On December 1, 2005 04:06 pm, Steph Smith wrote:
> whilst searching for the firmware for ICD2;without any luck,i came
> accross this:-
> http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/ICD2_Advisory_51566b.
>pdf As i haven't spent the money on an ICD2,or made one ;0) the last
> paragraph is a bit worrying!

It is just common sense.

You have a computer and monitor which are directly connected to the AC 
power lines and you don't want to connect your test jig to the power 
lines, otherwise you may burn-out some test instruments attempting to 
test your circuit before you program your chip(s).

Somewhere along the way, you have to isolate one thing or the other.

Some test jigs are the size of an office desk (or larger) and run off of 
3-phase power or something just as esoteric, so it is unlikely you 
would isolate those from the AC power lines. Computers and monitors you 
may be able to isolate, but in a test environment, someone is going to 
plug something in sooner-or-later and you have a direct connection to 
AC again.
To you, an isolated USB hub may sound expensive, but in cases like this, 
that could be the cheapest solution to isolate test jigs from direct AC 
power lines.

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