Fixing broken TP-Link TL-MR100

TL;DR: the problem is usually in corrupted data in SPI NAND flash, you need to download the original config data and flash back working modem firmware.

I noticed there is quite a lot of offers with used not working 4G router TL-MR100 in aukro.cz . I bought one with hope I can easily fix and use it. But the fix turned out to be not that easy.

The router boots, shows WiFi network, you can connect to it but the problem is that the web management doesn’t work. I’ve found out that the device consists of two interconnected systems:
– MT7628AN SoC providing...

New Products in 2022

Our team has been working hard this year to bring new products to the market and to ensure our parts are continually available.

This display was specially designed to have a matching form factor to our popular 128×64 graphic displays. We wanted a display with increased capabilities but without the price tag of a typical high density graphic display. This display met that mark. It has 240×128 pixels, 4-color grayscale, and is available with a backlight or as a purely reflective display.

We also offer this display with a breakout board and as a full graphic LCD development kit.

miniPCI-e dual USB card extender

Recently, I was looking for an affordable LoRaWAN gateway with 3G/LTE connectivity. I like Mikrotik products because they are easy to use and have many features (e.g. Wireguard VPN ) . I found RBwAPR-2nD which has a miniPCI-e slot which can be fitted with R11e-LR8 LoRaWAN gateway module or a card for mobile network connectivity (e.g. R11e-4G). The problem is you cannot have both because there is only one slot. Or can you?

As soon as I verified that LR8 use only USB connectivity through miniPCIe I’ve got an idea why couldn’t we fit in a USB hub to...

Getting Hired at Great Scott Gadgets

Once in a while, we get emails from people in the community who want to know what they can do to increase their chances of getting hired at Great Scott Gadgets (GSG) when we do happen to open up a position. We really appreciate this enthusiasm! Below we outline some of the skills and topics we assess when hiring someone to join our small, completely-remote team.

Know our products and projects. Our products are listed on our website. The Software and hardware details for our products and projects are in the repositories on our GitHub. When we interview we ask which...

Ubertooth Retirement

After 12 years and 17 production runs, Great Scott Gadgets is retiring our first product, Ubertooth One, from our hardware catalog.

GSG’s founder Michael Ossmann designed Ubertooth One because he wanted a device that could detect and monitor Bluetooth. At the time, such instruments existed but cost at least five figures—prohibitively expensive for most security researchers. His goal was to design an open-source, affordable-to-make tool that anyone in the security community with basic soldering skills could assemble. At the project’s inception, his intent was not to sell hardware but to provide a solution to a problem that no one else had...

Moving emails accounts to a new host, imapcopy with actual encryption

Tunnelling Imapcopy traffic over TLS and everything that went wrong for me.

HackRF One Shortage

The past couple of years have been challenging for Great Scott Gadgets. The global chip shortage in particular has put demands on our team unlike anything we’ve faced in the past, and we have been working hard to navigate its effects on our supply chain for HackRF One and our other products. Revenue from the sale of hardware sustains our business, allows us to improve our existing products, and helps us to continue the research and development work that brings new and innovative open source tools to the community. If you have tried to purchase a HackRF One recently, you...

Free Stuff - November 2022

The November recipient for the Great Scott Gadgets Free Stuff Program is Alex of the CCCSBG Hackerspace. A group of people at the CCCSBG Hackerspace are making an effort to explore the protocol spoken between ancient IBM3270 terminal equipment and their controller. Alex points out that Andrew Kay has done similar work for text-only traffic [1], but mentions that his hackerspace wants to chip away at the graphics capabilities of the IBM 3270. We have sent Alex and CCCSBG a GreatFET One so they can sniff the traffic that is going through the NS DP8340 and NS DP8341 chips on...

Social Media Update

Find my latest posts at Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/tubetime.bsky.social). I’ve also been active since 2022 on Mastodon as @tubetime@mastodon.social.

December Update: Merry Christmas and Happy New PineTab

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a Happy New Year to you all. This month’s update has a different formula from the usual - aside from the announcement of the PineTab2, most of this month’s content is dedicated to looking back at this year and taking a sneak peak at what’s to come in 2023.