Spark Logic

Counterfeit F103s

Fitch Mon Sep 04, 2017 3:59 pm

Hello,
Does anyone have any data on counterfeit F103s?

I have a blue pill that reports 128K, which is cool since it is marked F103C8. However, I have an STLINK V2 clone that is marked F103C8 and its flash size register contains 0xFFFF. I also bought some Maple Minis from Ebay (china) and even though they are marked F103CB, they report only 64K flash.

Is there a way to tell if chips we have are real or not? I ordered some F103CBs from Ebay, but now I suspect they will be fake as well. They were $1.90 each and the single piece price at Digikey is more like $6.43.

Thanks!

Replies

dannyf Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:36 am



that explains why I have found so many compiler bugs

That means you are exceptionally gifted.

ag123 Mon Sep 25, 2017 3:34 pm

my guess is, it is probably more difficult and more expensive to make even clone , compatible or for that matter ‘fake’ chips compared to simply buying the real ones, unless of course if the fake chips totally doesn’t work and are simply duds :lol:

ahull Mon Sep 25, 2017 5:04 pm

I would think it unlikely that the STM32F103XXX that we see are clones or copies, since that would imply some pretty sophisticated entity had cloned them.

However they might conceivably be “recovered” in some “hot wok” chip recovery enterprise in the back streets, from some common consumer grade product(s).

Given that they have a relatively low value, I would suggest that there are much better things to clone, with much broader appeal (Nike trainers for example).

dannyf Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:47 pm

Or they are surplus parts from a project, bankrupt sales, recovered parts, or simply from someone who is more efficient or wants to use this for marketing purposes, ….. The list goes on and on.

The issue with the “counterfeit!” Clamants is that once they rule every other possible explanations, they are left with 120 percent sure that anything priced lower than what digikey or arrow charges for the same part is a counterfeit.

Only if they understood what it took to counterfeit something like a 32bit chip, ….

dannyf Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:13 pm

to make a definitive answer to the question stm32f103

sending those chips to ST would be a definitive answer.

fpiSTM Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:36 am

[testato – Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:34 am] –
ST will never answer :-)

maybe yes maybe not :mrgreen:

ahull Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:23 pm

[fpiSTM – Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:36 am] –
[testato – Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:34 am] –
ST will never answer :-)

maybe yes maybe not :mrgreen:

When is an answer not an answer…. :lol:

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