Quote Originally Posted by ross246 View Post
Is a max232 needed? I haven't had much success without it in the past but I might consider trying to lose it since space is a bit tight in the dongle case.
When you use a hardware serial port on a pic16 device, you need an RS232. If you use hardware serial on a PIC18, then you can invert the bits to get away without one.

For degug or serin/out you don't need one. You can follow the directions in the manual for the resistor size to protect your pic.