Product suggestion -- TTL <--> RS-232 level converter board

[tastewar]

If there's a better way to communicate a product suggestion, please let me know. And I'm sure that Adafruit have plenty of product ideas, without me butting my fat head in, but here goes.

I came across a little board that productizes a MAX3232 chip. Mounts it on a board, along with the requisite caps. But it's *not* very neat, nor (more importantly!) is it breadboard friendly!

OTOH, it is quite inexpensive. But I'd gladly pay a premium for a similar board of Adafruit quality

[adafruit]

Thing is, very little stuff uses +-12V RS-232, what were you thinking that would use it?

[tastewar]

Certainly, it would be a niche product, but for interfacing Arduino, etc., to older "stuff" it's sometimes necessary. My specific purpose is to interface a Raspberry Pi to a BetaBrite sign. I've done Arduino to them, and have used 5V hardware, but what I've read about the Pi serial ports suggests they're 3.3V, so my (small, but non-zero) supply of 5V chips would be useless. That got me looking for other solutions, and I think the board I found is just the right thing, except for the shortcomings I pointed out.

I'm sure that there isn't much new stuff that uses 12V serial, but there is a whole host of existing gear that uses it.

Anyway, thanks for responding & thinking about it!

[adafruit]

OK we will consider it!