What is the difference between MCLR and switching VDD OFF-ON?

[Demon]

one thing that can happen is if you have any +5 volt on any of the peripheral pins, the input to the pins inside the PIC have diodes pointing to the supply voltage and then that 'could' keep the pic from resetting.....

That is very possible.

This reset issue has cost me several days easily, I remember many frantic hours since I'm testing ADC/Timer/HPWM logic, not understanding why the simplest code mods were not taking; slapping LATB.x diagnostic signals all over the place and watching the Saleae window. I'm just happy I wasn't a complete doorknob all that time.

..... maybe back to software instruction to reset....@RESET. Or if you take away/turn off power, would have to turn off the power for all external parts

Nah, I like bulletproof solutions, even if they heavy-handed. Guess what band I got my online nickname from.


I'm really liking this 555 timer, 7404 inverter, IRFZ44N mosfet idea (mostly cause I thought it up on my own, and I've never used 555 and 7404 ICs before).

Unless you see a fault in my idea?