The unseen problem of chip shortages

[darkspr1te]

So as per the thread title, What is the unseen problem of chip shortages,
Well a new one me is a sudden change to the product line and no one tells you.

Here's my story,
 I have been buying a lot of OBD2 products, some are for use in the field and others are for fun, this is a story about a "fun" obd2 device I recently purchased. The device is a HUD for cars reading the OBD2 port and using giro's and GPS for 0-60/60-0 times , acceleration curves etc.
I pooled together with a few car nuts to buy a box of 10 units from Actisafety who after a month of silence said they were unable to supply currently, So i fell back to good old Amazon and purchased 3 units.
Two of the units went out to clients right away while the 3rd stayed behind for me to install in my own race vehicle. In my usual excitement i installed it and forgot about it until a client came back with a unit non functioning, not a problem as it was within the amazon return time and back it went leaving us with two. Not to put my client out I removed my functioning one and gave it to the client.
the following day the client is back. Another dead machine or wiring issue?
After talking to the client the issue is reveled, It did not work on his JDM car so he emailed the Manufacturer who said "update it" which he proceeded to do, only issue is, the firmware provided by the manufacturer is for STM32F103C8 and our devices have CSK32f108CB. After emailing the makers we were told we had clone devices and not one made by Actisafety.

To most this is plausible but I had my doubts, I contacted the Amazon agent and told them what had happened, the supplier was willing to take both unit back and provide replacements, He also assured us they are genuine Actisafety units  and for our benefit they opened up a new unit and old stock returned item from last year and both had CSK32F103CB and are fully Actisafety branded(branded box, stickers, manual and even a 0-6 time sheet.) 

So here I am going to assume that hey ran out of STM's and moved to CSK based devices but did not update their website to reflect a v2 unit and it requires different software and despite pointing this out to  Actisafety they still say we have clone devices.

So while I returned one unit for replacement for the client , I decided to keep the other unit for some good old open source firmware. I've done quite a few board bring ups in the past few years and this will be no different. But before i do that I am going to swap out the CSK branded part for STM (i have many genuine stm blackpills from before the outbreak) and see if the firmware works. if it does then I wil be at least 25% right on my assumptions.

So what does the Public think, could I be right in my assumption or do i really have clones?


darkspr1te

[PatrickCPE]

In general I assume whatever I purchase off Amazon is a clone/faulty advertising. If you buy cheap Chinese parts you can know that is what you'll get so it's great for that. Outside of that, I assume you roll the dice and the dice will generally fall towards the side of it's a fake

From what I heard a while ago Amazon does absolutely zero enforcement on this sort of thing but who knows, hopefully it has changed. Is there a reason you can't order from the actual company themselves? Is it a stock issue on the official company site?

[darkspr1te]

I Did try to purchase direct from the outset as I had heard good things from others who retail these items but alas I heard no replies so had to make alternative choices.
The product does not feel and look like a clone, am used to plain manuals, no sticker , bad silk screen, no accessories or poor quality ones. This has really good silkscreen, is marked with their details and is marked v1 also. I will open a separate thread on this forum where i will post pictures and my progress on restoring function to the device.



darkspr1te

[peter-h]

Any chip shortage gets noticed by chinese counterfeiters if there is enough volume, say 10k+.

Years ago I was buying many 1000s of H8/323. After a few years, the chinese got going and we started getting packages with just an empty lead frame inside

Just had 1k of a fake MAX3089CSD (posted about it here). The fake parts got injected into a bona fide German distributor's stock.

[darkspr1te]

Any chip shortage gets noticed by chinese counterfeiters if there is enough volume, say 10k+.

Years ago I was buying many 1000s of H8/323. After a few years, the chinese got going and we started getting packages with just an empty lead frame inside

Just had 1k of a fake MAX3089CSD (posted about it here). The fake parts got injected into a bona fide German distributor's stock.

I just read that thread, wow is all i can say.

darkspr1te

[Doctorandus_P]

"PCB007" is a magazine about PCB production, and they have some articles about counterfeit parts and the damage they cause

http://pcb.iconnect007.com/index.php/search/?q=counterfeit

They also had some articles about non-destructive testing, from acoustical microscopes to roentgen photo's.