Hi. I'm a noobie. I'm looking at a "music shield" for use with Arduino. The two identifying codes are VS1053 & HW-261. I know that VS1053 is the main chip on the module / board. That leads me to believe, that HW-261 is a code for the board. I was looking at some Chinese manufacture's website and their relevant offering had HW-261 stamped on it. Does this mean that any board with HW-261 stamped on it, is manufactured by the manufacturer whose website I visited? And is it correct that any other manufacturer of a similar board (or even the exact same board) would be identified with a different board code? Any rules out there about identifying marks apart from components? Thanks. EDIT: I'm minded to think that Ysonix Tech Co.,LTD , makes HW-261 board. But, perhaps things are more "involved". I see that Walmart sell HW-261 and it's marked with "www.geeetech.com". It gets confusing when manufacturers also operate as distributers etc, and retailers mark products. Currenyly, not sure who manufactures HW-261

 

Taking a clear picture of a circuit board and searching with Google Lens will sometimes be helpful.

 

The HW numbers, in my experience, are very reliable. Many sellers will have the same product, that is, the pinouts and functions are the same, labeled with an HW-nnn designation, and even with variations in appearance caused by various component choices, they are interchangeable.

I believe that the board layouts are copies of open source products from various companies (Sparkfun, AdaFruit, etc.) and they are used by everyone. Additionally, sometimes the name on the board isn’t the manufacturer at all but the seller. Fab houses produce customized board for multiple customers.

 

OK, I think in the case of the hardware that I'm looking at, I am entering the world of Open Source Hardware. I'm going to read up on this, and maybe what is happening with HW-261 will become clearer. I am curious who created the code / identifier HW-261.

 

The HW is from Shenzhen HongWeiwei Electronics Company, LTD; a Chinese company that specializes in open source DIY modules. They offer customization and almost certainly they are supplying most of the boards with HW designators.

But because it is open source, others can manufacture them as well. And, I know from experience there are differences in quality among modules with the same HW designator.

For example, here is another company producing the HW-261 that describes itself as an “open source hardware research, development, and production“ company.

 

Each company creates their own standards and enforces them on their own products. Some names are copywrited and prohibits others from using it, but that's about it.

 

http://en.szhwmake.com/ A strange website. Never see any details of products. Cannot see HW-261. It gets fuzzy when the board is more or less HW-261, but not identical. Then you don't see HW-261, in fact maybe you don't see any code, although I'm slightly guessing here. Looks like the main chip (VS1053) is the board identifier on some boards that are more-or-less HW-261. I'm guessing here, but it's not like there is a list of manufacturer's codes for Open Source Hardware. If there was I'd be able to find HW-261 in some list and it would tell me Shenzhen Hongweiwei electronics Co., Ltd. designed it. I suppose such a list is never going to appear.

 

Did you try what I suggested in post #2?

 

I misunderstood what Google Lens did, I now see what it does. Cannot use it on my desktop / laptop though. Pity. Oh, I'll have to be using Chrome. It will work with some limited functionality, apparantly. EDIT: Chrome does not show the flags when I type chrome://flags into the serch bar. Just comes up with search results.

 

Post a picture here.

 

SV5W. I think probably an Open Source Design. Picture shws my camera is pretty useless on colours and resolution. I need a better camera.

 

I don't know exactly what information you're looking for, but using Google Lens, many links were found almost instantly, including this eBay listing which has several pages of of technical info. Almost any of these boards with the same physical layout probably work in the same way.

This picture shows you the info available in this ebay link – each picture shown here is available full size at the link.