Universal programmer / TL866 question about damaging IC's...

[alank2]

So I got one of these TL866A's from eBay to do some flash programming and it seems to work well on a 5x7 PLCC flash IC that I have.  I also pressed a piece of sram against an adapter board and got it to test that successfully too.  My question is, being that it is universal in nature, can it damage an IC if you select the wrong one and try to do an operate on it?

[alm]

I have not tested it, but probably. Connecting the wrong pins to Vcc can damage something (e.g. reverse power, 6.5 V to a 1.8 V device). Never mind a Vpp of up to 21 V. The current limit may or may not save you. I would not bet some expensive/rare IC on it.