1/9/2014 Alternatives of MAX232 in low budget projects - Do It Easy With ScienceProg

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Ease H-Bridge on MOSFET IRF7105
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Alternatives of MAX232 in low budget projects
By ScienceProg | 6 December, 2006 | Free Hobby Electronics Circuits
Sometimes when you work on low
budget projects of dont want to go
shopping for max232 or similar IC you
can save your time and money by using
other TTL to RS232 converter. We
usually used to use MAX232 chip like
this:
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1/9/2014 Alternatives of MAX232 in low budget projects - Do It Easy With ScienceProg
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Max232 IC is a specialized circuit which makes standard voltages as required by RS232
standards. This IC provides best noise rejection and very reliable against discharges and
short circuits. If your project is more advanced and has to reliable you must use specialized
RS232 to TTL converter ICs. As I said Specialized are more expensive than other solutions.
One of such solution is Transistor based interface:
Transistors can be any general purpose transistors. This circuit is very easy and works
without problems. It is cheapest solution as it require couple of transistors and four resistors.
Two transistors does a trick to get a negative voltage as required by some PCs. When the PC
does not transmit data, its TX pin is stuck to a negative voltage. The negative voltage is
1/9/2014 Alternatives of MAX232 in low budget projects - Do It Easy With ScienceProg
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picked up from the TX pin and brought back through resistor R3 to the PCs RD pin.
RS232 alternatively can be interfaced using Logic gates. This is handy when your application
is using logic elements and there are couple gates left on some IC. As almost every PC can
vork with positive-only signals logic gates can provide necessary inversions. For instance
using CD4066B CMOS IC:
And of course NAND and NOR circuits:
And dont forget to Power the logic ICs with 5V.
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Ease H-Bridge on MOSFET IRF7105
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AVR-DDS signal generator in-line ASM
explained
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21 Responses to Alternatives of MAX232 in low
budget projects
Pingback: Electronics-Lab.com Blog Blog Archive Alternatives circuits of MAX232
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David Fowler 28 August, 2007 at 9:47 am
uCHobby has an article describing how the two transistor RS232 converter works.
You might find it interesting to reference.
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Pingback: Alternatif pengganti IC converter MAX232 yang murah Weblog gw
http://www.uchobby.com/index.php/2007/06/11/ttl-to-rs232-adaptor-explained/
Reply
Dan Philips 12 February, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hi,
Good to know about this article. However if you need the full 5-pin interface and
are working with long RS232 cables at high speed it may still be useful to use a
MAX232 IC.
You can get the following quite cheap:
http://www.tronisoft.com/4201.php
The thing like is the PSU is built in so you can power the circuit and you Microchip
PIC projects in one go. Great for breadboarding!
Dan
Reply
Scott 29 March, 2009 at 7:17 am
Great all-in-one-place article!
I was about to use a Max232 to translate old vintage computer current-loop to
RS-232. This is called a 20ma current loop digital interface. NOT to be confused
with more contemporary 4-20ma current loop analog interface. (Did I get that
right?).
Is there a simple sans-Max232 circuit for this (adapting 20ma current loop to RS-
232)?
Scott
Reply
honda4life 19 April, 2009 at 12:29 pm
The MAX232 schematic is wrong (at least it didnt work for me)!!!
I used this schematic
http://www.captain.at/electronic-atmega-mmc.php
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Reply
scienceprog 19 April, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Max232 works for me. Could be other factors that cause failure.
Reply
James 22 December, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hi, Im building an unlocker cable for my cellphone but I dont have access to a
MAX232 which is required. Can I use any of the above alternatives instead ??
Thanks.
Reply
scienceprog 23 December, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Sure you can try. Most computer will work fine with any converter. But some may
be sensitive to different RS232 signal level. Just give a try.
Reply
Sami Levian 16 January, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Hi
What is different between MAX232N and MAX232 ?
Thanks
Reply
Aisha 3 February, 2010 at 11:29 am
Thanx =)
Reply
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Sundar 9 April, 2010 at 7:49 am
Your transistor based solution has a problem, it will echo what ever is received on
Tx Line via Rx line coz of resistor R3.
Reply
DanDan 16 February, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Hi, Good project. I had a question: the zener diode you use is 1W or 1/2W?
Thanks.
Reply
admin 19 September, 2011 at 9:11 am
0.5W is more than enough
Reply
Edwin 28 March, 2012 at 11:21 am
I agree with sundar. I think R3 should not go to the Tx line but to ground!
Reply
Nello 8 November, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Hi, i build the circuit with max232 but testing it by hyperterminal and connecting
together ttl tx and rx on screen comes a lot of copy of same symbols like a home.
Where can i be wrong?
Thank you
Reply
rad777 6 February, 2014 at 3:54 pm
manufacturer only
Reply
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Pro 32/64 Bits -
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Comprar
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Licena
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Professional - ...
Comprar
R$ 89,89
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