Hello,
I am looking for a solution that offers electrical protection when plugging a work-in-progress USB device in the event any issue occurs (shorts, faulty circuitry design, …). My research has led me to consider USB Isolators and I was wondering if those are indeed valid options. If so, do anyone has recommendations? There seems to be a whole lot of them and the majority aren’t marketed for such use.
I’m still familiarizing myself with USB development and I’m hoping to get a better grasp on what tools are worth considering. Thank you for your time
Welcome to the DigiKey TechForum stonewalker.
A possible solution that offers isolation for a USB charging port, is 1165-1182-ND
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For protecting a host device (e.g. PC) against mistakes this isn’t a bad solution; note though that USB has also morphed into a power transfer protocol, and whatever isolator you’d choose would need to appropriately emulate those functions if they’re relevant to your design.
If you go with a budget item from a can-I-buy-a-vowel supplier, it might not be silly to do a continuity check across the isolation barrier as a minimal precaution.
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Thank you @rick_1976, checking for the isolator’s emulation capabilities is definitely an important part of the selection process. I’ve come across some candidates from IFTools and CommFront (ISOUSB-Cable and USB Isolator [Industrial], respectively) that would probably fit the bill. I’ll let you know with that solution I end up
