Counterfeit parts warning.
Andre
Be aware that there is a good possibility that the TIP122 devices you
buy are counterfeit! I just got a bad batch that were not even 122's,
they were PNP darlingtons with internal resistor and diode.
The suspect devices have markings which are unusually large compared
to a genuine ST part, and come off with acetone. You may see a very
faint set of markings just above the fake ones; it appears that the
original markings have been abraded off. Possibly "R6403"
Also the suspect devices are marked as follows,
7 91
TIP122
A "real" device has the markings embossed whereas these appear
"blurred" as you would expect if they had been screen printed.
The other giveaway is that the top corners are straight whereas on a
genuine device these corners are chamfered.
-A
john
kpi
--
"Watch the return E-Mail addy its false"
"Andre" <test...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2c2cf14c.04020...@posting.google.com...
El Meda
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 <gom...@hotmail.com>
http://ingemeda.tripod.com/
INGE - Ingenieria Electronica.
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.
Mike Harrison
It amazes me that someone would bother doing this with such a cheap part...
Andre
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
Mike Harrison
www.findchips.com shows several sources somewhat cheaper, including SGS-Thomson from Future at 20
cents in volume.
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover"
wrote:
[snip]
> It amazes me that someone would bother doing this with such a cheap
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.
Mike Harrison
..but surely there must be more expensive parts that would be worth faking - how much margin can
there be in a 20 cent part ?
CWatters
> ..but surely there must be more expensive parts that would be worth
faking - how much margin can
> there be in a 20 cent part ?
But it's not a single 20 cent part. They will be faking expensive reels of
parts.
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover"
> >[snip]
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!
Zak
> ..but surely there must be more expensive parts that would be worth faking - how much margin can
> there be in a 20 cent part ?
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