cross-brand common part numbers

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
I am going through an inherited motherlode of old (60's?-70's-80's-90's) components. I am pulling the datasheets for all of them so I know what they are. One thing that I keep running into is that the part I am searching for may be so obsolete that I can't find it. I have found that if I change the manufacturer, I can find the datasheet. For example: I have a bunch of ECG4069. I cannot find ECG4069 anywhere; I assume it went obsolete before the advent of the internet. If I change the part number to NTE4069, I can find a datasheet that describes a High Voltage Hex Inverter. Are they the same thing? Can I use that datasheet to confirm the part I have? Do manufacturers use the same part numbers for the same IC? or is it possible that they might use the same part number to describe 2 totally different parts?
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
NTE and ECG are famous for using different part numbers than the manufacturers. Their entire business is based on finding a generic part to stand in for dozens of original parts.
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
NTE and ECG are famous for using different part numbers than the manufacturers. Their entire business is based on finding a generic part to stand in for dozens of original parts.
I don't follow, are you saying that a ECG4069 likely IS the same as a NTE4069, or likely IS NOT the same thing?


Also, are you saying that ECG and NTE are not manufacturers?
Are they cheap knockoffs of other real part?
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
I'm saying you can't trust NTE or ECG part numbers to resemble the original part numbers. These companies are not manufacturers. For example, a transistor: They just sort through specifications and find something that can be used in place of dozens of original part numbers.

In this particular case, they probably ARE the same part, but only because it's a digital chip. This is one of very few types of chip that ECG/NTE don't make up new numbers for.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
No. ECG and NTE are very expensive approximations to generic parts that are no longer in wide circulation form their original manufacturers and second sources. They were intended primarily for the repair market and sell in quantity 1 for 10-20 times the original price. Their specifications are loose compromises to hundreds or thousands of original parts. Many transistor circuits are designed to be insensitive to actual transistor parameters and that is why they can get away with what they are doing. As a hobbyist you can use those parts any way you see fit. Using them in the production of a product would be against your own economic self interest.
 
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