Couldn't find info in that thread but I did find something that may work elsewhere. I'll try to rip my v2 firmware tonight and upload it for the masses.
I tried but I couldn't get the controller into failsafe mode. I tried every which way for both versions of the tplink. not sure if it's possible to remove failsafe mode from the firmware or not.
I was having a hard time as well with V1.6: ended up removing power, wait for it to boot up, after 2 blinks pressing reset. Then it starts to blink faster.
For it to connect, i had to connect TP Link directly to pc and give my pc ip 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0. Then after enabling telnet (W8.1) "telnet 192.168.1.1" worked!