Grogster
Admin Group
Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9302 |
Posted: 05:55am 20 Sep 2022 |
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Howdy Glen. Yes, I will be getting at least five boards to experiment on, but I could get ten boards if I know you would like some. Yes, the dodgy HC12's are an issue. Basically, any that are being offered for US$3 or so, are bound to be clones, so avoid those listings like the plague. I have a contact at the factory now, and order direct from the manufacturer to ensure they are genuine. But even the people making the HC12's are having issues with chip shortages. I got some recently, but only a small batch, and I have them already reserved for other things which is why the website still lists them as sold-out, but if you were after a couple, I can spare a few. Genuine ones now have the HC logo laser-engraved into the top of the crystal package. This is something that costs money to have done, so no cloners are going to go to the cost to have that done on what seem to be rejected crystals anyway. So, keep a close eye on the crystal on the HC12. If it has the HC12 logo lasered into it, the module will be genuine. Clones won't have the logo on the crystal package.
I note that with the latest HC12's I got, the MCU has changed back from a QFN package, to the SSOP that the module originally had on it. My guess would be cos the QFN chip is hard to get at the moment, but perhaps they were able to buy stock of the SSOP chip. These modules still have the laser-engraved HC logo on the crystal though. |