Adding a sd card reader to the WRT54GL / MMC Mod

material

You need a SD Card with enough memory. Yout shouldn't use an old one, for example from an mp3 player or a camera, as the contacts may be scratched, which may result in a very slow transfer rate; in my case it was 15 KB/s.
With a new sd card the transfer rate was about 400 KB/s.
I tested a Panasonic 2 GB card and a hama 1GB. I can't tell whether cards with more memory than 2 GB are supported by the used driver or not.
It would be great if you told me which cards worked and which didn't and what transfer rates you got with them. Just send an email to admin@hendlsofen.de

Now you need a sd card reader. I took mine out of an old mp3 player that used sd cards as memory. You also could use an old floppy cable but you have to make sure that, the contacts are at the right place. Or just solder directly on the sd card.

Some wires, something to unisolate them, a soldering iron, some solder and someone knowing how to solder are needed for the next step. Since we solder directly on a circuit board some experience in soldering would be good.

Open the WRT54GL

To open the WRT54GL push on the red marked areas and on the top side of the router at the same positions. Pull the blue part of the case. Be careful! You could break the circuit board or other damageable stuff in your way.

Unscrew both antennas and remove the black upper part of the case.

Soldering the WRT54GL

There are 6 necessary soldering points. 5 of them are on the rear side, 1 on the upper side. Here is a list of the points and what colour they have on the pictures. At each of them you solder a wire.

DARK BLUE     GPIO7
RED:                  GPIO4
GREEN:              GPIO2
YELLOW:              GPIO3
LIGHT BLUE:         3,3v
PURPLE:                Ground

Soldering the sd card reader

DARK BLUE    GPIO7      SD Connector 1
RED:                  GPIO4      SD Connector 7
GREEN:               GPIO2      SD Connector 2
YELLOW:                GPIO3      SD Connector 5
LIGHT BLAU:           3,3v      SD Connector 4
PURPLE:                Ground      SD Connector 3 und Connector 6
Be aware that the ground (purple) has to be connected to two points on the sd card reader!

Now put the WRT54GL back together and check whether it's running.

Go on with the installation of OpenWRT White Russian.