[time-nuts] Prologix USB-GPIB Controller

[Didier Juges]

I buy a lot of stuff from eBay and Amazon, including batteries on occasion. Invariably, there has been a pretty good correlation between price and quality, but considerably more so with batteries. 

It really sucks paying $100 or more for a quality OEM laptop battery, but the alternative is to throw away $40 and getting junk that at best will not be very useful and at worse will burn your house.

Batteries are a tough business, ask Samsung...

Didier KO4BB

On October 10, 2016 1:13:45 PM EDT, "Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)" <drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:
>On 10 October 2016 at 09:35, Charles Steinmetz <csteinmetz at yandex.com>
>wrote:
>
>> Poul-Henning wrote:
>>
>> And for voltage references, "pre-owned" is likely to mean "better".
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps, but third-world recyclers are not known for gentle treatment
>> during the parts removal process.
>
>
>I had some cheap ($10) GPS receiver boards shipped to me in a plastic
>kitchen bag from yikunhk on eBay. 4 boards in the same bag, all
>scratching
>each other. The bag was not anti-static.
>
>There are all number of possible explanations of why boards can be made
>so
>cheaply, when the ICs appear to cost more than the boards.
>
>* The chips are counterfeit
>* The chips are similar to what they are supposed to be, but have been
>relabeled.
>* They are made at the same factory as the real devices, on what I've
>heard
>described as the "ghost shift", where they are not officially made, but
>are
>the same devices.
>* They are recycled.
>* They are stolen.
>
>It is anyone's guess once you start buying semiconductor devices from
>eBay.
>Maybe you are lucky, maybe you are not.
>
>You dramatically increase the probability a part is good if sourced
>from a
>reputable source (e.g. RS or Farnell in the UK). That is not to say
>that
>the parts are not counterfeits, as even the best suppliers can get
>caught,
>but they are more likely to be ok.
>
>I recently bought a supposedly original Samsung battery for my Samsung
>Galazy S3 phone from a local shop. The phone had all sorts of issues
>with
>this battery, so I concluded it was a poor counterfeit.  I thought I'd
>be
>safe buying directory from Amazon (not a 3rd party), but on reading
>reviews
>on Amazon, I was not convinced those were genuine Samsung batteries
>either,
>so I did not buy from Amazon.
>
>Eventually I bought a battery from the Samsung website. The phone now
>works
>ok.  I don't know if  Samsung actually make the batteries themselves,
>but I
>think I have a better chance of buying from the Samsung website than
>from
>anywhere else.
>
>I've had "Duracell" batteries leak. At one time I used to blame
>Duracell,
>but now it has cross my mind whether they might have been bought on
>eBay
>and were counterfeits. I can't recall where they were purchased, but
>now I
>will only purchase batteries from sources I consider reputable.
>
>Dave.
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-- 
Sent from my Moto-X wireless tracker while I do other things.