Warning for Fake Electronics from CHINA
The most incredible China fake I ever had on my bench.
With electron tubes, like E88CC or ECC803S, fakes were done on such large scale, that these are easier to find than originals. Even so, some dispute, the fakes are original, because these are what they usually see. The fakers know, every day a fool wakes up, to buy it.
I don't think I am new to these problems. Still this fake I ran into, is unbelievable. I want to make clear here, how things on ALIEXPRESS work. Faking and copying belongs to Chinese way of life. They see the "art" in copying something in greatest perfection, and they are even proud of it. Combine this with the situation, the factories in China throw nothing away. So when parts are off specifications, or misprinted, they are just sold another way. Like when a batch of transistors can't do the specified voltage, but works for the rest of it, they just sell it to some market place dealer. The brand name was copied anyway, so who cares.
They also use smaller chips for power transistors, or use iron lead wires instead of copper. Anything which saves 1/1000 of a cent in production, saves 1000 Euro at 1 Million pieces. Even so, this not even the worst problem, because intelligent designers do not go to the maximum limit anyway.
It gets however really evil, when JUNCTION transistors are stamped with MOSFET part numbers by mistake. Such a lot in China, let's say 100.000 pieces, there is always somebody paying 200 Euro for it. For the manufacturer that is better than throw it away. And then, once these products are on local black markets, they take their way to the end user, one way or another. This is totally normal at ALIEXPRESS. I have seen even a video of a power bank, of which half of the batteries was real. The other half was fake. Empty cylinders, filled with sand. I bet they had a lot of fun, making those power banks. That, and a lot more is ALIEXPRESS. On this site, the feedback process is one big fraud. Even when 2/3 of the buyers will claim their money back, 1/3 of them does not know how this works. So the Chinese sellers win, because the purchase price was close to nothing.
As a compare with Ebay, you may like Ebay or not, but at least the feedback process is real.
Here is what happened to me. I had a Yamamoto tube amplifier here, with 8 pieces of IXCP-10M45S in the power supply. Seven were damaged, so I decided to replace them all.
What is 10M45S? This is a D-FET, a Depletion FET. These have real TRIODE curves, meaning they need a negative voltage to cut them off. For this reason they are seldom used. Designers avoid the additional negative supply voltage. So they are rare and expensive. IXCP-10M45S is single sourced, only made by the IXYS company. So I was "lucky" to find them on ALIEXPRESS. I decided to let 20pcs come my way, for a total of 20 Euro, including shipment. From mouser.com, I would have had to pay more than 10x as much!
After 3 weeks, the parts arrived from China. They looked perfect, with a very old date code on it. Well that seemed to make sense, so it seemed from some surplus. Good deal, and I was happy. Then I build 8 of them in the amplifier, and while slowly ramping voltage with a variac, it blew the fuse, at 50% of the normal voltage already, and two IXCP-10M45S were smoking. That was unexplainable to me... So I think, I must have done something wrong. I took them all all out, and replaced just one, and ramped up the amplifier with only one IXCP-10M45S inserted. Though they can take up to 400V, it exploded violently at 275V, and it set the PCB on fire with smoke and yellow flames coming out of the Chinese 10M45S. So what the heck is going on here?
This is when I investigated them better. Now you will say, why did not I do so before. But you see, a current source is nothing special. They work even easier as a voltage source, because a current source is short proof by definition. They work or they don't. These can take up to 40 Watt, but in the amplifier, they are used at only a few mA, with almost no heat. Besides, I did not expect such a dirty faking of this kind, as I found it out later.
To make the story shorter: The ALIEXPRESS seller shipped me total junk. Look at the tests below here:
Here is what a real 10M45S does on this little component tester. Which actually also comes from China, and it is (what else do you expect...) a copy of a Danish project. But this things works good.
Some of the original 10M45S had survived. They seem to test as as an N-Channel D-MOSFET. No wonder, because that's what they are.
ps... Look at the TEXTOOL IC holder. Look carefully. What do you see? The brand is TFXTDOL. So it's fake and they seem to be so proud of it, they could not resist to make that visible. Hey folks in China: how about calling it TEXFOOL?
Here is the fake 10M45S, the Chinese send me.
As you see, this little tester seems to identify the part as an NPN transistor. Which it is not, but this is a useful hint about the problem. At least it is not the same, that's what it tells me.
It can be:
- A factory rejected 10M45S, with such a bad channel, that it works only in Enhancement mode.
- Some kind of Enhancement FET which is possible to replace 10M45S in some applications.
- Something else.... only the fakers will know.
This so totally crazy. I can only assume, the name of the game is to get the 20 Euro from as many as possible buyers, and don't give a shit about what they say or do, or their problems which result from this.
Here, at ALIEXPRESS, you I can do are almost NOTHING YOU CAN DO AGAINST IT. This website seems MADE to prevent negative feedback. That is why all feedback is always so good. WIth a previous shipment, they send me already once totally wrong parts. So no defective parts, but just other parts I did not order. And LEDs with the cathode an anode marking reversed. So I thought, well it can happen. Immediately ALIEXPRESS send me a return label for free. BUT....saying front up: You can return only two shipments for free. For the rest you have to pay the return shipment yourself. (That is to China). So "trouble making buyers" are blocked out after two bad shipments. Because if you don't ship it back on your own costs, you do not get your money back, even when you were fooled. But what is the use to spend 30 Euro on shipment costs, to get 20 Euro back.....?! You see how clever this is set up to fraud the buyers. Well it was my second case, and you have only two free returns in case if defective products. So I received my money back.
My conclusion is: The Chinese are so intelligent and hard working people, but they are also messing up the reputation of their own country and future with their faking industry. I think this is going to work out bad for the Chinese in the end, because SO FAR people in the West, accepted it, as prices were so low. But now, with inflation and tariffs driving the prices up, they come under pressure, to deliver quality. People are getting so tired over here, from cotton clothes, not made of cotton, leather made of plastics, and all kind of things which fail after a short time.