This article will be a quick guide to adding an SD reader to a linksys WRT54GL.

Things you will need:

1. A Linksys WRT54GL (duh )

2. An SD card reader. I used the USB kind and took off all the extra stuff

3. An SD card. I used a 1GB card, but I think it can support 2GB (don’t quote me on that!)

4. A soldering Iron & Solder

Right. Now that you’ve got all your parts assembled, let’s begin shall we?

Turn your WRT54GL around so that the ports are facing you and unscrew the antennas.

The router does not have any screws at all, so taking it apart is as easy as flipping it upside down and pulling the blue and black halves apart. You may have to cut the sticker that states that tampering with your router will void your warranty.

Once you’ve gotten your router apart it should look something like this.

The next thing I did was use a dremel to cut a slot into the router case for the SD card to stick out. This isn’t needed as you can mount the entire card inside the router, but that makes changing the card VERY annoying. I don’t have a picture of the slot I cut, but there’s one here.

Now we’ll move on to the USB SD card reader. If you remove the plastic case of your card reader, it’s pretty easy to see which parts are needed, and which aren’t. The USB part can go, and I even dremeled down the PCB a bit making sure not to hit any of the contacts I’d need to solder to later. There is a pic of my completed SD reader here.

The next step is locating the soldering points on your router’s board. This is the hard part. There are solder points here, here, and here(this picture borrowed from The MESH.

Here‘s a picture of the other ends soldered onto the SD card reader, which is mounted using red electrical tape. I apologize that all the wires are the same color, but I was unable to source different colored wires for cheap (go figure).

That ugly mess on Pin 6 is another wire that comes in and connects to a ground. I then connect Pin 6 to Pin 3 so that both pins are grounded.

Description GPIO
Pin 1 – CS, Chip select GPIO 7
Pin 2 – DI, Data in GPIO2
Pin 3 – VSS, Ground GND
Pin 4 – VDD, 3.3v 3.3v
Pin 5 – CLK, Clock GPIO3
Pin 6 – VSS2, Ground GND
Pin 7 – DO, Data out GPIO4

Once that’s done, you should be ready to re-assemble your router, install the drivers (check with your individual firmware – I use DD-WRT), and test it out. I’d suggest testing it out before you fit the router case back together.

Good luck, and if you need any help don’t hesitate to shoot me an e-mail!