Panda II rs232 communication

Hello,

I’d like to use my Fez Panda II to communicate with a device with the RS232 protocol. To be more precise its my A/V Amp.
I was wondering if this would do the trick: [url]http://www.sparkfun.com/products/133[/url]. I also wonder how many of these i can use as i see that the panda has 4 com ports? I know the arduino had a kind of software serial library, is something like that available for the Panda II too? And how many would i be able to hook up once i get my fez touch, fez connect shields plugged in.
Since i am quite new to this micro controllers things, i don’t know anything about UART, SPI and whatnot, but i don’t let that get into my way of using them ;).

How many ports do you need for your application ? What kind of devices are you connecting to ?

I am trying to understand if the other devices are TTL or RS232.

It may help to get started using http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/182
HTH.

How many ports do you need?! What else is on your setup?

Rajesh, its my A/V amp (and later on maybe my television). So its rs232, its still a standard in audio/video components to send and receive components.

Gus, I think i want at least 2 RS232’s, but the more the merrier. I am planning on adding the touch and the connect shield and also a led matrix ([url]ShieldStudio.com is for sale | HugeDomains), because it looks nice and i would like to run it in a clock modus or something like that. I might even want to add xbee support later on, for some wireless communication. On top of these big components, i ll also be using some pwm ports for output and a few digital ports (buttons and stuff).
As a side note, is it possible to have a button “shut off/turn on” the touch shield, sort of an eco mode to keep the panda running but not the shield.

Then who not start with one port the easy way, using the rs232 shield, then start adding more later on once you know more about your panda. If the serial pins are used for something then you can still hack the pins to fit your needs.

Note, fez connect already gives you 2 ttl serial ports on the 3pin sockets

Other solution might be to get a Domino, a usb hub and several usb-to-serial converters.