I too am new to this forum. There are a lot of questions to be clarified.

I assume the IR device output is TTL, 0-5 volts, 0 with no IR input and 5V with IR input. If so, why the Max232? Is the purpose of the Max 232 to provide output to go to a PC?

I assume the device will output a sequence of ON/OFF TTL transitions similar to an RS-232 character - correct? Does the IR device output a RS-232 code? If not, then you need to decode the output some way. Assuming it is "RS-232 like" you will need to determine the bit timing and program the pic to detect the bit sequence.

What is the data bit rate? I took a class once and we did some 1200 baud pic to PC RS-232 experiments using a 4MHz frequency for the pic. If the baud rate is faster you may need to go to a higher pic oscillator frequency.

Google the Microchip web site and check out some of the application notes and sample code to get help on programming the pic to handle RS-232. Decoding another format code can be handled similarly.

Hope this helps.

jj 2