Okay, reality check. I'm interfacing my Arduino's pins 0 and 1 with another device running at 96008n1 using a Max233CPP driver. The serial device takes its power from the serial port. I'm trying to set up the port as DTE (as if it were a computer and I'm plugging this in as an input device)
I have, on the Max233:
Pins 17 and 12 connected (V-, maybe unnecessary)
Pins 15 and 11 connected (C+, seems to be necessary)
Pins 10 and 16 connected (C-, seems to be necessary)
Arduino Pin 0 (RX) to Max Pin 3 (R1out, for receiving RS232 as ttl)
Arduino Pin 1 (TX) to Max Pin 2 (T1in, for sending ttl as RS232)
Max pin 4 (R1in) to DB9 pin 2
Max pin 5 (T1out) to DB9 pin 3
DB9 pin 5 to ground
Max pin 14 (V+, should be +10v) to DB9 pins 4 and 7 (believe this is DTR/RTS)
Now, with one device it seems to work fine in that I can receive information no problem. I have another device that is acting a little finicky in that I have to send it some setup bytes before it does anything. I have a DIP switch such that I can control whether or not pins 0 and 1 are actually connected or not--this is so that I can disable pin 0 (recieve) and upload code via the USB connection and also disable pin 1 to the DB9 so that I can debug using Serial.print().
I'm just not sure if I'm actually sending bytes to the device--it SHOULD be beeping if it's working, and it's not. Is there something obviously wrong with the wiring (particularly with regard to the power to DTR/RTS affecting flow control?)
Sorry, vexing problem for me (sending data to/from the device)