It Started With a Hardware Limitation I have been using Quectel GNSS modules in my designs for a while. They are reliable, well-documented, and the support ecosystem is solid. But the module I had been using had one problem that I kept running into: no external antenna support . For most projects that is a minor inconvenience. For a marine vessel monitoring and control system , it is a non-starter. A vessel hull blocks sky view, antenna placement is critical, and the difference between a clean fix and no fix at all often comes down to whether you can mount the antenna where it actually has line of sight. An integrated antenna in a sealed enclosure below deck simply does not cut it. So I went directly to Quectel. The Conversation With Quectel I reached out through their official sample request channel. I was not expecting much — most component manufacturers have a standard process: fill out a form, wait, get a few uni...
After bricking one router i decided not to try to increase the storage and go with the capabilities which it already have.
TL-MR3020 from TP-LINK have a UART but the problem with interconnection was TL-MR3020 out puts 3.3v and Arduino UNO is 5v. So after trying couple for methods trying to level the serial data voltage, finally 74LS04 is used the step up the TX from router to 5v and it was success and Arduino see the data.
Then tried to run a shell script from a webpage run in web server inside the router.
After couple of frustrations i manage to run with html+javascript...thats a long story...
Anyways it works perfectly and more mods will be done soon.
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You can follow the openwrt website to get the firmware for TP-LINK TL-MR3020 and after the firmware is uploaded, basically you will get a small linux box out of a small router :)
The you can control the serial or test it from an echo command.
I already have done lots of modifications for level converting. cause the router serial voltage is 3.3V so need to level convert for both RX and TX.
If you have any concerns let me know