cheap so called fake parts for instance have brittle pins, the print may come off and/or is erroneous, the silicon chip inside might be slightly smaller, the bonding materials different, there are hundreds of factors.

Totally bogus parts are just empty shells with no functionality but that's uncommon.

 

The counterfiet electronic components market is always a touchy-feely subject. Legitimate manufacturers like Fairchild and Philips for example would love to pursue them however, they are protected by the country they are based in and it would be very costly to wage such a campaign. Reverse engineering and copying electronic parts is not unlike CD, DVD and computer program piracy.

When somebody unknowingly uses a fake part to fix something expensive and that part causes additional problems, that repairer's reputation is on the line for faulty troubleshooting and repair even though the repair work was done to standard. Personally, I prefer the the big suppliers like Digi-Key, Mouser, Newark, Jameco and places like that who buy from brand-name manufacturers to avoid such issues.

 

But all of that goes back to where we live. I do make a distinction between parts that are basically empty shells, and knockoffs.

Even the US government isn't immune though, I remember where our military procurement, in efforts to find replacements long out of service, have bought substandard and relabeled parts from Chinese scammers. It is a problem.

One of several reasons we need to rebuild our industrial base in the USA. Cheaper isn't always better.

 

As far as "clone" goods go... I was taking to a guitar player once and he told the story of a Fender guitar he'd bought from a local dealer. He was happy, all was good till the dealer called to tell him his guitar was probably a counterfeit. The dealer had been visited (raided) by the cops for selling counterfeits. Long story short, seems the dealer bought thru a third party who got them from China, and it seems Fender themselves could not find any differences between these guitars and their "official" ones. Seems the Fender factory in China was running their own midnight shifts to make extra units.

The guy I was talking to told the dealer he was very happy with the guitar and he would not be returning it. (I think the dealer got his remaining inventory confiscated.)

I keep an eye on EBay and do buy some parts there, LCD displays, switches, relays, PCB breadboards, pogo pins and the like. Generic items that all have worked fine for me at a fraction of US prices.

I just recently bought some custom PCBs from a place in China, 35 units of about 2 inches square for 40 bucks total plus 20 for shipping. My 60 bucks total got me my boards 9 days after placing the order. I will be using this house again.

 

<snip> Seems the Fender factory in China was running their own midnight shifts to make extra units.<snip>

I worked at Delphi/GM, they sent many of our parts production lines to China. And that is exactly what happened, 8 - 10 hours a day GM parts were made, the rest of the time parts for Chinese sellers were made on the same machines. We were competing against ourselves. We went bankrupt.

 

the Fender factory in China was running their own midnight shifts to make extra units.

I worked at Delphi/GM, they sent many of our parts production lines to China. And that is exactly what happened, 8 - 10 hours a day GM parts were made, the rest of the time parts for Chinese sellers were made on the same machines. We were competing against ourselves. We went bankrupt.

That's what I was talking about in post #20.

If the "fakes" are made on the same production lines as the "real" ones, then why not buy them?

I despise buying things from China more than most people, but the sad fact is that a lot of this stuff comes exclusively from China. These name brand "American" manufacturers are farming the work out to China to make a little more profit, so do I feel guilty about buying a counterfeit name brand part and biting into their revenue? Not at all. The only remorse i feel is for sending another dollar to a place it won't come back from.

 

Well pay $300 or even 300 Euro for a LCD evalution board, or buy a raw LCD from china for $6?

In the 1980s there was electronics manufacturing in Scotland and Ireland, for instance personal computers. They costed $10,000 back then, and more than that.

You seriously would not find many people here willing to work 12 to 14hrs. for $10, or even less than that. If they are skilled, they can work 8 hrs. max., and want $30 minimum.

 

There are ways for OEMs to identify the counterfeiters, if the device or system is complex enough.

One way is to include extra parts or systems that normally have no effect on normal-spec device operation, but cause some weird unexplained effect with certain specific extreme out-of-range inputs that only the original designers would know about.

If the offshore factory is just rebranding your parts with someone else's name, your weird design with its unique and undocumented properties will allow you to take samples of competitor's products and identify the copies of your design.

This may be a source of some later-discovered "easter eggs", as a counterfeit detection method.


Real life non-technical examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry

 

I buy from RS and Farnell when I want to be sure of quality.

If I don't care, or I am looking for something obsolete, I go eBay.

 

I am a China engineer, I only comment from engineering, actual many and many parts were made in China, then mark oversea company brand, sale to oversea, manufacturer in China only gets very few profilt, really profilt is gotten by these oversea companys, not few famous brand is from China, only manufacture factory in China

 

I am a China engineer, I only comment from engineering, actual many and many parts were made in China, then mark oversea company brand, sale to oversea, manufacturer in China only gets very few profilt, really profilt is gotten by these oversea companys, not few famous brand is from China, only manufacture factory in China

I saw one particular component sold on the internet for above $1/pcs.

Ordered once from them, and some items weren't even included. For discretion sake I can only say that it is about push buttons.

Then I found the same buttons offered for $20/1000pcs. incl. free shipping. I like chinese vendors! All of what I bought from them was good. Sometimes they don't seem to know what they sell or don't have support. So far never any kind of rubbish has been delivered not once.

Panasonic adjustable resistors maybe knockoff's, I saw them at first inside an old VCR, still 100% after 20 years. Then I searched through eBay for these! I have now 5 or 6 types of these, all orange top, but all slighly different.

RS + Farnell I can only highly recommend, they are professional, and ship fast.

One time I bought electronic transformer, after two minutes it stopped working. Exchanged the input rectifier, worked for some weeks, then it actually made pop when I just looked at it. This happens! But it is rather rare to come accross such sub-standard stuff.

Multimeters from China yes the leads are not the best, something you should consider if you only pay a rather low price. Some will last 6 months, some will last less than that.

They are sold here through dealers at 5x or 10x price, technically identical, maybe better leads, but that's it.

I have one 200 MOhms DMM now, the leads broke off as mentioned but fixed them with tape. The transistor tester does not work at all, don't know maybe only works when battery is full. But it's a highly useful DMM, and only costed $15. Including cap. measurement!

LEDs I bought a 1000pcs bag for $20, some have different brightness but just a little, some don't work maybe due to soldering stress. I mean these are regular LEDs not some fake's that would burn or would be substandard.

 

thanks for your comment about goods from China, design and technology in factory of China are developing quickly, some factories still are making false part, however more factories very pay attention quality, e.g. transformer and choke and inductor, I can say technology in China is same lavel as any of other countries, more and more automatic machines are being used on manufacture line,magnetic parts are being revolut developed in China, in fact labour cost is also quickly increased, we also worry about future, if not manufacture in China, many people will not look for work, how to keep competitive, some factories in China are reseaching and developing automatic machines.

 

When I started this thread I was only commenting on how I was buying parts to start my basic parts inventory. I didn't want it to or expect it to get in a who's better or knock offs debate. I stated that This was how I was doing it, not making an observation of doing anything illegal or unethical or any particular companies integrity. If a part I buy in China says made in Japan it's because they buy and sell this stuff through dealers and wholesalers. I am willing to accept the good faith offering of a component being what it says it is and where it came from. Period. There are 100's if not 1000's of honest wholesallers who try to make an honest buck selling something they can make a profit on. Mods please feel free to close this thread.
Bob

 

Most countries go through several phases when industrializing. Right after WWII, while Japan was rebuilding, they had a reputation of inferior quality. My Dad commented onthe toy cares with the budwiezer logo's on the inside (they used old cans for material). After 10 years or so they started turning it around, and 10 years after that their quality was top notch.

I pretty much see China doing the same thing.