I used the one PIC '84 to develope an ignition module for nearly a
year. It took all of the punishment from incorrect insersion into a
programmer, countless plug in/out from cct boards, carried about
fifty miles from the programmer to the garage, dropped on carpets,
the inevitable fingers touching the pins, put in and out of the circuit
while powered up. I think the dog even stepped on it once, and it still
works today.

Its either a tough little chip, or I'm just lucky.

It's a real pain in the a**e to track down faults due to static
damage, so my suggestion is to take reasonable caution while
handling any semiconductor devices. I think even the humble transistor
die is so small these days, that it can also be damaged.

If you are getting a belt by touching door knobs etc where you
experiment then I would definitely take steps to protect the devices.



Tony


Just when I thought I knew it all,
I learned that I didn't.