Quote Originally Posted by Freman View Post
*sigh* Just another one of the things that leave me asking WTF were they thinking when they designed these chips... oh well..
I bet they had a good reason.... Who knows what it was. Might be that a 232 type chip can bring the levels up to true RS232 levels that a micro can not because of the voltage they run at.

Most times the software solution will work and you then have the benifit of using most any pin. About the only time I use hardware (HSERIN/OUT) is if I need it running in the background as in an interrupt. Of course if something else triggers the interrupt then you can have the software routine in that interrupt.

All kinds of possibilities.