Disclaimer: I know little about Arduinos. Assume little to nothing about telling me how to check this.
Apologies for duplicates, I can't find a search box to search the forum, much less a section dedicated to this. This one was the closest I could think of.
I just acquired an Arduino Uno R3 from Amazon under the arduino.org, fulfilled by Amazon but the product seller had another name.
There was a blog post that described several ways to detect fake Arduino such as logo, the O, the chip besides the USB cord. It seems to be passing everything but there are 3 things disturbing me:
Rather than just coming with the arduino itself, some plastic case was hooked to it. The photo is attached. I have seen several unboxing, but none came with this, so I am puzzled.
The stickers in the manual are not a separate paper, rather they are the first and last page of the manual booklet.
The manual speaks of a "register your product on my arduino.cc" and gives me a Product Code. Still, going to the website has no mention whatsoever of a place to register product code.
I also have no idea to confirm if the product is an R3 or not, as it doesn't seem it comes written on the board or the box just the adhesive.
As much as I wish I could have bought directly from Arduino or Mouser, they were both sold out for at least a few weeks and the urgency of the project required it as soon as possible. However, if this is a fake product at the price slightly above the one from the website, I am returning it while there is time.
arduino.org was selling the plastic bases so it's quite possible it is real. The printing on the headers also makes me think it's real. I haven't seen that on any counterfeits. The counterfeiters could do it but I doubt they'd go through that much trouble since there are official arduino.cc boards without the printed headers. It's easy enough to get the boards made and printed just like the official boards and buy standard components to populate them but counterfeiters don't care enough to bother with custom components, that's why you can spot them by the different colored PTC.
I think it is not a fake. The design and packaging of the UNO R3 is changing during the time. There are differences in PCB color and labels, paper box etc, etc. In addition a few years ago the company was splitted to .cc and .org. Each of them have same UNO R3 but with small different signs. Now .cc and .org are merged back but products can be on the market.
Additionally, there is separate market for Europe and US.
In any case I'd never saw yet counterfeit UNOs with labels on the headers and with such plastic tray.
More important seems to me if it works or not for your project, if you are not a collector or fan.
Thanks! I didn't know any of that fight story as I am new to the whole arduino side, very interesting! Given the manual refers to both websites, I suspect I got mine quite a bit after the merge, although I am still puzzled by the product registering not being anywhere to be seen.
I've added the front and back attached, for future reference. I guess if anything this was a lucky buy then with an extra base
carlosparadis:
I am still puzzled by the product registering not being anywhere to be seen.
Here's the official answer:
v_chinnici:
Hello all,
I have asked internally about the myarduino platform and services.
Unfortunately the platform is not ready yet, there will be an announcement in the future about the actual launch of the service, but for now this is on hold.
We apologise for any inconvenience this have may caused.
So there is no way to register and Arduino is officially aware of this. That means not registering won't cause any problems for your warranty so don't worry about it.
So it's a real one even if the underside of it isn't that half white cool looking thing and it says Uno is in a rectangular shape instead of one with rounded sides. And it says Arduino (R) instead of Arduino (TM) ?
