Counterfeit parts warning.

Andre Where did you buy them from ?

kpi

Thanks for the warning. I've found several counterfeit parts myself, they can be seen at:

The page is written in spanish, but it has lots of pictures.

--
Ing. Remberto Gomez-Meda 
http://ingemeda.tripod.com/
INGE - Ingenieria Electronica.
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.

It amazes me that someone would bother doing this with such a cheap part...

Well, its not that cheap, the genuine devices are about 60p each. Plus they seem to be used a lot in a number of consumer products such as plasma lamps, also some fluorescent lanterns to name a few.

-A

shows several sources somewhat cheaper, including SGS-Thomson from Future at 20 cents in volume.

[snip]

part...

Why would you say such a thing? When a distributor sells tape reels of thousands of these for several thousand dollars, there is _big_money_ to be made. Very big money.

..but surely there must be more expensive parts that would be worth faking - how much margin can there be in a 20 cent part ?

faking - how much margin can

But it's not a single 20 cent part. They will be faking expensive reels of parts.

Dark Remover\""

of

to

faking - how much margin can

It's not how many cents, it's how many _percent_. If the distrib buys a couple hundred thousand parts at 5 cents and sells them for 25 cents, that's a decent year's wage for someone! Forty thousand dollars!

how much margin can

Well.. they probably want the parts to work a bit, so they work when under light test, or in the majority of applications.

This is probably harder for more complex or more critical components.

Thoms