Fake chips and you

[Sensei Tim]

found this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k72SFBOZ_lw

great deep dive into fake ICs and why buying from ebay/aliexpress/tayda is at your own risk.

[fx-fidden]

I have to say that I heard sometime about fake chips and transistors from Tayda, but I guess I never got any fake, or at least the ones I got worked fine.
When I built some circuit that doesn't work I bought other components from other shop, without any difference (probably I there was some mistake in my borda or in the project).

Instead, I got a fake chips from a "secure" shop, because they still didn't know those chips were fakes. Another famous shop doesn't have anymore the same chip, because they got fakes, too.

Aliexpress or ebay could be more risky, but I built excellent circuits buying from Tayda.
I received one PT2399 that doesn't work, once, from Tayda. But that could be happen if the shop doesn't test those chips.

Did someone got some really fake parts from Tayda?

[Sensei Tim]

I have never once gotten a proper J201 or 2N5457 from tayda.   they have all been garbage.

There are regular posts here and in the other builder groups about people who make something using jfets sourced from tayda and their projects don't work properly because of that.

last year i ordered MN3007 chips from about a dozen stores on ebay. none of them worked.  i had a few mn3007 chips from smallbear and also the xvive reissues and the chorus started working as soon as i swapped out the suspect chip.

[Pavlos]

Interesting video there.

There are plenty of people on here who have had bad experiences of buying JFETs and the more esoteric chips (BBD, PT2399 etc) from ali express, ebay sellers and also the likes of Tayda. I've only ever had problems with a couple of MN3007 that I got off ebay which turned out not to work at all so no idea if they were just dead or spmething else in disguise? The ones I got after that were from Das Musikding and they all worked perfectly first time which just reinforced what I normally do. Use Tayda for resistors, caps, some toggle/rotary switches, and the run of the mill op-amps and BJTs (Never let me down yet for any of these)
Anything a bit more out of the ordinary I only buy from the reliably reputable sellers (The thread on good/bad sellers is quite interesting for this) they are reputable for a good reason and I've yet to regret that approach. The cost is higher in one respect, but it also means you don't waste endless time and money on stuff that simply doesn't work so over all I personally don't think it's really worth trying to get 'the deal that is too good to be true' because that is just what it probably is!

The old saying about buyer beware springs to mind.

[fx-fidden]

When I started to build pedals I was in time to buy just one of the last stock of J201 and 2N5457 available from Tayda, really just a few, three, or four each one.  Maybe even less. I don't remember now, I should check my order, and I got any problem.
One of my first pedal was a BSIAB (J201 and 2N5457). I built even and Orange Squeezer using 2N5457 replaced then with 2N5458 from Tayda, just to recover the always more rare 2N5457.
But Tayda doesn't have J201 or 2N5457 since some years, and I bought the last from other shops, with no problem, again. So I don't remember how much jfet from Tayda I really used. I just know I had some of them without any problem.
I used 2N5458 from Tayda in some Rat replica without any issue. I still have some.
I never bought this stuff from ebay or random shops.

Seeing Pavlos mentionated Muskding, I guess can do it, too. I talked early about this, and I'll tell it better: I bought a defected MN3101 from Musikding, they sent me another, but also it didn't work. (The circuit worked with my old MN3101 mounted on another working circuit.) Musikding told me those chip was defected.
About same thing from Banzai Music. I didn't buy it because they doen't have MN3101 available because the last stock was a just a bunch of fake chips.

About Tayda, again, honestly , I have to say that I found a bit weird to see 2N5088 with hfe pretty low around 300. But buying 2N5088 from Musikding I see those was about the same measuring. Maybe it was my previous cheaper multimeter.

The last MN3007 I received was not the classical I had in the past, but it was Xvive. I hope this means that we can still keep to find good MN3007. But I start to think that the MN3101 is going hard to find.

[ξεναγος νεκροπολης]

i've also bought about 50-60 "mn3007" chips from different sellers on ebay.

none of them was working.

but i kept them anyway cause i don't want to through away electronics. i just wrote "fakes" on a box and put them there.

but the last month i'm experimenting on chorus projects.

and i drew a layout for a chorus using mn3207 and a cd4047 as a clock.

i knew for years now that you can make a fake mn3007 work and that they are actually mn3207s.

and now it was the right time to test this.

they ALL worked like a charm!

So i believe that if you put your fake "mn3007" in a mn3207 layout (using mn3201 clock of course), they will work. trust me!!

"My" chorus is based on small clone and on ce-2, and i made a small change in the depth control and it works way better than the original.
plus it has all the mods for ce2. (vibe mod and int mod)
and it's verified.

i just don't like the fact that i couldn't make it 1590b friendly.
so i might try to make it smaller layout but with some wires over the board if you don't have a problem...

i could post the layout as a new thread if you want to give it a try.

[fx-fidden]

So, the fake MN3007 are actually MN3207! Shocking!

I have now just a few fake MN3101. Some chance those are MN3201?

Anyway, if you want to share your schematic I'll be very glad. I'd like to see new schematics.

I never built any circuit with an MN3207, except an alternative version of an Electric Mistress with a V3207. Is it the same thing? I guess it is.

[pioneersx]

Hey there,

I was honestly glad to read your post, as I am dealing with the same situation right now. I already got my third shipment of MN3101 from Musikding (for free, as their support is very nice and also assumed that these chips might be fake).
The funny thing is these chips work, but it sounds like a woobly vinyl (couldn't find a better example).

Any ideas where to find decent MN3101?

[dirtybogner]

I'm in Japan.
Recently I bought MN3005 chips from pesonal seller at Japanese auction site "Yahoo Auction" in Japan. And they were fake. They are maybe MN3008 and relabeled. Maybe he sells chips from china.
Until few years ago there were few fake parts around Japanese market, I think.
It's sad that NOS parts are getting harder to find...