It's gotten to a point on ebay whereby you almost have to assume that all parts are fake. And not just FTDI chips, but probably most parts.
Or savaged
You may have meant 'salvaged', but savaged sounds quite good too
You generally get what you pay for and buying from some countries directly increases the risk, my supplier won't supply me atmega chips simply because they are not made in china and I can get them cheaper than he can, so yes assume that most arduino chips that are cheap and from china are fake.
You generally get what you pay for and buying from some countries directly increases the risk, my supplier won't supply me atmega chips simply because they are not made in china and I can get them cheaper than he can, so yes assume that most arduino chips that are cheap and from china are fake.
Has anyone ever seen a fake AVR? (Not a "slug", a functional part.)
I'm fairly sure FTDI won't just walk away from this, there will probably be something up their sleeve, 5 or 10 minute resets or something similarly annoying in a sort of "demo" mode.
I don't think it was ever pulled?
Based on my experience, the driver was definitely pulled?
Well I cant think of anybody who would buy their coponents on ebay if it is for production and sales. Cause then he or she could face some serious legal problems or economical issues when the circuits failsI don't think people in a procurement department will buy from Ebay but they would buy from any parts broker if there are no other suppliers able to deliver a part.
So what you are saying is...production comes before security ? Ok this sounds like gambling
Heck, even most Nuclear reactors are running with critical security parts coming from ebay.
The trouble is how is the end user going to know. You can assume that a $100 new Rolex is probably going to be a fake, but you cannot assume that a $10,000 Rolex is going to be real unless you get it appraised.
Whether it was sourced from eBay is hardly an indicator. Even if 100% of eBay is fake, avoiding eBay still would not assure you got something real. Paying a high cost merely assures it is expensive, but it does not assures it is 100% genuine.
This is timely (from yesterday, Nov 17): Consumers Report, a magazine trusted by millions for objective reviews of products. They reviewed a Chinese brand tire(tyre) and the results were poor. The USA rep of the manufacturer (API) called about the surprising result that doesn't even come close to their internal tests. Upon investigation - it is a counterfeit.
Consumers Report, being the kind of magazine they are, dug deep to investigate as well. In their article following the supply path of the product, readers can discern a hole which may suggest how it got into the supply chain. But it is not a proof nor did Consumer Report suggested that was how the fake got in to the supply chain. Granted, this is a low cost brand - but the same way this got into the supply chain is no different than had it been a high-cost brand.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/11/counterfeit-car-tires-pose-consumer-risk/index.htm
Whenever there is a profit, there will always be someone willing to do bad things to gain from it. Punishing the consumer is not the way to stop it.
Rick