WTF? Chip ID markings sanded off?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Bar Sport
1

I just got my shipment from seeedstudio.com with a sonic ranger and other stuff. Took 17 days (US).
The sonic ranger seems to have some relation with parallax ping sonic ranger. Their demo codes contains parallax ping))) .The back side of the ranger has two chips with their markings completely sanded off.

Product page:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/ultra-sonic-range-measurement-module-p-626.html

Under side:

800×600 126 KB

Do you think maybe seeedstudio is using parallax's board layout? I don't have a parallax ranger to compare with.

I want to put this ranger on a project and possibly sell it and be assured that parallax lawyers won't knock on my door.

Maybe they designed it but don't want to tell others what they used?

2


Hmm, nope.

I'd go post a comment in the reviews on the seeedstudio website and see what they say. It might be the purchased a load of cheap chips from a weird supplier and they came like that. You never know...

Mowcius

3

Road rash from the box of chips falling off the back of the truck?

4

Road rash from the box of chips falling off the back of the truck?

That's a good one.

Korman

5

Road rash from the box of chips being pushed off the back of the truck?

;D

6

The sonic ranger seems to have some relation with parallax ping sonic ranger

From the 2 photos posted, they look pretty different though.

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Thanks guys. I'm relieved that I'm not using pirated circuits. I'm spooked easily. I'll ask them what happened with the chips. On the other hand, I have to say the measurement is quite good. It's not jumping all over the place as I expected. If you keep it in place, the reading is stable to +-1mm. The accuracy is better than the 1cm they claimed. It is in the 5mm to even 2 mm range. I'm a little impressed. Sonic rangers sold as standalone units can be 100USD with similar accuracy.

8

They often do it to avoid having their design stolen, although theres schematics all over the net.

9

I see. I might do this to my design/chips then?

Not long ago, a bunch of Chinese "Engineers" paid seasonal workers to sand off some AMD chips and repainted them "Han Chip" to pretend they designed them. I feel funny to say that I am going to sand my chips ;D

BTW, the "Dragon Chip" is real though, despite it being not very fast.

10

I see. I might do this to my design/chips then?

Well you might find the same thing, people coming back to you asking you questions about whether it is all legit or not :wink:

Maybe you could get some of that black epoxy if you are using small SMD chips or something. People are pretty used to that.

Anyway surely all your designs are going to be open source! :smiley:

Mowcius

11

I see. I might do this to my design/chips then?

Heh, security by obscurity. It's been tried before. Probably causes this stuff to be the first cracked as it adds cred to the circuit analyst who breaks out the schematic. After all it's more challenging than just doing a photo blowup and reading spec sheets.. ;D

12

Heh, security by obscurity. It's been tried before. Probably causes this stuff to be the first cracked as it adds cred to the circuit analyst who breaks out the schematic. After all it's more challenging than just doing a photo blowup and reading spec sheets..

Sanding then black epoxy = win :stuck_out_tongue:

13

well but mr geek way we didnt find schematics all over the net >:( ;D