Reading the output of a TX into an RX

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At the moment I have a touch screen that I usually interface to via Windows (serial DB9 RS232 connection). I noticed it has a RX/TX/VIN/GND/SHIELD pins on the controller, so I soldered a pin from the RX on the touch controller to pin 2 on my Arduino. How should I read this output?

There is definitely output, when I touch the screen I get information coming through using the SoftwareSerial library, but its garbage, so I'm guessing I should be reading this input in a different manner. (I do know the structure of the packet the USB receives, so I am looking for something similar to that).

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I get information coming through using the SoftwareSerial library, but its garbage,

One assumes that the data is not garbage, just the output of your code :slight_smile:

Speaking of which, can you show us the code?

Do you know the bit rate, # data and stop bits, does it use parity etc?

so I soldered a pin from the RX on the touch controller to pin 2 on my Arduino

Well unsolder it right now, if it's RS232 it is +-12v and will/may blow up your Arduino.

Also if it's RS232 you need to invert the data, I think Software serial has that feature.

Rob

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(I do know the structure of the packet the USB receives, so I am looking for something similar to that).

What ever you are looking for it is not that.

At the moment I have a touch screen that I usually interface to via Windows (serial DB9 RS232 connection).

It would be good if you provide a link to it.

To convert RS232 to something you can feed into an Arduino you need a level converter something like the Max202 or one of the very many variants.