Hi,
I really feel your pain, so I thought how I could help you...
Well, I finally had an idea on how to determine the weight: don't laugh, but I used my wife's Vorwerk Thermomix (called Bimby in Portugal).
My HackRF One (chinese clone) with Portapack (chinese clone) in aluminum case and without an internal battery (except the CR2032 for the Portapack) has on its own a weight of 290g.
The 170g can hardly be correct, unless the case is much leighter than mine.
Hope this helps.
By the way, I uploaded your picture to
https://29a.ch/photo-forensics/#forensic-magnifier in order to check if the image was indeed manipulated.
I got no conclusion or evidence of manipulation.
Then I used Paint and changed the digits myself. Analyzing this file did not reveal anything, either!
So my conclusions are:
1) My case probably weights more than yours
2) Measuring the weight of the parts as proof is completely meaningless
3) Pictures can be edited and it will be next to impossible to detect the fraud
4) The weight could have been manipulated on the scale in the first place
I would make a very firm complaint at AliExpress, explaining them that you are victim of fraud. Take pictures of the box that was shipped and of all the contents.
Tell AliExpress that the pictures of the scale are meaningless, because they don't show the weight of the final package: the seller could well have removed the HackRF PCB after taking those pictures!
On the other hand, be prepared to hear the opposite: that you could have removed the HackRF PCB in order to get a second free one. This is a shit situation. Best is always to actually videotape the unboxing.
Regards,
Vitor