I recall hearing somewhere that you can actually use the PIC usart
levels with the PC without a converter.  I haven't actually tryed
this, but it might be worth a go.

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/serialio/serial-5-hardware.htm

Please check if this will actually work before you try it - I don't
want to fry anyones PICS/PCs

On 5/6/05, alan smith <micro_eng2@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Well....yes it will work without the MAX232 if you are
> talking to another TTL device.  Remember, the UART is
> doing the job of serializing the data, adding in
> start/stop bits, etc such that another device that has
> a similar serial device set up in the same manner can
> communicate with it.  Granted that to talk to a PC
> serial port you will need to use RS232 levels, thus
> the MAX232.  All it does is converts the TTL levels to
> something else that is more robust than the digital
> levels, and can withstand noise that might be induced
> on it.  You could use RS422, RS485, or anything else
> for that matter, because once you convert it back to
> TTL its just serial data again, feeing into the rx
> uart and then converted back to 8 bit (typical) data
> sitting in a register.
> 
> >
> 
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