Sorry, but I have to have a rant about the practice of sanding part numbers from ICs.
NB, if anyone here thinks it is a good idea, you should get yourself some re-edcation.
I bought one of those X-Arcade arcade joysticks from a company known as X Gaming. On the whole, I've been very pleased with the product. However, after what some may call excessive use, the screws on one of the joysticks worked loose, and the motion of the package caused some of the crimped joints around the joystick to fail (as it transpired). OK, the think has a long wrranty (about 7 years or something), but I didn't want to wait however many days (one would be too many:) to have it fixed, so I opened it up and imagine my rage when I found that the ICs have the part numbers sanded off.
What kind of an idiot thinks that is a good idea. I bought their product in good faith. Secondly, the important part of the product is the arcade joystick and arcade buttons, not the way it interfaces with the computer (through the keyboard port). So why in hells name did they need to sand the part numbers off the chip?! To stop a competitor figuring out how to make a computer keyboard even though the specs have been freely avaliable for the last 25 years? Why does anyone feel the need to do this?
The ICs are one 8 pin one, one 14 pin one (I'd put money on them being a
555 and a 74?xx) and one biggish one.It would have made my life a lot easier if I could ahve just looked up the IC data sheet, figure out what was going where and then start my search. As it was, it turned out to be the crimp joints, but being able to make sense of what does what would have made my life much easier.
OK, so in this case, it turned out not to matter too much. But in 6 years time, when the next fault occurs and my warranty is gone, then what? I guess I'll have to make my own keyboard controller instead of fix theirs...
I'd like to mention that apart from indulging in the rather abhorrent practice of sanding part numbers, I'm otherwise extremely pleased with the product. But it's amazing how much you can piss off otherwise very happy customers.
-Ed