface vlan100 option ifname "lan1 lan2 lan3 lan4.100" #[…] config interface vlan200 option ifname "lan4.200"

The device has 2 buttons:

• the reset button at the back
• the "QSS" labeled button at the front

If needed, for wifi install ath9k driver by: opkg update opkg install kmod-ath9k wpad-mini reboot after you rebooted activate wifi by wifi detect

modify wireless config: vi /etc/config/wireless

config should like something like: config wifi-device radio0 option type mac80211 option channel 5 option macaddr 00:27:19:1f:72:54 option hwmode 11ng option htmode HT20 list ht_capab SHORT-GI-40 list ht_capab DSSS_CCK-40 # REMOVE THIS LINE TO ENABLE WIFI: option disabled 0 config wifi-iface option device radio0 option network lan option mode ap option ssid URNETNAME # option encryption none option encryption psk2 option key YourTopSecretPass

Since this part is identical for all devices, see Basic configuration.

If you have an USB port, please see Connect stuff to the USB port.

WR941n Ver.5.1

Unpowered USB header on board

• You can log in as root using '5up' as password.
• You can get into U-Boot typing 'tpl' at the 1s pause at the beginning of the boot process.

• lark´s wr941nd files
• https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=18354
• Files for reverting from DD-WRT to STOCK FIRMWARE