Like some of the commenters, I had been scratching my head wondering why someone would go to all the trouble of counterfeiting electronic parts. It just didn't seem to make economic sense. Perhaps they were just marketing factory rejects? But no, IMSAI Guy shows in the video above that it is a lot more insidious. It turns out that this kind of crime DOES make economic sense (see comments). So be careful out there.
Here is another one IMSAI Guy did yesterday, looking at other faked chips:
Thank you IMSAI Guy!
Thanks Bill. I spent weeks chasing an LM358 op-amp circuit. I read everything and was doing everything right but it was not working. I even had help from W2AEW . Turned out to be one of these bad chips but in bulk off of Amazon. When I purchased from Mouser the circuit worked perfectly. I didn't see the economic justification you mentioned in the comments. I'm really curious what it might be.
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KK4DAS
Thanks Bill for the heads up. I usually watch IMSAI guy but missed that one. I had a conterfiet chip issue years ago at work. A government purchased life support item with stacks of documented paper trail testifying to the components pedigrees. And yet, after a failure, we located the chip and verified, by going to the die level, a counterfeit. And it too was a simple OP amp, nothing special. The items flew for sometime before, and after, before they could be removed from service.
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