Warning for Fake Electronics from CHINA
This is one of the most incredible fakes I have seen on my own bench.
With electron tubes, some historic fakes, were (sometimes) done so well, and on such large scale, that with some tubes, fakes are even easier to find than originals. Even sellers are seldom aware, and even if they do, or sense the problem, it doesn't bother them. Even so, some even dispute the fakes, saying these are real, grab small fragments from a forum, and they just hallucinate the missing parts to it. Every day another fool wakes up, to buy it.
I don't think I am new to this. Still this fraud I ran into here, is so unbelievable. I want to make clear here, how Chinese vendors on ALIEXPRESS work. Faking and copying belong to Chinese DNA. It seems often to me, they are even proud of it, being able to make fake items so cheap. In China, the factories throw nothing away. When parts are off value, they are just sold as something similar. That is not even the worst kind. But they also use smaller chips for power transistors, or use iron connection wires instead of copper. Anything which saves 1/1000 of a cent in production, saves 1000 Euro at 1 Million pieces. Even so, when junction transistors are stamped with MOSFET parts numbers by mistake, sich a lot in China, let's say 100.000 pieces, there is always somebody paying 200 Euro for it. And then, the path these products take can be pure fraudulent sales. It's 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 filled with sand. I bet they had a lot of fun, making those.
Here is what happened to me. I have a tube amplifier here, with 8 pieces of IXCP-10M45S inside, which is a D-FET with a some current protection attached to it internally. Due to a user error, all 10M45S were defective.
What is 10M45S? This is a D-FET. These are not often used, because it meeds negative voltage to cut it off. This is a bit unpractical for the power supply and circuitry as well. It works however the same a a triode, in all respects, very remarkable. Which makes it easy to understand for me. It responds extremely fast, making it also a good protective device in switched power supplies. The problem with those is, they are single sourced, only made by the IXYS company, and as said, D-FETS are rare. So you would day this is not easy for the fakers. But is is really....?
They are expensive, and hard to find. So I was "lucky" to find them on ALIEXPRESS because there is no second source for 10M45S. . I decided to let 20pcs come my way, for only 20 Euro including shipment. From mouser.com, I would have had to 2x as much for the shipment alone.
After 3 weeks, the parts arrived from China. They looked perfect, with an old date code on it. Well ok, so I got not new made ones, but surplus.
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 yellow flames coming out of the Chinese 10M45Sit. 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. It works or it doesn'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 dirty faking of this kind, as I found it out later.
To make the story shorter: The Chinese shipped me total junk.
Here is what a real 10M45S does on this little component tester. Which actually also comes from China, and it is a copy of a Danish freeware project.
Some of the original 10M45S had survived. They seem to test as a D-FET. No wonder, because that's what they are.
ps... Look at the TEXTOOL IC holder. 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: when you are making up funny names, 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. I investigated it further just with DC power supplies. According to the data sheet, it draws a current of 100mA at -2V, and further than -1V you are not supposed to go (by the data sheet. So it's a NORMALLY-ON device, a D-FET (Depletion FET) . The real ones, they do so indeed.
The fake part they send, it's for sure a NORMALLY OFF device. Also it's for sure a FET, I checked it's curves on the TEK576, and it's not an NPN transistor. But frankly, I am not sure how to operate it, because it's unknown what's really inside.
It can be:
- A factory rejected 10M45S, with such a bad channel, that it works only in Enhancement mode.
- Some kind of E-FET which is possible to replace 10M45S in some applications.
- Something else....
The defect is simply, 10M45S is a normally on transistor, but what I was send is a normally off transistor.
This leaved me with the question: Why are the Chinese sending this crap?
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. So yes we all know, EBAY is pretty unreliable, but at least you have the Ebay platform, and no seller will get away with a blatant fraud like this.
Here, at ALIEXPRESS, I can do are almost nothing. 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 "troublemakers" which do not accept wrong parts, get kicked out after the second time. Now I will see what happens. I send it back with their free label, but no response still after a few weeks. What rests me is the paypal protection. I may have to go that way, so paypal will ask them for reply. Which they probably will not give, and then after 6 weeks, paypal gives me the money back.
The complaint procedure via Aliexpress worked, and I received my money back without having to file a Paypal complaint.
My conclusion is, I feel only sorry for the Chinese. They are so intelligent and hard working people, but they are also dishonest, and they are not even ashamed of it, but they think of this more as a funny sport. I really feel sorry for them, messing up their own country and future with their faking industry, and in the end ending the years of prospertity for their own country.