Will I damage the FPGA module if I accidentally connect two write-enabled pins together.

[brianflores]

My current setup has a PXI chassis with two FPGA modules.  Each FPGA module has a 6581 Adapter Module on it.  I'd like to test the signal path through my system by having the user move around some cables that would loop a pattern from one FPGA back to the other.

I'm worried, though, about the risk of the user not correctly following directions and somehow connecting one write-enabled channel to another write-enabled channel.  Could this damage either the FPGA or the adapter modules?

[JoeySpinella · Accepted solution]

Hi Brian,

Your concerns are correct. We never want to connect two pins that are outputting a voltage. If both pins are digital output, mistakenly connecting them together could possibly damage one or both of the output nodes since there is nowhere to sink the potential.

It is fine for us to connect two pins that are reading a voltage. If both pins were performing digital input (reading from the pins), since there would be no potential, neither pin would be likely to be damaged.