One of my favourite chips is the UCN5832A, a grunty 32 bit shift register which you can combine with one of the baby PICs to make, amongst other things, absurdly large VU style meters
Noticing recently that I was down to my last tube of them, I called up the local distys only to find that they had ceased to exist, dissappeared, vanished from the face of the earth. Googling revealed zillions of them..in China. Going through Hong Kong Inventory (a kind of search service that interrogates Chinese inventories and invites local suppliers to quote to supply). I chose one that sounded about right pricewise, sent them the money (two choices, Western Union and TT - both expensive ways for me to send funds) and a few days later the parts showed up UPS.
Tried one out in one of my machines - didn't go. Neither did the next one or the next one. Fiddling around with a VOM, it appeared that someone had neglected to hook up the ground (Vss) pin to anything inside the chip. Contacted Allegro (the OEM of the chips) who confirmed my suspicions - they were fakes (they lacked the manufacturing batch codes). Contacted the Chinese who refused to replace the chips without a "test report" which, of course, is impossible to supply as I have absolutely no way of knowing what they are and how to test them. Sent them the same photos I had sent Allegro, but that wasn't good enough.
Has anyone out there had any luck dealing with Hong Kong Inventory or their suppliers when things go bad ?.
cheers
M
BTW the Co I was dealing with is : Aosiwei Electronics Co.,Ltd
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Noticing recently that I was down to my last tube of them, I called up the local distys only to find that they had ceased to exist, dissappeared, vanished from the face of the earth. Googling revealed zillions of them..in China. Going through Hong Kong Inventory (a kind of search service that interrogates Chinese inventories and invites local suppliers to quote to supply). I chose one that sounded about right pricewise, sent them the money (two choices, Western Union and TT - both expensive ways for me to send funds) and a few days later the parts showed up UPS.
Tried one out in one of my machines - didn't go. Neither did the next one or the next one. Fiddling around with a VOM, it appeared that someone had neglected to hook up the ground (Vss) pin to anything inside the chip. Contacted Allegro (the OEM of the chips) who confirmed my suspicions - they were fakes (they lacked the manufacturing batch codes). Contacted the Chinese who refused to replace the chips without a "test report" which, of course, is impossible to supply as I have absolutely no way of knowing what they are and how to test them. Sent them the same photos I had sent Allegro, but that wasn't good enough.
Has anyone out there had any luck dealing with Hong Kong Inventory or their suppliers when things go bad ?.
cheers
M
BTW the Co I was dealing with is : Aosiwei Electronics Co.,Ltd
Too bad you couldn't have paid them with a fake Western Union.
Why not start a web page dedicated to exposing their fraud to the whole world?
I did it exactly that to Sony! They screwed me around for six months on a GDM F-520 computer monitor, "their flagship line," that was under full factory warranty. Their offer was to send me a lessor model as replacement, and it was a refurb. When I refused to settle for a lessor model, they felt I was being unreasonable and cut off all contact with me. They wouldn't even patch me thru to the stupidvisor that was handling my claim. I imagine they're quite successful in arm wrestling their clients into their point of view. But what they were offering was a $1500 downgrade, and it wasn't my fault the thing failed in the first place. No dice!
So... my response to Sony was to build a webpage documenting the ordeal. And then I linked to my webpage using the forums of several "Consumer Guides" type sites. It took 6 days for someone at Sony Corp to discover my website, and then it took about 2 seconds for the VP of Sony USA to call me directly. He would have jumped thru hell_fire to get me to take that site down. I've never seen anyone so motivated, his asbestos shorts must have been red hot from some VIP shareholders that probably visited my webpage. Beleive me, Sony paid DEARLY for me to finally pull my site. Some might call it blackmail, but the reality is that they got exactly what they deserved. But they EARNED it, I just put the word out, by only stating the facts, w/documentation.
So now they're again free to cheat other's without my warnings. My site was visited by 22,416 viewers in only 14 days. Bet that left a mark!
Why not start a web page dedicated to exposing their fraud to the whole world?
I did it exactly that to Sony! They screwed me around for six months on a GDM F-520 computer monitor, "their flagship line," that was under full factory warranty. Their offer was to send me a lessor model as replacement, and it was a refurb. When I refused to settle for a lessor model, they felt I was being unreasonable and cut off all contact with me. They wouldn't even patch me thru to the stupidvisor that was handling my claim. I imagine they're quite successful in arm wrestling their clients into their point of view. But what they were offering was a $1500 downgrade, and it wasn't my fault the thing failed in the first place. No dice!
So... my response to Sony was to build a webpage documenting the ordeal. And then I linked to my webpage using the forums of several "Consumer Guides" type sites. It took 6 days for someone at Sony Corp to discover my website, and then it took about 2 seconds for the VP of Sony USA to call me directly. He would have jumped thru hell_fire to get me to take that site down. I've never seen anyone so motivated, his asbestos shorts must have been red hot from some VIP shareholders that probably visited my webpage. Beleive me, Sony paid DEARLY for me to finally pull my site. Some might call it blackmail, but the reality is that they got exactly what they deserved. But they EARNED it, I just put the word out, by only stating the facts, w/documentation.
So now they're again free to cheat other's without my warnings. My site was visited by 22,416 viewers in only 14 days. Bet that left a mark!
This is what I had planned to do to Bishop Electronics-aka BEC, but haven’t done it yet. I bought some of their caps years ago, before polycarb got expensive. These are 6.8uf wrap-n-fill with 2% tolerance. They sat forgotten for years and recently I found them and checked them for tolerance. I noticed that the tolerance would change drastically with the slightest pressure upon the case. It takes almost no pressure to collapse them, as if they were hollow inside.
I wrote the BEC factory, told them the story and the salesman said to mail him some samples and he would send them to the lab for analysis. I wanted to know if they were any good and what was wrong with them.
To make a long story short they accused me of “tie wrapping” them, which in realistic terms meant that I bought 53 caps and took them home and strangled them with string. They evidently threw them away (my property) and spent over two weeks mocking me with apparently serious emails. One guy would “go on vacation’ and another would proceed to work me over with the old run around.
The owner, Mr. Bigdog Bishop himself finally sent me some hate mail and assured me that it was all my fault.
This is not a case of fake caps, but of a fake company.
Bottom Line: BEWARE OF THE BISHOP KRAPKAP.
I wrote the BEC factory, told them the story and the salesman said to mail him some samples and he would send them to the lab for analysis. I wanted to know if they were any good and what was wrong with them.
To make a long story short they accused me of “tie wrapping” them, which in realistic terms meant that I bought 53 caps and took them home and strangled them with string. They evidently threw them away (my property) and spent over two weeks mocking me with apparently serious emails. One guy would “go on vacation’ and another would proceed to work me over with the old run around.
The owner, Mr. Bigdog Bishop himself finally sent me some hate mail and assured me that it was all my fault.
This is not a case of fake caps, but of a fake company.
Bottom Line: BEWARE OF THE BISHOP KRAPKAP.
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