Buying fakes while suspecting it's a fake - what's the point ?
Maciek
Posts: 674
With so much fake stuff out there, especialy chips, available cheaply from the usual sources I find it difficult not to ask myself, what's the point ?
I mean, I am all in for buying cheaper stuff of the adequate quality that serves a certain purpose but I strongly object to buying a fake while knowing it's a fake. I'd rather substitute or replace the part with an alternative original (even if of lesser specs) than put a fake in that place.
What are the advantages with buying fakes, provided one intends to use them and not collect them, except the (not always) much lower price, if any ?
People know or suspect they're buying fakes yet they go for it. Why ? Is the money the only factor or is it something else ?
Comments
I bought the Max7219 dip package on Amazon for $1.00 each, $8 each on Digikey, don't know if they or real or fake, says maxim on the package, if they work I'll keep buying them for $1 each.
Everyone picks their battles, I suppose. There are items that I am willing to risk and some that I am not. If I were selling to customers, then I would want supply chain custody and accountability.
One of my favorite tales from a supply crunch (2010-ish) was a customer that asked me if I could validate products that they purchased off of the grey market. The laser etching included spelling errors ("ELECTRIO" instead of "ELECTRIC"). If you find one of those in your 3HP motor drives, then note that I warned them to not use them
I want to tell you a story about fakes: sometime ago I purchased an usb-serial adapter from e-bay, I knew it was a fake but purchased anyway because of the price. Later I purchased a couple of genuine usb-serial adapters from a know seller (don't want to make names but it is really a known good source), the prices was about half the ftdi equivalent. Under Linux the drivers for the genuine adapter doesn't enable the hardware flow control, while the fake adapter drivers have the hardware flow control enabled, so from my point of view the fake adapter works much better than a genuine adapter.
The money is an important factor when you get these things for hobby. I frequently order items from e-bay for learning and testing, since it is an hobby for me, I don't want to pay hundreths of dollars/euros just to test a sensor or see if I can interface a board to something. These things are fakes ? I don't know and don't care as long as they work.
Just for the records, purchasing the P2 Edge + Breadboard for more than 100 euros was a huge investment for me already, and I haven't yet decided if I want to get the other adapters (100 more euros).
Of course if these things will be used on a professional environment or product I'll never get them from an unknown e-bay seller.
And think about this, in schools that teach art, not so much the classic art history, but actual art, the concept behind why we sometimes have good artists from those schools, they include a course or two on forgeries.
That's right how to recognize one, and in rare cases to actually make them. Besides the last time I checked in that case it was permitted to sell a copy of such an artwork, provided the seller states that it is actually a copy of the work rather then an actual for real work.
Incidentally the work in that Paris art museum with the ugly thing in front of it is a fake, the authorities there do not want to X-ray it to find out that it is.
What does this have to do with the subject, some of you might be asking? Until the concept of actual counterfeit parts both, electronic and aircraft suddenly surfaced, I only applied the term to both artworks and to money.
Incidentally Erco better be careful, there are two mountain lions examining your refuse.