The WBridge is a combination of a WLAN-router with a particle bridge. You can use the WBridge for several purposes, e.g. for replacing an Xbridge or for building up a wireless mesh-network forwarding particle packets.
1) Starting
When you receive the WBridge from TecO or the Particle Computer GmbH, it is configured
for using it as a particle bridge in a local network that offeres a DHCP-server. See chapter
2 hwo to configure the WBridge if you want to use the Bridge for another purpose.
To start up the WBridge in default configuration, connect one of the 4 LAN-ports of the
router with your local network (please do not use the WAN port). After that, connect the
power connector of the router with the external power supply.
As the router get's its IPaddress via DHCP in the default configuration, it is very important to connect it to the network port before connecting the router with the power supply. After the router has end up the boot process (indicated by a blinking Air LED), it can be used as a particle bridge.
2) Setup the Router
2.1) Network
If you want to use the WBridge for another purpose, you have to set some configuration
data. To make the network configuration of the WBridge as easy as possible, you should
use the util setup_router.
Setup_router, an easy to use tool for configuring the WBridge
First of all, setup_router will ask you, for which purpose you want to use the Wbridge.
When you have select one of the possibilities, setup_router will ask you for all neccessary
parameters for the selected purpose. After you have typed in all parameters, steup_router
will create a litte shell script named "config.sh" and exit.
An example run of setup_router
You have now to run this script at the WBridge. There are two possibilities to run the script:
First, you can copy the script to the router via scp and run it from a ssh shell. The second
possibility is to copy config.sh to themain directory of an USB memory stick and put this
stick into one of the USB ports of the WBridge while the WBridge is running. The script
will be executed during the mount procedure of the stick. config.sh will reboot the WBridge
to apply all settings.
Please note: If you configure your WBridge to receive it's IP address via DHCP, it is very
important to connect it to the network port before connecting the router with the power
supply when (re-)booting the WBridge.
2.2) Particle Bridge
You have also the possibility to configure the particle brige part of the WBridge. Configuring the particle bridge is very easy. What you need is a webbrowser and the IPaddress of your WBridge. If your WBridge is in DHCP-mode and you don't know the IPaddress, you can use our tool list_router to fetch up IP information from your WBridge.
After you have got the IP address, type the IP address followed by :5600 into the address field of your browser. For example, if the IP address of the WBridge ist 192.168.1.1, type http://192.168.1.1:5600 into the address bar.
The webinterface for configuring the particle bridge.
You can now configure the particle bridge via the webpage that has been loaded.
3) Installing Software
You can add you own software to the WBridge by using scp / pscp. If you have an own
webserver, you can also login to the router via ssh and download the software from the
webserver by using wget
4) Summary
Default user name for OpenWRT (incl. ssh)
root
Default password name for OpenWRT
root5
Port for Particle Bridge config (webconfig)
5600
Tool for configuring the WBridge
setup_router
Tool for receiving IP-information from the WBridge
