John Pearson wrote:

>Is it okay to tie a general purpose I/O pin that is in a tri state directly to ground?
>
>Will this cause higher power consuption?
>
>

Yes, it's ok to tie an unused I/O high or low if it's set to input.
It will only cause higher consumption is it has the weak pullup
turned on and it's tied low. Not that it amounts to much though.
That said, setting it to output is safer just in case you tie it to
one rail but accidently set it as output and drive it the opposite
way. Lots higher consumption then! Check the PIC FAQs.
David...

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