Many thanks, Jason. I had a look at the PK3 schematic and it was as you described. So: I=20 tried it and it worked perfectly. My customer now has the boards=20 that he needs to ship out today. I managed to kill one of my PK3 units - I had made a cable that=20 adapts the RJ12 connector on a ICD2 or Real ICE to the ICSP connector=20 on the target board. I was too lazy to cut the RJ12 connector off=20 the cable and solder-in a 6-pin single-row header. So I went looking=20 in my box of Microchip goodies and found some little adapter boards=20 that have a RJ12 connector on one end and a single-row receptacle on=20 the other. Grabbed a long-pin header and mated that to the PK3. I should have realized that something was wrong because the adapter=20 board had to be installed upside-down to the PK3 in order to make the=20 pin 1 marks line up. But I tried it anyway and it didn't work. So I grabbed my multi-meter and started checking pin connections. It=20 turns out that these adapter boards came with some new ICD headers=20 that I received recently - the headers have a single-row receptacle=20 instead of the normal RJ12 connector. These adapter boards allow the=20 ICD header to be used with ICD and Real-ICE debuggers. But: Microchip made a bone-headed decision when they made the RJ12=20 cables that connect from the debugger to the target system: the RJ12=20 connector pins are reversed at one end of the cable compared to the=20 other. Its the old telco standard, which no one else uses. So: these little adapter boards are supposed to be at the end of the=20 cable furthest away from the debugger / programmer. The net result=20 was that Vdd & Ground were swapped. That PK3 no longer functions. I'm mentioning this because it would be really easy for anyone to=20 make this mistake. Microchip does make adapter boards that match a=20 PK3 to the debugger end of the RJ12 cable and they look exactly the=20 same as these adapter boards. But the pinout for the RJ12 connector=20 is swapped 180 degrees. I'll order in the parts to fix the PK3 - I know that Microchip will=20 fix it for free but it just doesn't seem worth the ship cost. Thanks again for the suggestion. You saved me much time. dwayne At 03:03 PM 12/12/2013, Jason White wrote: >Hi there, I have a Pickit 3 and have blown out its buffers with high >voltage and replaced them before. A quick look at the schematic shows >that it uses three +-24ma buffers[1] to drive its (PTC fused [2]) >outputs. Considering the amount of abuse I have put mine through I >believe that it should work fine for your application. > >[1] 74LVC1T45 >[2] fuse is 50ma as per schematic --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .