Newbie question: interfacing with external serial devices

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hi,
as I know, the serial pins 0 and 1 are connected to the usb to serial converter on the arduino board (duemilanove in my case).

Is it possible to use these pins to communicate with an external serial device (19200 to 57600 baud read and write, ttl level) when the arduino board is not connected to the pc, or does the usb/serial converter chip has to be disconnected somehow?

Thanks!

2

Very well possible, you may even keep the PC connected, and keep an serial monitor open to see the messages in one direction! But note that opening the serial monitor will reset the Arduino. I have used this many times for debugging.

3

Also, if you need more serial ports, or want the arduino to talk to the computer at the same time, check out NewSoftSerial: NewSoftSerial | Arduiniana always works great for me...