Counterfeit ATMEL chip?

[escaner]

Recently I purchased an Arduino Nano clone from Banggood. The board is correctly recognized in Linux through the ch341 driver as:

Bus 006 Device 008: ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics HL-340 USB-Serial adapter

From dmesg:

[38197.600079] usb 6-2: new full-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd
[38197.798191] usb 6-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523, bcdDevice= 2.54
[38197.798199] usb 6-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[38197.798204] usb 6-2: Product: USB2.0-Serial
[38198.379254] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[38198.379744] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[38198.381831] usbcore: registered new interface driver ch341
[38198.381842] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for ch341-uart
[38198.381864] ch341 6-2:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
[38198.387255] usb 6-2: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

But weird thing #1, the supposed CH340 chip in the back of the board has no lettering whatsoever. Only the mark for the pin number 1.

Then, weird thing #2 is the ATMEL chip. When programming the board, avrdude correctly recognizes the chip as an ATmega328P:

         Using Port                    : /dev/ttyUSB0
         Using Programmer              : arduino
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 57600
         AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
[...]
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p)

But looking at the surface of the chip, it is pretty obvious that it has been tampered with. The surface is very rough, with the top and right area of the text smoother. Still, the writing is pretty hard to read and it is engraved, no paint. See attached pictures (this is my first 328P, but my other two 32U4 do not look anything like this mess).

So far I can program it, the ping 13 LED works and the I2C interface works driving an LCD panel (have not tried much more).

What do you think?

[Robin2]

Images from Original Post so we don't have to download them. See this Simple Image Guide

...R

[MAS3]

Why would that be a problem ?
Does it say on the PCB or on the site that you would get an original Arduino product ?
If not, you should have expected a clone, and that is what you got.

Take another look at those pictures of yours.
The same stuff obscuring the text, is all over the PCB.
And it seems to be moving too.
The dirt at pin 22 leads straight away from that pin in the 2nd picture, and makes a curve to pin 23 on the 3rd picture.

Clean the PCB, you'll see isopropanol a lot as an answer on how to clean PCBs on this forum, so give that a try i'd say.
Your supplier obviously saved on the cleaning, so you were able to pay 50 cents for the PCB, shipping included.

[escaner]

MAS3:
Why would that be a problem ?
Does it say on the PCB or on the site that you would get an original Arduino product ?
If not, you should have expected a clone, and that is what you got.

I don't understand where you get that I have a problem with the board. I wrote: "I purchased an Arduino Nano clone", so obviously I was expecting a clone and not an original Arduino. My concern is with the ATMEL and somewhat with the CH340 chip, as the title and text of my first message say.

MAS3:
Take another look at those pictures of yours.
The same stuff obscuring the text, is all over the PCB.
And it seems to be moving too.
The dirt at pin 22 leads straight away from that pin in the 2nd picture, and makes a curve to pin 23 on the 3rd picture.

The fibers that you see move are from my try of using cotton with alcohol to clear the flux from the solder job in the board pins. It got stuck and yes, it is now all around the board. But it has nothing to do with the texture of the ATMEL chip, which is very irregular as can be seen in the photos and as I said, nothing like my other two ATMEL chips (32U4).

[Robin2]

Why don't you send your photos to Microchip - they would have a real interest in counterfeit versions of their products?

...R