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fail: I bought a fake teensy 2++

davedarkodavedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 16:40 • 1 min read • Like

I have to rant a bit, because I bought stuff cheap and it byte back. So I'm mad, but it's my fault.


This is what I bought:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Teensy-2-0-USB-AVR-Development-Board-ISP-U-Disk-AT90USB1286-for-Arduino-TE502-/272272218585?hash=item3f64b059d9:g:ILIAAOSwqBJXXbQI


There's a total f'up with the wiring of the power lines, the fix can be found in the image "wI40iZV.jpg" of this thread, that I'm very happy to have found. I'm not embedding the pic because I haven't asked for permission and don't want to create an account there.

http://www.ps3hax.net/archive/index.php/t-97227.html


They also managed to deliver it with an AMS1117, where the center pin is Vout and the center pin on the board is ground! So this is what I ended up with:


5 bugs saved vs. 5 hours dev time - damn. Lesson learned! Don't be too cheap! Respect the OP.



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Discussions

Ted Yapo wrote 01/04/2017 at 20:39 point

I often have very small boards made at OSH Park - and of course, the cost probably doesn't even cover the shipping they have to pay.  I either try to batch them up and order a reasonable number of small boards, or I occasionally buy one of their purple Teensy 3.2's, in an attempt at keeping balance in the hacker universe.  As a result, I always have one (that works) on hand when I need it.  I have no concerns about their quality.

I wonder if these other ones are made intentionally sloppy since some fraction of people will blame their own code or DIY hardware for failures, instead of finding the flaws in the cheap crap modules?  Some other fraction will just fix it themselves instead of bothering/waiting to return it :-) 

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 20:50 point

I haven't seen any published board files for the teensy board, unlike the arduinos that sparkfun and adafruit posted, so maybe someone thought they could make some money by quickly throw something together. Although I've seen schematics. 

I'm going to focus on keeping balance in the hacker universe for the future :)

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K.C. Lee wrote 01/04/2017 at 19:24 point

20 euros isn't exactly cheap.  Can't imagine myself paying double digits for an 8-bit.

I would have used aliexpress for if I am buy Chinese clones.  Their refund policy is toward the consumer's side.

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 20:44 point

well the at90usb1286 is quite pricey and I was looking for something a bit bigger but in the atmega32u8 reach / range... but yeah, "savings" about 5USD weren't justified.

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ActualDragon wrote 01/04/2017 at 18:04 point

XD when they're cheap, i always get 5 or 6 just in case of, well, you know...

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 18:25 point

well, when your time actually converts to money, as in "loan" or workforce - then it's not about bricking and tinkering with cheap stuff anymore, but wasting time and therefore money. Think of it as: in 5 hours I could have programmed something that 3 customers would have paid 500 bugs each... but because I've saved 5 bugs and bought something cheap, I was waisting/spending my time on debugging this peace of crap.

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ActualDragon wrote 01/04/2017 at 19:07 point

so, if they'll pay more, than you might as well

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 17:04 point

It's too late to do send back and there's stuff cut, glued and soldered... 

but I've ordered an original one now, to calm the dev gods.

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Thomas wrote 01/04/2017 at 19:02 point

It's a cheap China clone, that's obvious. However, clones should be clones. I would give the seller a chance to fix the problem (refund), or otherwise give them the ratings they deserve.

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 20:06 point

it's been too long to even give feedback on eBay, so it is how it is.

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davedarko wrote 01/04/2017 at 20:45 point

let's call them imposter boards then.

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