of course my posts are "wooly" or confused, vague, hazy, unclear, fuzzy (had to look that word up). i'm very new to this and i've admitted this on posts (and up to this, i've only posted 6 times).
i said early on that i'm looking at the RS232 shield and posted a link to one with a male DB9 and asked if that'll work. This was after the very helpful assistance of raschemmel.
my most recent post, and posts before that, were simply answering questions from people who I think are legitimately trying to help me out here. i answer their questions to the best of my knowledge but that of course is still "wooly". I'm not continuing on saying "please help me here" but simply answering them, at times providing additional "wooly" details, saying why I don't have what they're looking for or can't use some of their suggestions. I think that's the right thing to do; to answer people who are trying to help me out here, someone who is new to this and therefore "wooly".
I have done my best to be friendly here and to answer people's questions to the best of my ability. I appreciate all the help and suggestions provided to me and have said so on multiple occasions.