Making a RS-232/UART adaptor

A couple of months ago I wanted to experiment with the serial console of an old router I had laying around. Not wanting to buy a UART to RS-232 adaptor, I decided to make one myself. After all, I had some spare MAX3232 left over from a previous project (for which I still haven't blogged).

I just followed the schematic provided by the datasheet and 15 minutes of soldering later, this was the end result.

Gotta love these cute little perfboards!

I've tested it both with a RapPI and the aforementioned router and it works great. I was able to get a serial console on the router using the serial headers on the pcb. The manufacturer had even marked the TX/RX pin holes, so there was no need for me to go serial hunting.

Now, I'm waiting for some FTDI FT232-RL chips to arrive to make a USB adaptor instead of a RS-232 one. I know you can buy one on ebay for 3 bucks, but where is the fun in that?