Service Forum

[richk]

I have been working on a driven circuit for too many hours and I cannot figure out what is wrong. It is certainly possible that something is wrong with the circuit but, by now, I doubt it. When I went to get the MAX232, the electronics place was out-of-stock and he gave me a MAX232ECPE, which he said is the same but with ESD protection. This chip needs 1mF capacitors, which is what I used. Also, I got Tantalum capacitors, instead of ceramic because they were smaller. Is all this OK? I am going back upstairs to check the cables (again).

Thanks

[victor]

Take a look in the practice thread, there is a PCB layout that I posted some while ago. Look at the capacitors polarity, especially for C4 and C5.

Ray Kawakami wrote a nice tutorial about how to make it on a breadboard, you can find the links there.

I also emailed you an explanatory image of a driven circuit, I hope it will help you.
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Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.