He's the one in the yellow shirt. I'd say Jan Waclawek is most probably a man. While I've seen a few women with a bit of facial hair, Jan has more than I've ever encountered on a woman. Frieder Ferlemann has even more, in the picture, but that's just a matter of time ... or of preference.

In some countries, his name might be spelled Ian, and in others it might be spelled John. You can work that out with him, if you like.

I'd guess you've misinterpreted what Jan told you, as inputs are typically set as outputs programmed to '1'. If the external hardware pulls it down, it's through a weak pullup, though this MCU might behave otherwise. If it's driven high, that's what you'll see.

The type of termination you use depends on the input current. If your input sources only 1 mA, I'd use a much larger pulldown resistor, if any, and I really don't see a need for it unless it requires a load. In such a case, your input must source enough current to drive the termination to a legal Vih level.

BTW, those series 470K-ohm resistors would require that you allow for the charge time of the input capacitance of your MCU. I'd suggest you drop down at least an order of magnitude.

RE