D. Jay Newman & Russell McMahon D., I apologise for coming on so strong. I now realise how valid your point is about RS232 not being specified for reasons. As Russell have now pointed out, the USART can also be used with RS422 and RS485 standards, which I have not realised. And there are various different types of programming and transceivers that could be used to implement above mentioned standards. I also have not taken into consideration that the "root" function of the USART could be to communicate with other peripherals in the same application. Instead I considered the USART solely as a DTE communications peripheral whilst in Async mode, and an in-application peripheral while in Sync mode. D., as for universities, etc., the local university doesn't have an engineering department. Their main focus is medical education. This is also the reason for their painfully obvious lack of any electronics related material in their library, which is claimed to be the biggest library in a 300km radius. The closest university with an engineering dept is 350Km away. I also have no contact with any other electronics enthusiasts, professionals and hobbyists other than through the PIClist. So I've got the island feeling... Being physically completely isolated from the rest of the electronics world. But enough of this topic, I got the answer I was looking for, and could successfully implement the communications between the PIC and the PC. Thanks to everyone for their input. Werner ----- Original Message ----- From: "D. Jay Newman" To: Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 3:48 PM Subject: Re: [PIC]: USART -> RS232, Transceiver Chip Required? > > D. Jay > > Sorry, it's just "Jay" when used without the last name. Silly family > custom, but what can I say? The "D." is only used when writing my full > name; never in speech and never when jut writing my first name. And no, > I doubt that there is anyway you can have known this because I haven't > added this to my FAQ yet. :) > > > I have to stress the fact that I asked about transceivers, because I didn't > > know the answer to the solution. Even though transceivers are obvious to > > some people, others don't know this *yet*. How else does one learn but to > > ask a question? > > I thought it was a good question. In fact I had the same problem when > I started with PICs. Actually it was a good question and perhaps should > be in the PICLIST FAQ. > > My statement is that the mention of a tranciever shouldn't need to be > in the datasheet, because the audience of a datasheet is not beginners. > > Microchip's datasheets are far above what I've seen from other companies. > They are informative and have *much* more information than they need to. > For example, each datasheet for the 18F series products comes with a > complete list and explanation of the op-codes. This is normally put into > a separate document that you either have to download separately or purchace. > > > As for books, they are very difficult to come by in South Africa. Here I > > would easily pay US$60 for a US$18 book, if I could get it. As I assume you > > know, importing is a problem since our exhcange rate sucks and import taxes > > are rediculous. > > Sorry, I didn't realize where you were from, nor did I know about the import > tax situation. I may be off-base here, but are you near a good university > library? If the university has an engineering program, they may have such > books. Or perhaps some of the professor's do and you could borrow them. > > > So to date, what I have done with microcontrollers have been based on their > > datasheets, application notes, some examples I found on the Internet, and > > asking questions here. > > > > So please, don't pick on people asking "newbie" questions (that's the > > feeling I got). Such questions are asked here because those of us who need > > the assistance know that the best in the world is here and will know the > > answer. > > I appologize if I came off picking on you. My problem wasn't with your > initial question, but with your statement that the information should > be included in the datasheet. > > I try to pick only on family, friends, and people that have really ticked > me off. You have the fortune of being not being in the first catagory, > and we don't know each other enough yet for me to consider you in > the others. :) > -- > D. Jay Newman ! Pudge controls the weather. > jay@sprucegrove.com ! > http://enerd.ws/~jay/ ! Oh good. My dog found the chainsaw. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu