On Monday, April 18, 2016 at 11:22:57 PM UTC-7, Surge wrote:
For those of you who are handy with a soldering iron and are on a shoe string budget like myself, eBay is a great source for electronic circuitry.

You can purchase TTL to RS232 converter boards on eBay.
They use the MAX3232 chip and you can purchase five of them for less than $2.
e.g. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5PCS-Mini-RS...-/131700206049

For 12V to 5V high efficiency, switched mode, voltage converters you can use the LM2596. Ten of them costs less than $4.
e.g. http://www.ebay.com/itm/LM2596-DC-DC...-/130729707683

I'm not affiliated with any of the above manufacturers. Paying up to $100 for a cable which costs less than $10 to manufacture is crazy.

Surge,

Thanks for the links. Do you have any hands on experience with the electrical noise level of the voltage converters? I've tried cheap boards in the past and they broke the squelch on the radio.

Craig