Update: I receive many emails from people who are trying to update their DSL-2640T with Routertech firmware after looking at this thread or this post. I must update here that the Routertech team has declared this router as “incompatible” with their wireless PSP firmware. If you’re still going to update to this firmware, either know what you’re doing and ask reasonable questions, or you’re on your own.

WARNING: Always check the firmware you need to download using RUC first (linked below).

Before you start, I must say that updating a router’s firmware is not for the faint hearted and I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong with your router. This is pretty much a n00b friendly tutorial, so you should be okay, if you follow everything as written in the RouterTech’s help docs and in this tutorial. Now over to the tutorial:

Please download the following tools and confirm the settings following afterward.

1- Download RUC (Router Update Checker, available here)
2- Download WEB (Wireless Environment Builder, available here).
3- Download your router’s latest official firmware (you should have a copy, in case this goes kaput).

Now whatever you do, don’t blame me. Next open up RUC and enter your router login info, defaults are:

ip: 192.168.1.1
web user: admin
web pass: admin
telenet user: root
telnet pass: admin
no of ethernet ports: 4
router description: dlink g624T

check all boxes at the bottom (they are there for a reason).

* You can edit the routers.txt and make an entry for DSL-2640T as follows too:

DSL-2640T 4

Once RUC gives you a report, it should be similar to the following:

Router Upgrade Check 1.2.9 19/09/2008 09:49:15
Router IP: 192.168.1.1
CLI is needed
Description: Dlink G624T
Board type: AR7VW
Product ID: AR7WRD
Bootloader: psbl
RAM 16.0 MB
Flash (ROM) 4.0 MB
ADAM2: No
No default env: No
Linux version: 2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le
Firmware build:
Firmware version: V3.02B01T01.ME-A.20080125
Firmware stamp: 20080125143616
CPU: MIPS 4KEc V4.8
DSP: 6.00.04.00
Annex: A
/proc/wlan: Yes
/usr/sbin/wlan: Yes
TIAP: Yes
TNETW: Yes
Wireless: Yes
WIFI chip: TNETW1350A
WIFI chip conf: Yes
Ports: 4
Marvell (or Marvell like): No
NSP: V3.02B01T01.ME-A.20080125
Manufacturers: D-link Corporation
RNDIS: Telogy Networks Inc

Now, the things to make sure in the above log are:

Product ID or Board type: AR7WRD
Bootloader: psbl
RAM 16.0 MB
Flash (ROM) 4.0 MB
WIFI chip: TNETW1350A
Marvell (or Marvell like): No

The above settings will qualify you for a RouterTech firmware upgrade. The reason to run RUC was to backup all your settings and configurations at one place. If you have not backed-up your settings, do it now. No one will be responsible, if you do this carelessly and brick your router.

Download RouterTech firmware from http://routertech.org/forum.php. You must register on the forum to download the firmware. For DSL2640T, you’ll need the RoHS 4-port PSP firmware. It should be named something as follows:

routertech-rohs-ar7wrd-pspboot-firmware-xxxxxxx.zip

extract it to some directory and open up the upgrade.html file and DO WHAT IT SAYS.

1- back-up all your settings
a- /proc/ticfg/env
b- /proc/interrupts
c- /etc/led.conf
d- config.bin (using your router’s “save config to hard disk” option in the web panel)
2- reset your router to factory default settings. reboot.
3- once the router comes back online, save all settings and reboot again.
4- open up the update firmware panel in the router’s web panel; Tools->Firmware and browse to where you extracted the above zip file and select:

routertech_ar7wrd_1350a_pspboot_firmware_xxxxxxx_xxx

Now click on Apply and pray to God that all goes well. Leave the router alone for about

8-10 MINUTES…

After ten minutes, telnet into your router again and see if it lets you log in using:

telnet 192.168.1.1

Log in using user:Admin and pass:Admin.

If the router let you log in, go to your Router’s web panel and into the System panel. Click on Restore Factory Settings and Reboot. Once the router comes online. Telnet back into your router:

type

cat /proc/ticfg/env

and take a look at the variables and back them up.

Next perform the following steps:

setenv led_conf led.2640t && /sbin/reboot

once again, when the router comes back online. Telnet again into the router and type:

setenv vlynq_polarity low

Reboot the router once again and you should have a working DSL-2640T running with everything on a custom routertech firmware. You can issue all the commands above in a single go but I say, do not mess with your router, unless you are confident of your actions.

For the people, who do not have their WLAN working, after the upgrade or even so before the upgrade, please follow the steps below:

A common issue for many people on a router exists, where the AP stays off and only comes online by using

"echo NVS_TFTP_LOAD 0 > /proc/ticfg/env"

However, this can create issues on the environment side and the solution itself is temporary too. The actual issue is a corrupted WLAN EEPROM, which needs to be fixed:

- Extract WEB (Wireless Environment Builder) somewhere in a directory and open it up.
- Fill up the information it asks for.
- If you do not have a TWNET ID, go to your router’s system logs. They can be found in Status->SystemLog. Browse them and find the line where it says:

"Failed to get DIE ID from wlan driver. Cannot validate EEPROM Image"
....
....
"Setting bootloader env NVS_TFTP_LOAD to 1"

- Look for a string similar to this:

"Retrieving EEPROM image file nvs_5e015cf4a901151d.bin from TFTP Server"
"ERROR: TFTP of file : nvs_5e015cf4a901151d.bin failed"

- there, the string next to “nvs_” is your TWNETID i.e.5e015cf4a901151d. It should be different for you.
- copy it in WEB and click on “get router details” or “build environment”. It should work and after a while, it will ask you that it can send the script directly to the router. Do so, and let the router reboot after that. You’re done, once the Router comes back online, go check your environment now and you’re good to go.

