Electronic – How to protect a MAX232 from PIC programming high voltages

digital-logicmicrocontrollerpicprotectionrs232

This question is derived from this Board review thread, I thought it would be preferable to make it a standalone question.

I want to be able to reset a PIC remotely using the only communication port of the board, the RS232. But I also want to be able to program it using a ICD3 (no bootloader), and this programmer apparently applies high voltage (0-13V?) to /MCLR which will certainly kill the MAX232 (MAX233 in fact).

Would a schottky between R2out of the MAX233 and 5V be the way to go? The datasheet says that the absolute maximum voltage on that pin is 5.3V, I find it a bit tight for a schottky. Any more robust suggestions? I don't want to use a jumper as this could be forgotten…

Schematic:
enter image description here

Thanks

Edit:

Will this work?

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

The Zener is a ON SEMI BZX84B5V1LT1G that has 5-5.2V tolerance at 5mA and I'm allowing 4.4mA max. The MAX233 will drive the /MCLR pin at 0.41V where up to 1V is a low level. The 20kOhm pull up comes from one of Olin's answers here.

Best Answer

If you put a 5.1V zener diode on pin 20 and ground (0V) of the MAX233A it would be protected but then there would be 70mA flowing thru R3 during programming and this may be too much so, increase R3 and R4 by 10x. The reset functionality should still be OK but now, when programming only 7mA flows into the zener diode.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

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