Evok & AliPhile
Found a busted 2005 router at a garage sale and I'm convinced it still holds a forgotten firmware dump. Got any tricks to coax out the data without blowing it up?
Sure thing. First, don’t plug it straight into a laptop—treat it like a fragile painting. Power it up with a regulated 5 V supply, keep the current low, and monitor the voltage. Then, use a serial console with a low baud rate and a terminal that can capture all the output. If the firmware is on a flash chip, look for an SPI header or an eMMC slot; a cheap programmer will get you a raw dump. Remember, every bit of stray current is a risk, so set up a voltage probe and a current limiter before you touch it. If it’s already burnt, a few good bytes might still surface in the watchdog logs. Just keep a clean workspace and a backup of the data as you pull it out. Good luck, but don’t expect a perfect copy if the device is already on its last breath.