I've asked my local vendors about the TTL to RS232 circuit with no success. I decided to look for a different way to convert Arduino's TTL to RS232 signal. I've found some information on Severino's schematic and this website: http://www.pablin.com.ar/electron/circuito/mc/ttl232/index.htm and I decided to create my own schematic. There are plenty of information about Maxim chip to do this, but in some places it's very difficult to get some components, so I think this is the best and cheapest way to do the conversion.
I've never tested the attached schematic, I plan to do so, but It would be very nice if someone with appropiate knowladge verifies the circuit before the tests. It would be very nice to get some help to avoid crahsing my hardware.
DrJuano, update your profile some geographic info.
If you have an education related e-mail address, Maxim, TI, and others will send you samples for free.
I think it's even broader than that Mike, like +/-5 up to +/-25.
From MAXIM's MAX232 datasheet:
"The typical driver output voltage swing is ±8V when loaded with a nominal 5k? RS-232 receiver and VCC =+5V.
Output swing is guaranteed to meet the EIA/TIA-232E and V.28 specification, which calls for ±5V minimum
driver output levels under worst-case conditions."
For those not in the know:
Parts like MAX232 use the capacitors and an internal voltage doubler & inversion circuits to take 3.3V power on VCC pins to make +/- 6V output swing, and 5V power to make +/-10V swing:
"The MAX220–MAX249 have two internal charge-pumps that convert +5V to ±10V (unloaded) for RS-232 driver
operation. The first converter uses capacitor C1 to double the +5V input to +10V on C3 at the V+ output. The
second converter uses capacitor C2 to invert +10V to -10V on C4 at the V- output."
"The MAX3222/MAX3232/MAX3237/MAX3241’s internal power supply consists of a regulated dual charge pump
that provides output voltages of +5.5V (doubling charge pump) and -5.5V (inverting charge pump), regardless of
the input voltage (VCC) over the 3.0V to 5.5V range."
Some versions don't even use external caps, everything is internal, altho these are limited in the speed they can support.