Disregard my previous posting on this thread, it looks like I saw your
modified circuit after everybody's postings - just what happens after having
three days leave :)

>If that warning about sub-Vss voltages was in the F877 manual
>instead of the Mid-range manual maybe I wouldn't have lost a
>PIC pin. Lesson - read damn everything

To be fair Jinx, I have always taken this as being gospel for all mos parts,
be they pic's, intel family, motorola family, ordinary cmos, etc. I take
precautions against this sort of thing as standard requirement, without
reading it in the manual. I get more interested in comments that
specifically state pins can go outside the Gnd-Vcc range, and these
typically are given in the "features" bit on the first page bold print.

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