Getting Started

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To make a Meteobridge out of TP-LINK routers TL-MR3020 or TL-WR703N, you simply habe to install an applicable Meteobridge firmware image. Flashing the firmware can be done with the firmware update functions the router's stock firmware does provide. By doing so you will void the TP-LINK warranty, but having the cheap price in mind you will certainly not face a substantial financial risk in the unlikely event that you brick the router.

Flashing Meteobridge Firmware to TL-MR3020

Please consult the TP-Link manual to understand how to get access with your browser to its web interface. What the manual will tell you is basically that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.0.254, login name is "admin", password: "admin"). When you have access to web interface of TL-MR3020, overwrite factory firmware like a regular firmware update by meteobridge-tl-mr3020-v1.0.bin. Wait until unit restarts. After that it will be a Meteobridge client in standard configuration receiving an IP via DHCP from your router in the LAN.

Flashing Meteobridge Firmware to TL-WR703N

As TL-WR703N does only come with a Chinese web interface, it might be a bit tricky to find the right menu item to initiate firmware update. First you have to login with your browser. To achieve that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.1.1, login name is "admin", password: "admin").

When you have access to web interface of TL-WR703N, you select the item at the bottom of the left menu items, marked in light red on the left picture below (system screen). Next you choose sub menu item as marked in light red in the right picture below (flash screen) and browse to target file by pressing light red marked file select dialog in the middle of the screen. You find Meteobridge firmware for this device here: meteobridge-tl-wr703n-v1.0.bin

  • system screen

  • flash screen

Finally, a "are you sure" dialog will pop up, please press "yes" button and wait until progress bar has reached 100%. Unit will reboot automatically. After reboot it will be a Meteobridge in standard configuration receiving an IP via DHCP from your router in the LAN.

Flashing Meteobridge Firmware to WL-330N3G

As ASUS WL-330N3G cannot be flashed by its stock web interface, it is necessary that you setup a TFTP environment on your Host PC to transfer the flash data via Ethernet to WL-330N3G. Using TFTP is quite simple.

First of all the router needs to toggled into "TFTP update mode". This is done by keeping the button on the top pressed for 5-10 seconds while doing a power cycle. After a couple of seconds the power LED starts a very slow blinking. You can now release the button. Router now waits for being firmware-updated via TFTP.

Sections below describe how to do it for Linux and Windows 7.

Flashing via TFTP on Linux

TFTP update does not need any additional software installed, your Linux already has all you need. Flashing is very straight forward, just execute the script below.
#!/bin/sh
#
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
  echo "error: flash sys file missing as parameter"
  exit 1
else
  echo "power cycle WL-330N3G with button pressed and wait"
  echo "until power LED does go off and on again. Then "
  echo "release button and press <RETURN>."
  read a
  echo "start flashing..."
  ifconfig br0:0 192.168.1.20
  echo -ne "binary\ntrace\nrexmt 1\nput $1\nquit\n" | tftp 192.168.1.1
  echo "...transfer done."
  echo "Wait until unit does reboot (will take at least 2 minutes). "
  echo "Do not remove from power during flash process!"
fi

The script needs to be called with the flash update file meteobridge-wl-330n3g-v1.0.sys as parameter. Please execute the script as root, otherwise "ifconfig" and "tftp" will not do or will ask for root password. "ifconfig" sets a virtual ethernet adapter with IP 192.168.1.20 on your Linux box, which is the IP the router expects to get the firmware update from.

Flashing via TFTP on Windows 7

First you have to enable the TFTP service of your Windows 7. You can do that by

  1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features
  2. Click "Turn Windows features on or off" on left side menu
  3. Enable "TFTP Client" then click OK button

Next step is to set the IP of your hosts Ethernet adapter to "192.168.1.20". This will disconnect your Host from your network (as far as your equip is not in the 192.168.1.x class c subnet) but it is necessary to use this distinct IP address in order to make the WL-330N3G to accept the flash data transfer. If you dont know how to set your Ethernet adapter to a static IP, please have a look here.

When TFTP is enabled and IP of your host PC is set to 192.168.1.20 we can start flashing. Please open a CMD shell and type in the command 
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put flash-file-name
where flash-file-name is the name of the image to flash. When command is done successfully, number of transferred bytes is displayed.

Final Flashing Tasks

IP of router in update mode is 192.168.1.1, which hopefully will not do a collision with one of your other devices. If there is a collision, switch off the other devices during flash. After data has been transferred via TFTP you have to wait a couple of minutes until flash process inside the router is done and router restarts itself. Restart switches off all LEDs for a short time. Now it is safe to disconnect the router from power. Interrupting the flash processes by a power cycle will brick the router.

IP Signaling

When Meteobridge is connected to your LAN it will try to receive a dynamic IP from your DHCP server during boot. Wait until blinking of the largest LED has stopped. Do a short press on the push button on the top (TL-MR3020, WL-330N3G) or a short press of the reset button behind the pinhole at the back of the unit (TL-WR703N). Now LED will start signaling the IP.

Meteobridge will signal its IP by pulsing the LED beneath the pressed button (TL-MR3020) or the blue LED on the top of the device (TL-WR703N) or the power LED (WL-330N3G). Sequence begins with LED going off, then each of the four numbers (delimited by a dot) will be signaled one by one. The dot between the numbers will be signaled by a "H" (LED shines bright). Each number is signaled by blinking digit per digit. Each digit is represented by a "M" (LED shines medium dimmed) repeated as often as the digit tells us. The zero digit is signaled by ten blinks. After having done this for all digits of all numbers of the IP, the end is signaled by LED staying off a while like it started with. When Sequenze is done, the LED is constantly turned on again.

Example: IP 192.168.10.77 Legend: M = LED medium dimmed, H = LED shines bright, _ = LED is dark 

Signal:                                          Comment
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M___H               192
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H         168
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H                   10
___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___              77

When Meteobridge is connected via LAN it will signal the LAN IP. To get the WLAN IP signaled in that case, please disconnect ethernet cable from meteobridge's LAN port and start IP signaling again. This time WLAN IP will be signaled.

If you don't like reading the blinks, you can also use an IP scanner (for example: Advanced IP Scanner) or you can look into the logs of your router that provides IPs via DHCP for clients in the LAN/WLAN.

When a FAT formatted USB stick is connected to the USB port, a file "network.log" is written to the USB stick in addition to the LED blinking. The file will look like this:
Sat Jan  5 00:23:16 UTC 2013
MAC:     xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
LAN IP:  192.168.123.245

Cloud Simulator for Network Configuration

If Meteobridge client cannot connect to your LAN or your LAN does not provide a DHCP service, large LED will not leave fast-blinking mode. To get network settings fixed, you can define the correct network parameters in a simulator in the Internet, which works as follows.

  1. Please browse to config.meteobridge.com. There you will find a simulation of the Meteobridge web interface. Please select the "Setup Network" tab and configure settings as needed for your specific network situation.
  2. When settings are done, please press "save" and change to "Download" tab which will cause your browser to start downloading a configuration file named "config.tgz".
  3. Please store that file (as is, do not unpack) on a USB stick formatted as FAT32 and start the Meteobridge with the USB stick plugged into the USB port of Meteobridge. When network settings are right, Meteobridge will stop with slow and fast blinking and turn on the LED constantly.
  4. You can now remove the USB stick, it is no longer needed. When you restart this Meteobridge client with the same USB stick inserted, file "config.tgz" on USB stick will not be used again as it has been marked as used for this specific Meteobridge unit. Nevertheless, the stick can still be used to setup networking of other Meteobridge clients.

First Login

When you have done the flashing of your meteobridge and initial network setup done, you can reach meteobridge for final configuration with your browser by typing in its IP as URL.

As login is protected by a password, your browser will ask for a user name and password. Please enter meteobridge as user und also meteobridge as password. While the user cannot be changed, you can change the password later on. On first login you will be guided to "License" tab, where you have to accept license terms and have to press "Save and Apply" befor you can navigate to the other tabs. Sections listed in the setup menu at the left will tell you how to finalize configuration so that your weather data gets finally uploaded to Weather Underground.

Your browser will show you meteobridge's web interface with 5 tabs. Please go through all these tabs and make the required settings. The page will show warnings for all still missing essentials until you have worked through all of this. It is just a few steps, which will be explained in the setup chapters, page by page.

Back to Defaults

When you have misconfigured the network or system password in a way that you can't no longer reach meteobridge, you can revert the system back to defaults by pressing the button on the top of TL-MR3020 / WL-330N3G or the reset button at the back of TL-WR703N at the back behind a pin hole. By pushing these buttons you can revert to defaults in two ways.

  1. Reset to default network operation is done by pressing the button and keeping it presses until LED goes on again for the first time. Now release button and system will restart with default network configuration, which is LAN DHCP client mode. Network settings done before are still stored inside meteobridge when unit has started in LAN DHCP client mode, but these will need additional "Save" clicks to be made active again.
  2. Reset password is done by pressing button and keeping it pressed until LED goes on for the second time. Meteobridge will reboot and will be available with default password via ssh (user root, password meteobridge) and http (user meteobridge, password meteobridge).

Flash Again

When you need to flash a new Meteobridge firmware to your TL-MR3020 or TL-WR703N, you can do that by going to "Setup Network" tab on Meteobridge web interface und pressing "Expert Mode (OpenWrt)" button. This will bring you to the openwrt SW stack below meteobridge application software stack. If your device cannot load Meteobridge application stack from the Internet for some reason, you can also directly access openwrt web interface by browsing to "http://ip-of-your-meteobridge-device/cgi-bin/luci". Login with your Meteobridge password and goto "System" tab. Select sub tab "Backup / Flash Firmware" and use offered "Flash new firmware" section. Unmark "keep settings" option and start flashing. Keep device connected to power, it will restart automatically. If you have a WL-330N3G, this always needs to be flashed with the TFTP environment as in setup section for that device explained. </translate>

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