Can't get values of max232 with loopback
SoftwareSerial cannot both send and receive at the same time, as it does receiving inside an ISR, and turns interrupts off when sending. Thus this will never work properly.

I suggest you switch to HardwareSerial. Or, if you want to see the results, send using SoftwareSerial and receive using HardwareSerial. For example:



#include &lt;SoftwareSerial.h&gt;
SoftwareSerial mySerial (10, 11); // RX, TX

void setup ()
  {
  Serial.begin (115200);
  mySerial.begin (115200);
  }  // end of setup

unsigned long lastSend;
char c = ' ';
void loop ()
  {
  // time for another test send?
  if (millis () - lastSend &gt;= 500)
    {
    mySerial.print (c++);
    if (c &gt; 'z')
      {
      c = ' ';
      Serial.println ();
      }    
    lastSend = millis ();
    }

  // check for response
  if (Serial.available ())
    Serial.print (char (Serial.read ()));
  }  // end of loop


I tested that as a simple loopback and it worked fine. Connect pin 11 (Tx) to pin 0 (Rx). Disconnect the wire to pin 0 whilst uploading.