TI Related -- Ebay / Heads Up Notice

[RXB]

 

[Omega-TI]

He may have answered his own question at the end.  If you hold on to the fakes for too too long, you're burnt money-wise.  Some people many not even bother trying to get their money back for a few bucks.  Considering the exchange rate with China, and the obscenely low shipping costs, there is probably money to be made by ripping off hundreds to thousands of unsuspecting customers around the world monthly, especially by the low-income (25% of Chinese) that only make on average 17,500 CNY per month.

 

For example, say the average collected on a sale was a measly $5.00 USD for every order, and in a one month period out of all the fake chips they sell, only 250 people do not get their money back, that means they are pocketing the equivalent of 8,352 CNY.  If you are from the lower end of the economic spectrum, that is like getting a 25% raise.  

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

2 hours ago, RXB said:

 

Thank you for posting this, Rich. I need to learn as much as I can about avoiding fake chips, because I am ordering many types out of the Shenzen warehouses.

 

I am disturbed that two of the 9929s in that video came from two sellers I had begun to trust. adeleparts2010 and huayi-components on eBay.  They show large inventories of vintage parts like this. 

I have V9958 chips from two sources.  The one Stuart Conner sent me, and some I bought through alibaba.com. The V9958 have at least passed the "luminance" test (I'm looking at RGB analog levels out.)   As well as a full memory test. I get  immediate feedback about that, without having to figure out if the video connection is my screw-up. I have spent $310 with 

 

From polida2008, I have got good chips- my TMS99105 came from there and passed similar tests to the ones in the video. I brought it up by stages on a breadboard. This is encouraging, because polida2008 sells whole kits of vintage chips. Their EEPROM also passed. 

 

I know from another website, that polida2008 has been burned by suppliers. In the case of YM2612, one of Tursi's favorite sound chips, everybody's supply was poisoned, including polida2008. That seller and others withdrew their fake chips. It was offered cheaply by many back in 2019, and now it is scarce again. I hope it means that the ones left are not fake. So, credit to polida2008. The sellers are not able to test their chips--they get surplus and sell it.

 

It's my guess that sellers get their parts from the same warehouses or surplus brokers.

I gather from dealers on alibaba.com, which is the commercial, business to business site, that they call around the warehouses or surplus brokers. Prices are not listed until you query by quantity. Most sellers list hordes of the same stuff, same pictures, same price range (0.25 to 9.95!) You RFQ with your target price, then sellers will aggressively ask you for your lists of needs and try to fill them! I have got multiple quotes on a whole list of chips that way. Once you have purchased on alibaba.com, they follow up every couple months and send you holiday greetings.

 

Aliexpress.com is the consumer site, where offerings are priced for quantity 1, and "buy it now" is the rule. You can find the same sellers on ebay! On eBay, if you ask polida2008 (or any sellers!) for a not-listed part, they will try to find it. And report back what price they want.

 

Where does this stuff come from?

 

Surplus is left over from when contract manufacturers in HK/Taiwan/Shenzen made lots of boards. Sony and Sega console parts, for example. A wide variety of Sound Blaster parts! 

 

Or they might have come from "midnight runs" by employees at a licensed, legit fab! This is how you get the nonsense date codes, or other numbers. Or they might be factory rejects. 

 

Who knows if these parts were faked decades ago and have been dumped? Underneath the re-marked labels, some fakes turn out to be re-marked, common, worthless 2K SRAM. NTSC TV decoders, alarm clocks, 82xx parts from the 80s-90s...

 

My view is that, sellers with 99% feedback are worth doing business with, but even they get burned when the supply is poisoned somewhere up the chain. Get the seller to make it right.

 

So, back on testing:

• I worry about not testing chips immediately after they arrive.   
• An exception:  TI logic chips, brand new from Mouser. They lost their markings from rubbing alcohol. 

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

I received chips from polida2008 today. They were expected in November.

 

The 99105 seems legit marked. The date code is 2 yrs later than the one polida2008 sent me last year.

It doesn't have a gold line with a dot up to near pin 2. It has the gold line all the way to the end.

I wonder if these are pulls, not NOS.

 

The YM2612 sound chips: 3 of them match the guide exactly: they have a index hole punched all the way through. The fourth is identical except for some flashing in the index hole.

 

 

[+Schmitzi]

If I buy chinese crap, I directly buy it delivered from China, and not from their "Garage-Distributors" here in Germany.

As I use Paypal only, getting back money is just one click away.

And buying and delivered from China, they never wanted their stuff shipped back.

Regardless, if it works or not

[atrax27407]

Some Chinese chip suppliers are more reliable than others. Funkward and IC-China come to mind but they still have a percentage of "dodgy" chips. On the other hand, Unicorn, Mouser, and Digi-Key are thoroughly reliable suppliers here in the USA.  

