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Laser-ing the IC markings off on a budget.

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KE5FX:

--- Quote from: Arek_R on March 16, 2021, 07:35:10 pm ---I don't want to be rude but I didn't ask for this stuff.
--- End quote ---

Welcome to EEVblog.  New here?  :)


--- Quote ---I've just asked for some advices regarding lasering it off yourself, why do you guys have such a hard time understanding this.
--- End quote ---

15 seconds with a microfocus X-ray machine, and yeah, good luck with your potting and lasering and Dremeling and black solder mask and...

It's like the modern trend of failing to publish schematics "to slow down the Chinese."  It might slow them down by a day or two.  Then they will clone your product and the store it's sold in, if they are inclined to do so.

nctnico:

--- Quote from: Arek_R on March 16, 2021, 04:21:19 pm ---It will be potted and enclosure riveted, also as a industrial product none of the customers would even think of fixing it.
I guess I will just have to buy the engraver and find out myself.

--- End quote ---
If you pot it then it will be next to impossible to get the chips out in one piece anyway. In this case engraving the chips doesn't add any protection.

So the answer to your question is: don't bother with engraving at all. If you are going to do engraving anyway you'll also need to think about filtering the toxic fumes from the engraver burning epoxy resin (nasty stuff when you burn it).

If you are serious about your product then make sure it is cheap (for which potting and rivetting the enclosure doesn't help) and add new features so your customers keep upgrading. Whatever gets cloned is outdated that way.

Arek_R:
But if you leave the hard potting for the night in acetone it will soften to the point where you can peel it off with your hands.
Also entire point is to not have to use the secondary hard potting because it complicates manufacturing as it was not intended to be partially potted like that.
As I said it's a industrial product and price doesn't matter that much.
Still not a single answer to my question.

bdunham7:
If someone knew, they'd tell you.  Probably very few here would bother with that sort of thing.  I haven't done it, but I'm sure one of those engraving lasers would do it, its just a matter of trial and error as to how to set it up and how quickly it can do it.

tom66:

--- Quote from: Arek_R on March 16, 2021, 01:54:53 pm ---I know everything can be reverse engineered.
It's mostly to make the directors and managers sleep better.
It is for a product that will sell around 10k units a year, and is not intended to be repairable.
And hobby grade so that it proves how easy it is to do.
You also don't need laser precision, +/-1mm is acceptable.
Later on might buy prosumer machine.

--- End quote ---

Does the product have a microcontroller in it, or could it accommodate a very small one?
Make the MCU do something essential, blow the fuse protection bits, and your product is not duplicatable except by replacing that software+MCU, which will take a fair bit more effort than just copying the hardware design.

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