Argh

title: ARGH date: 2005-01-08 17:06:37 tags: nwr04b

So I went out today and got a MAX 232CPE and a MAX 232N, plus assorted wires and whatnot, in an attempt to get a serial port connection to the NWR04B. Got a couple wires soldered to the board, hooked up a CPE to a breadboard with some capacitors, distressed a null modem cable, and....

Well, results were decidedly mixed; minicom eventually showed some chatter, but nothing intelligible, and only when I rubbed two wires together. (Cue jokes here.) At least I know the level shifter is working (I was worried I'd picked up the wrong size/value/faradicitousness of capacitor), but it's frustrating not to see anything I can recognise (like, you know, some ASCII, or "press 1 to boot Linux"). Plus, I suspect I'm only seeing static coming from the connection, rather than anything from the damn board.

Argh. Hints more than welcome, but dumb them down; this is about the sixth time I've soldered anything.