How identify original Microcontroller?

[Nandika]

Hi Friends,

I like to say some incident,

I went to a Electronic part shop in Galle(My Home town).it's established about 1-2month ago.I asked price of PIC18F2550.They said LKR 1650.
After,I went to old shop.I asked price.They said LKR 650.
However,I didn't buy anyone.

I think,MCU have different qualities.I have several quistion.
1.Can we select good/original MCU?
2.How we identify original/good Microcontroller from local market?(This two MCU have "Microchip" logo.)
3.Why reason for this large variant of price of PIC18F2550 ?
4.What is prize of original PIC18F2550?

Thanks....

[TRONICLK]

We are doing component sourcing for many years now and we supply all types of microcontrollers. Through ROBOT.LK, we don't have any intention to sell products or earn money. But we will popularise our company, product & services and provide as much as information to bring you the best quality product for a reasonable price. Okay I was informed by SevenZero about this topic and here is my answer to you.

1.Can we select good/original MCU?

Since we are a component vendor, to sell our product, we can also tell these
But in reality there is't anything called good or original in the world of components. However there is something called classing and equivalents.

If I be more specific, there are few classes of electronic components. Class A, Class B, Class C and sometimes Class D.
Class A is for production quality manufacturing. These components are going through a process to check each individual component for errors. So Class A is guaranteed to be 100% error free. class B is generally error free not guaranteed to be 100%. And Class C components are never going through an electronic test (E-TEST) other than a quick test to confirm their physical appearance. Class D is not even going through that process so you might find abnormal shapes on physical appearance.

Class A is mostly triple the price of Class C and Class B is double the price of Class C. Class D is very very cheap but nobody buys them so usually re-entered to machines for recycling or else dump as waste.

If someone with money goes to China and buy components from open market, that is usually Class C unless otherwise specified. Unfortunately, most of the sellers in Sri Lanka lack knowledge. They just buy and sell. They don't know anything about these and easily get played out.

We have a policy to import only Class A microcontrollers and components. We are a customer oriented company. So you can buy microcontrollers in Sri Lanka from us with confidence. We will not just sell and forget you. We will give you guidance, etc... to help you out.

If you buy components such as LM7805 from Pettah, check the output with the same multimeter. You will find one is outputting 5.095 and other 4.094. That is because they are class C. There is no marking or anything on the component but this is what you can expect. However, this is usually tolerable for hobby projects, but not for production quality professional designs.

With regard to equivalents.... If you tale TLV1117 and AM1117 are equal in characteristics. Just slight differences, but from different manufacturers. TLV one is expensive and AM one is less. You will find the same IC from LM (National Instruments) and from ST (SGS Thompson). So those are mostly charging for their brand name and reputation.

2.How we identify original/good Microcontroller from local market?(This two MCU have "Microchip" logo.)

Even we can't do that after decades of experience. Only thing is you need to buy from a trusted vendor. Especially a place where you find people with knowledge in electronics.

3.Why reason for this large variant of price of PIC18F2550 ?

This is the point. I'm almost sure this is the same IC. One is a reasonable vendor and other seems like having less business or no need to exist in the field. Our policy is to sell electronic components with a reasonable profit, so you guys can learn the subject and come to the field.

4.What is prize of original PIC18F2550?

Since the dollar has come up from Rs. 113 to Rs. 131, the current wholesale price is Rs. 550. It will be like Rs. 50 for postage if we have to post it to you. Class A is guaranteed . We import Microchip & Atmel products only from USA and other components directly from factories in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.

However, the guy who's selling the IC for Rs. 650 seems reasonable to me. Since you can get it quickly from him, it is good for you too. Please tell him about us so he can directly buy from us next time without wasting time.

Something else to tell you... Do you know that you need to use a different compiler if you use PIC18F series? With 12F, 16F HI-TECH C compiler you can't do that. So be sure to use HI-TECH C PIC18 compiler.

[Nandika]

Thank you TRONIC.LK,

Very good answer.I'm very happy about this frank explanation.

Thanks both TRONIC.LK and SevenZero.(SevenZero was lot of help me. )

[SemiconductorCat]

Aptinx like place is definitely a assert to the customers like us.Because they have a reputed name and
they don't like to lose i,there's less chance that kind of a company do a cheat.And it's also oky to keep
a profit margin as well as company policies[like class "A" only policy]. But we can't do advertising in this
section of this form. As neo told anybody could do advertising in that member advertising section.So don't
advertise everywhere.

Neo have opened it for advertising is a good thing. Because he knew this Colombo petta thing.
Where companies and shops that haven't any logo or a name selling products with cheating or
keeping unreasonable profit margins. Neither they are open with their profit margins and policies with
the customers. Unfortunately our current government politics and policy is protecting them.

So it's a good thing , like http://newegg.com/ where consumers could openly review and comment
about the product and also about the company, so it will lessarn the chance to cheat.

To develop the industry there should be a Win2Win concept. Both consumers , middle sellers, vendor
company and manufacturing company should be winners. Cheating to a newbie is a bad thing, newbies
get discouraged , companies will lose their reputation(s) due to middle man cheating. probably there
are very less chances that a big company like Microchip will cheat,because they value their hardly
earned reputation.

I don't like to post this here, But have to post it.




So I don't say not to buy class "C" products or cheap onces. But be careful, before you buy it's
better to ask from the people who already buy IC's or Products from them. Reasonable profit
margins are kept by everybody, but the thing is cheating.

[TRONICLK]

because they value their hardly earned reputation.

This is exactly the truth. It is easy to earn money but have to work hard to build a good reputation.

I agree with most of SemiCats points. It is true that there isn't any good system. But the point is there isn't any even in countries like China where people have the chance to buy any cheap crap and dump in junk yards like our country. But in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, etc... there are very strong policies to safe guard the customer. At TRONIC.LK, we are trying our best to give that quality service. The best thing we are trying to do is to make electronic components available for a reasonable price and deliver to doorstep throughout Sri Lanka. We have been able to do this for past many years and 1000s of people are buying components from us every month. This is something go parallel with ROBOT.LK's aims and objectives. Reach rural areas, find talented people and help them to get in to industry.

We will do our best!

Regarding advertising on the forum, we are the main sponsor of ROBOT.LK, but that doesn't mean that we can advertise our products everywhere that destroys the aims and objectives of this forum. But considering the benefit we can give to our members, we will post the price we can give, etc... here. For example, if someone is going to but an IC for Rs. 2000, if we can give that for Rs. 1000 (half the price), we will involve. So it is not actually we are trying to sell our products here. I think you got the point