I hope this will help many people. You might wanna head over to RouterTech for more help and if you run into any issues. Those guys are a great help and they have some fantastic stuff there.

Regards,
M.H.A.Q.S.

UPDATE: This release has been superseded by a new release. Please see this post.

Update:  I found a memory leak in the AS3Steer branch and uploaded a quick fix. The branch also contains an example now.  If anyone wants to have a visual look into it, please check out the google repository. This will also show how differently Opensteer handles Flocking compared to other flocking algorithms.

I had to no idea what to name this post . Yes, I’ve been away again. My job has really taken me away from my personal interests. Nevertheless, there are people on the web that motivate me to get back into my work and update it. I have so much to write and I don’t know what to write first about…

Well to start off, I missed to write about some wonderful news on the web and that was the release of Processing getting out to BETA. I believe, I always loved processing even before Flash or Action script came into my consideration. If you do not know what processing is, I recommend you read Daniel Shiffman’s newly published book about Processing. It is worth the time and your hard earned money (highly recommended).

Further up, I have had many of my personal projects begging to be shared and uploaded. I am highly endowed to the people on the internet helping the community with their precious time. Thank you everyone…

I have uploaded a working copy of PaperSteer to the Google Repository. The core of library has been checked a million times by me, so it shoudl work without any issues. I have branched PaperSteer:

AS3Steer
This version is no nonsense heart of the OpenSteer library. This version is purely actionscript. It is optimized and not a direct port of its ancestor. I have removed the annotation, the plugins, and drawing classes as well as many amounts of non understandable code, just so that anyone who picks up OpenSteer for Actionscript can work with it. People have been asking me for an example of how to use the library with ActionScript. Well, I did not think it was that difficult, but here it is anyway.

PaperSteer
Now this version is a direct port of its ancestor. I am kind of happy that I managed to port the (not so much easy to understand) opensteer library in its originality. Here are the updates in big points:

- Flash Player 10 support.
- There are heavy optimizations there that WILL speed it up. These optimizations include:

Type casting
Function reductions
Typed Arrays and what not…

- Plugins are there now for anyone’s reference and YES they are working
- The drawing routine has been re written entirely, but is buggy and I am working on it. You’ll immediately notice it.
I call this revision a BETA. If you have not gone through the papersteer repository yet, I recommend you may give it a try.

So, that’s about it for PaperSteer. I have some more goodies to share .

I have had an enormous response for my R4 – Music Visualizer. People have been searching and asking for its sources. I remember, I promised to share the sources once I was finished with it. But frankly I left it midway as I had other things to do. Even then, below is the current shape of how it looks like. And here are the sources . Go make crazy stuff.

I made a 3D version of the Boids algorithm for Papervision3D as well. This is only to help people who may want to program this behavior in PV3D. You can replace those cones with actual Bird DAE’s and it’ll be more than you expect it to be. The sources here.

Next up are my naughty friends from nowhere. I just love them. You will too. Sources here…

Am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, I have a download section now. People keep asking me where they can download certain stuff or libs that were posted earlier on the blog. For a hint, I have fixed:

Vector3D class
Why use it when Adobe has a Vector3D class built into Flash 10? Well, go see for yourself. I have spent too much a time to make this the ultimate Vector3D class there can be .

The Colors Class
I missed the XNA and AS2 Colors class so much that I created this nifty class to help out in my color cycles. It has many colors to choose from and it helps you convert between RGB, Vector and Hex values.

There are other utility classes in the Tabinda.net utils package. Pretty useful stuff if you ask me. Go check all of it out. Whew! I think that’d to for today.

The last month went by so fast, I could not get time to update my blog. I have tons of things to post and I have a project exclusively for my website, its a PaperVision3D book. The Flash community is looking for it and I might just deliver it. I lack time and I have no one around to help me out in finishing things faster. I’ll be posting its chapters on this blog as well, because I want to keep the book open source and most likely as NEHE’s OpenGL tutorials. You’ll soon find a WIP Text version of the book in the site’s download section:

You can expect PaperVision3D to show up on my website very soon. I’ll be doing tutorials and open source projects for people to learn PV3D. I’ll be going over Away3D and Sandy3D as well but not too much, since I feel all of these engines share the same core. I’ll be looking into optimization techniques that can help you reduce those very useful CPU cycles. I’ve been away from photography and digital art but I’ll be coming back to that as well. People have complained that I don’t cover news on this blog. Well, honestly, I don’t wanna. Why? well you can find news on many blogs and I don’t see any point in creating a mirror of those news here.

That reminds me, I read a news that was interesting i.e. Flash Player 10 BETA is now live. It has tons of API changes and the one change that can turn things for PaperVision3D is native 3D support. You can grab the update from here.

I will update certain stuff in my portfolio here and there using the feedback, I receive from many people. I’ll be updating the software and visual section soon. In fact, there is already some new stuff in the visual programming section. You can grab the sources for them on this blog. I’ve also thought of making a video tutorial for Mocapsim, which is receiving the most attention these days. People are having problems developing the hardware. If you have any ideas that can help me improve the software or the homepage, do let me know.

I have updated my Vector3D library for AS3. It now includes many more functions that you can use while working in 3D. I have updated the code for my previous tutorials as well, which use the Vector3D library. You can find it here. I also fixed some bugs and optimized the code to use lesser CPU cycles, you’ll instantly know it. I’m going to reiterate over the tutorials to make them more understandable for people, who are not familiar with classes.

Lastly, be sure to look around and you’ll find a lot of good stuff coming up in some days. Meanwhile, if you think you liked any of my tutorials or if you want me to cover a specific subject, do let me know. I like hearing you out…

Regards,
M.H.A.Q.S.