Carprog china clone missing ic?!

[Hagis2k]

So I bought a chinese clone of Carprog and I realized that one of the IC circuits on mine is
not even populated, its an transponder IC TMS3705 that seems to be forgotten at factory
I doubt the transponder function will work properly without it?

I have been looking to buy one of these for a long long time, and I been checking pcb designs
and layouts on different forums and blogs but I have never seen a pcb with a missing ic yet
lol guess I am the lucky sucker to get the first maybe lol but no worries I can put one one too.

I really doubt that it will work as intended without the ic missing?

It is called IC1 in the schematics that I attached...

The missing IC datasheet etc:

https://www.ti.com/product/TMS3705

and the ic next to it that is populated is:

https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/hitag-lf/hitag-reader-solution:HTRC11001T

[thm_w]

TMS3705 seems to be expensive and out of stock from TI.

Maybe it will work for some features and not others? Can you test it.

[Hagis2k]

Yeah I been looking at it but then I think the seller should mention it too, I shall let him know for sure.

[coromonadalix]

Even if you put / add this ic, if the eeprom firmware doesn't have it ... it will be no use

i'm registered on a few forums about obd stuff for my truck,  i mostly see the photos with this ic

[Hagis2k]

Unless I flash it with the right firmware too yeah it adds a bit more work lol.

[Hagis2k]

So finally won my battle with AliExpress took me weeks but getting 50% off the price, as the unit does not match the listing. Could be a good thing for other users to check if their units are complete, and I urge other users that might run into the same problem is to fight this. They even gave me the wrong return shipping address, but after a week fighting with them they realize this is considered as fraud. I even made it clear to them that if I have to I will file a fraud case with the UK Police and told them that I will send an 11 pages long complaint to AliExpress in London. After that things changed rather quickly and a refund was processed in a few hours haha.

Look at the return address LOL

And I told them exactly how I did feel and I spent $1407 only this year and they are about to lose me as customer, been spending way to much
money there over the last 10 years haha.