[GDMike]

Myarc geneve on ebay

Man!! I wish I had $2000 Maybe it'll go higher? I dunno. Probably though

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Myarc-Geneve-9640-w-384k-PFM-192k-VDP-RAM-PS2-XT-keyboard-adapter/124398246519?ul_noapp=true&pageci=6e2c5858-5df7-479a-befa-ae3e611e63ff

Edited October 21, 2020 by GDMike

[+acadiel]

1 hour ago, GDMike said:

Myarc geneve on ebay

Man!! I wish I had $2000 Maybe it'll go higher? I dunno. Probably though

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Myarc-Geneve-9640-w-384k-PFM-192k-VDP-RAM-PS2-XT-keyboard-adapter/124398246519?ul_noapp=true&pageci=6e2c5858-5df7-479a-befa-ae3e611e63ff

It's getting bidded on quite a bit too.

 

private listing - bidders' identities protected

$580.00

21 Oct 2020 at 9:18:15AM PDT

private listing - bidders' identities protected	$570.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:18:15AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$540.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:16:14AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$510.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:15:56AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$480.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:15:52AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$450.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:02:40AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$440.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:02:36AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$425.00	21 Oct 2020 at 9:02:33AM PDT
private listing - bidders' identities protected	$410.00	21 Oct 2020 at 8:58:32AM PDT

[+eebuckeye]

I really want to see youtube videos of the Geneve in action!  I don't think there are any.

[+arcadeshopper]

2 minutes ago, eebuckeye said:

I really want to see youtube videos of the Geneve in action!  I don't think there are any.

really.. did you search youtube for myarc geneve?  

 

 

[+eebuckeye]

Great! Would be great for an overview video with features, etc...  This is such as niche though I expect no youtuber would be interested.

[+mizapf]

Even I uploaded some videos on that topic. (The latter two are MAME emulation runs.)

 

 

 

 

[+acadiel]

Someone's gonna come here after buying that Geneve because of this:

> Stays at boot screen

 

It *does* have a PFM in it, though, and if I recall - it tries to boot from the PFM memory first.  Then, you can also hit SPACE to select the boot disk.

 

[+dhe]

Hey,

  Back to the fake chip video... I have a question.

  One of the techniques that was used to quickly identify a fake, was to test for resistance between pins.

  I guess going back in time, your biggest worry was the 'pulled' chip you got might have been dead when the equipment was surplussed.

  He brings up a valid point, you don't know what you are going to do to the rest of your chips it you plug a cable modem chip in to your 9901 socket! ?

  So is checking resistance a good ideal? You can't explode a chip with a meter can you?

 

[Omega-TI]

Most, if not all quality modern DMM's have at least 40-50 MΩ resistance rating so you should be good.

[HOME AUTOMATION]

Ahem... In my experience the lower ohm ranges have a much lower resistance than the higher ranges do! I can't give you any specific values, as I currently only have a single DMM at my disposal. To get a useful measurement of your meter's internal resistances, you would probably want to decouple it's battery and short the supply terminals together, than you should be able to use another ohm meter to determine the test lead input's true resistance. However in support of this understanding, I placed an LED across the terminals of my DM10 digital multimeter and was able to get it to emit light at the 200 ohm setting. This meter uses a 9 volt battery. This is the reason why you want any circuit being tested to be completely de-energized, and for the fuse.

[Ed in SoDak]

Yes, they do have voltage on the probes in the resistance ranges. Polarity isn't always red for +, black for -. I've used another meter to check the probes on my subject multimeter/DMM.

 

There are little multitesters these days that will read an inserted chip and give you the stats for it. Might not cover all the chips you need to test though...

-Ed

[+hloberg]

me selling. too much for a Ed/Assm manual or just right?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133556291174

 

[Omega-TI]

44 minutes ago, hloberg said:

me selling. too much for a Ed/Assm manual or just right?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133556291174

 

 

You might get it, anything is possible, especially from a collector.  From my point of view it's not something currently "in fashion" at the moment.  Considering the price of a FinalGROM, is only a few bucks more and people can get the Editor/Assembler .BIN free along with a couple of hundred other .BINs and even the E/A DOCs in PDF form, I wouldn't pop that much anymore.  I'd put a MAKE OFFER on it and settle for $25.00.

[Omega-TI]

Now << HERE >> is an "interesting auction" for bare console users wanting to play with their TI's...

... actually this one is quite scary once you read the fine print and key in on the shipping.

[+FarmerPotato]

Bids for  $1000 and $1025  on the Geneve are cancelled. If they were two puppet bidders the seller always intended to cancel (CHEATING), then the honest bid is between $360 and that.

Private auction is suspicious, too.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124398246519?ul_noapp=true

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

Sheesh

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[GDMike]

I just picked up a geneve from a private seller along with a box of goodies. Don't know what all is there.

Seller said he bought it new when they came out and it's been sitting in a box. Along with other things..hmmm

We'll see what it is this week or by the weekend.

[GDMike]

Was/is their any languages for that Geneve, like forth or basic, or assembly. That just run on geneve not GPL?

[+arcadeshopper]

Was/is their any languages for that Geneve, like forth or basic, or assembly. That just run on geneve not GPL?

Why don't you stick to one thread Mike?

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