On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:00:00 -0500 Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gen...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 3:21 PM, Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Neil Bothwick wrote: > >> On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:30:52 -0500, Dale wrote: > >> > >>>>> One would think that modern stuff would have some sort of > >>>>> protection. Odd. > >>>>> > >>>> indeed. The modern stuff with protection is called 'usb'. > >>> Well, I meant for the serial/parallel chips tho. Surely it can't > >>> be hard to at least keep them from blowing their fuse. > >> The problem is in the connectors, it's too easy to get a static > >> discharge when connecting them. USB has grounded shields over the > >> connectors. > >> > >> > > > > > > Somewhat off topic, how about a monitor that uses the 15 pin > > connector? I try not to do those when something is powered up but > > have done it a couple times. Is that one safe to hotplug? I never > > thought about that until this came up. > > VGA is not hot-pluggable by specification, but DVI and HDMI are > hot-pluggable. As someone who's done more electronics work than he ever should, any device that can suffer electrical damage simply by being plugged and unplugged from the thing it's supposed to be plugged into is a shoddy design and really should be in the bin. The only thing I ever found that was susceptible to this was ancient RS232 kit, and the cause was always inadequate shielding and isolation. In the last 10 years I only know of one product sold that has this problem and sadly that's the first run of the Raspberry Pi... You can safely plug and unplug VGA all day long and be hit by lightning more often than damage the monitor, repair techies have been doing it for years. VGA connectors are shrouded, you are virtually guaranteed an earth connection before any of the data pins make contact and you'll never have a situation where 25V is trying to shake hands with 5V (that was a major problem with RS232 stuff). Of course, there's no guarantee the picture will show on the screen if you hotplug VGA, but there's no inherent danger of damage either. -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
