TECHNOLOGY CASTEL: nanosation m5 flashing

Updating the firmware on Nanostation 5 using serial port and ethernet port
The video has arabic commentry, but it should be good enough to for english speakers, as the commands and sequence is clear I think.

Nanostation 5 from Ubiquiti

Using a small flat screwdriver, flip up the plastic label on the back, a bit on the right and a bit on the left, just enough to expose the the screws.

ِWith a medium sized Philips screwdriver, undo the screws, as they are a bit tight, it might be difficult with a small screwdriver.

Now get the left screw.

Now let's pull out the internals of the nanostation, using the small flat screwdriver, slowly and gently.

Turn over and pull out the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) out of the plastic enclosure completely.

This side has the antenna of the nanostation.

Turn over gently to get to the other side where the connectors we are concerned with are.

Put it gently on the table, be careful as the nano is resting on the antenna now, and we don't want to damage that.

The Serial Port on the Nanostation5

Name, description, specifications of this Connector (2mm pitch 10pin header connector):

· pin header

· 2mm pitch

· 10 pin or 10 contacts or 2x5way

· Male

· dual row

· surface mount connector

· Straight

Left Column Right Column

1 3.3v 2

3 HSIN 4

5 6

7 HSOUT 8

9 GND 10

Unfortunately, as we see in the pictures above, the pins are not marked, and I couldn't find a diagram or tutorial about Nanostation-5, but the pins are the same as for Nanostation-2 shown in this picture.

And I'm going to use what I could get my hands on till now as shown here.

Female to female jumper cables of 2.54mm pitch.

1) First USB adaptor (Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port)

This is the easy one, as it was clearly marked, we will be using this one to complete the tutorial and to do the video tutorial.

Make the connection between the USB adapter and the Nanostation 5, like is shown here.
The Black and Yellow cables are next to each other, and because they are of a bigger size than the Nanostation 5 pins, they are a bit tight, so just hold them together and insert them in, they will fit ok, just be careful and don't bend or break the pins.

NS5 Serial Port USB-TTL

GND<-------------------BLACK cable--------------->GND

HSOUT<----------------YELLOW cable--------------->RXD

HSIN<-------------------RED cable--------------->TXD

Now plug the USB into the computer, but don't turn on the Nanostation yet.

Now on the computer, from a shell or command prompt in Linux.

Check the name of the Virtual Serial Port that we are going to use to connect to the Nanostation.

[root@SL6 ~]# dmesg | grep ttyUSB | tail -n 1

usb 2-1.3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Install and configure (minicom) (a serial communication program):
[root@SL6 ~]# yum install minicom
[root@SL6 ~]# vim /etc/minirc.dfl
[root@SL6 ~]# cat /etc/minirc.dfl
pu port /dev/ttyUSB0
pu baudrate 9600
pu bits 8
pu parity N
pu stopbits 1
pu rtscts No

Run the minicom program

[root@SL6 ~]# minicom

Now plug the turn on the Nanostation and keep your eye on the minicom program that should be running on your computer.

On the computer's screen, in the minicom program after a couple of secoonds, we will start seeing text scrolling up (the system boot messages) then it will stop and ask for login name and password for the nanostation (default is ubnt/ubnt).

Slows down here while decompressing the Linux kernel (Ubiquiti Nanostation uses Open Source Linux :) )

Screen stopped and asking for login.

To get into the BIOS which is called Redboot on Nanostation, we hit CTRL+C while the Nanostation is booting (not now after everything stopped and we logged in)

We can still do it now, by logging in as above, then running command (reboot) then when it starts booting again we hit ctrl+c (may need or can hit it repeatedly) and the booting process stops and we get into the BIOS (Redboot).

Hitting CTRL+C

We'll talk in other posts on how/why/what to use the serial connection for like fixing and completely messed up Nanostation (debrick or debricking) and flashing firmware etc.

References:

How to recover a Bricked Ubiquiti NanoStation2 or PicoStation2

http://www.fusionnetwork.us/

index.php/articles/general-

tutorials/how-to-recover-a-

bricked-ubiquiti-nanostation2-

or-picostation2/

NanoStation2 RS232 Connection (this should say TTL and not RS232)

http://wiki.ubnt.com/

NanoStation2_RS232_Connection

TTL to RS232 adaptor Explained

http://www.uchobby.com/index.