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Be careful where you buy your components

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I have come upon this kinda rubbish often in the TV repair game where you have a supplier of parts that likes to buy cheap and nasty. And then supplies you with the crap.

Around 2000 we received an order of BD140 transistors where the Emitter and Base were swapped around. Looked like the real thing.

Then the infamous "Silver Face" BU208 saga. Looked exactly like Thompson's genuine BU208. Except it had a "Silver Face". We had technicians running around in circles trying to establish why these things worked on certain sets and not others.

Until I used an angle grinder and took an "old" genuine BU208, ground it's top off and compared it to "Silver Face's" insides. I don't know what was in there....but the chip and bonding wire and everything else was much smaller and thinner than the original that had been working in a TV for around 7 years......

I personally never cut corners when it comes to semiconductors. Trusted suppliers only.

Hat's off to SparkFun. Well done.
 
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Almost everyone has been burned by counterfeits.
We had a counterfeit switchmode regulator causing us a million-dollar recall.

There are tons of horror stories if you Google them.
 
Do not try this at home!
getting my gloves as i type...
this is actually strange, i have been meaning to buy this package atmega, since the DIP package is huge, and my pcb-making is much better... there was someone selling them on ebay, for like 35$ for 4 pieces...
 
exactly why i didn't buy it, they still wanted more for shipping(can't remember how much)
 
I have tasted the new reality of marketing. Less spark Less fun.

The reality is moving substandard: less purchased stock and right it off as a mistake.

Um, ok ......................................... Disseminate. Reducing to the lowest order and reducing stock for profit.

Alrighty then.
 
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