Futurelec????

[CDB-3]

 Have they gone out of business?

I just get a website parking page, when trying to access them.

Colin

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cdb,  on 10/28/2009



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[Marcel Birthelmer-2]

it's futurlec, not futurelec ... works fine for me! http://www.futurlec.com/

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:56 AM, cdb <colin@...> wrote:

>  Have they gone out of business?
>
> I just get a website parking page, when trying to access them.
>
> Colin
>
> --
> cdb,  on 10/28/2009
>
>
>
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[Richard Pytelewski-2]

Did you mean       http://www.futurlec.com/     ?  They are there!

Rich

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@... [mailto:piclist-bounces@...] On Behalf Of
cdb
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:57 AM
To: PICLIST@...
Subject: [OT]Futurelec????

 Have they gone out of business?

I just get a website parking page, when trying to access them.

Colin

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[CDB-3]

OK, thanks, suffering major brain fade today! :(
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cdb, colin@... on 10/28/2009
 
Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk  
 
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[Forrest W Christian-2]

Be careful as I (and others) have received counterfeit parts from them.  
In my case it was nearly 200 L6202's which they to this day have not
taken care of.  I wish they would have done the correct thing and taken
them back and/or given me a refund/credit.   But instead they pretended
that there wasn't really a problem.     It's too bad too, since I do
like their prices but just can't bring myself to purchase from someone
who sells counterfeit parts as original.

(And no, I don't know if they thought they were counterfeit or not -
quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me since they basically quit
responding to my emails trying to get a resolution to the issue).

-forrest

cdb wrote:

> OK, thanks, suffering major brain fade today! :(
> --
> cdb, colin@... on 10/28/2009
>  
> Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk  
>  
> Hosted by:  www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359
>  
>
>  
>  
>  
>  
>
>  

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[John Chung]

Hi Forrest,

Who do you buy parts from nowadays?

John

--- On Wed, 10/28/09, Forrest Christian <forrestc@...> wrote:

> From: Forrest Christian <forrestc@...>
> Subject: Re: [OT]Futurelec????
> To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@...>
> Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 3:04 PM
> Be careful as I (and others) have
> received counterfeit parts from them. 
> In my case it was nearly 200 L6202's which they to this day
> have not
> taken care of.  I wish they would have done the
> correct thing and taken
> them back and/or given me a
> refund/credit.   But instead they pretended
> that there wasn't really a problem. 
>    It's too bad too, since I do
> like their prices but just can't bring myself to purchase
> from someone
> who sells counterfeit parts as original.
>
> (And no, I don't know if they thought they were counterfeit
> or not -
> quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me since they basically
> quit
> responding to my emails trying to get a resolution to the
> issue).
>
> -forrest
>
> cdb wrote:
> > OK, thanks, suffering major brain fade today! :(
> > --
> > cdb, colin@...
> on 10/28/2009
> > 
> > Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk 
> > 
> > Hosted by:  www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359
> > 
> >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >
> >   
>
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[Forrest W Christian-2]

Mouser mostly, but some digikey and an occasional Jameco.

In the surplus world goldmine-elec.com and allelectronics.com

-forrest

John Chung wrote:

> Hi Forrest,
>
> Who do you buy parts from nowadays?
>
> John
>
> --- On Wed, 10/28/09, Forrest Christian <forrestc@...> wrote:
>
>  
>> From: Forrest Christian <forrestc@...>
>> Subject: Re: [OT]Futurelec????
>> To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@...>
>> Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 3:04 PM
>> Be careful as I (and others) have
>> received counterfeit parts from them.  
>> In my case it was nearly 200 L6202's which they to this day
>> have not
>> taken care of.  I wish they would have done the
>> correct thing and taken
>> them back and/or given me a
>> refund/credit.   But instead they pretended
>> that there wasn't really a problem.
>>    It's too bad too, since I do
>> like their prices but just can't bring myself to purchase
>> from someone
>> who sells counterfeit parts as original.
>>
>> (And no, I don't know if they thought they were counterfeit
>> or not -
>> quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me since they basically
>> quit
>> responding to my emails trying to get a resolution to the
>> issue).
>>
>> -forrest
>>
>> cdb wrote:
>>    
>>> OK, thanks, suffering major brain fade today! :(
>>> --
>>> cdb, colin@...
>>>      
>> on 10/28/2009
>>    
>>>  
>>> Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk  
>>>  
>>> Hosted by:  www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359
>>>  
>>>
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>>
>>>    
>>>      
>> --
>> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
>> View/change your membership options at
>> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
>>
>>    
>
>
>      
>
>  

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[solarwind]

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 6:34 AM, Forrest Christian <forrestc@...> wrote:

> Be careful as I (and others) have received counterfeit parts from them.
> In my case it was nearly 200 L6202's which they to this day have not
> taken care of.  I wish they would have done the correct thing and taken
> them back and/or given me a refund/credit.   But instead they pretended
> that there wasn't really a problem.     It's too bad too, since I do
> like their prices but just can't bring myself to purchase from someone
> who sells counterfeit parts as original.
>
> (And no, I don't know if they thought they were counterfeit or not -
> quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me since they basically quit
> responding to my emails trying to get a resolution to the issue).

Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which
ones are counterfeit and which ones are not?

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[Herbert Graf-5]

On Fri, 2009-10-30 at 02:04 -0400, solarwind wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 6:34 AM, Forrest Christian <forrestc@...> wrote:
> > Be careful as I (and others) have received counterfeit parts from them.
> > In my case it was nearly 200 L6202's which they to this day have not
> > taken care of.  I wish they would have done the correct thing and taken
> > them back and/or given me a refund/credit.   But instead they pretended
> > that there wasn't really a problem.     It's too bad too, since I do
> > like their prices but just can't bring myself to purchase from someone
> > who sells counterfeit parts as original.
> >
> > (And no, I don't know if they thought they were counterfeit or not -
> > quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me since they basically quit
> > responding to my emails trying to get a resolution to the issue).
>
> Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which
> ones are counterfeit and which ones are not?

Depends. The simplest cases are binned parts being sold as "new", or
stolen parts sold as new.

I've heard of some people actually taking parts off of old boards,
reballing them (in the case of BGA) and selling them as new (obviously
this only makes sense for expensive parts).

I've even heard of some cases where parts are relabeled with a more
expensive part number, change a few numbers on say an MCU (many MCUs
have multiple parts in the same package, so if you take an MCU with 2k
RAM and label it as if it were a part with 64k RAM you can sell it for
more).

For cheaper parts there are some manufacturers that make parts and then
label them with a "brand" name, exactly the same stuff as what happens
with designer purses.

In general it's safest to buy parts from authorized distributors, but
even they can be caught with bad parts.

As for how YOU can tell, it's exactly the same as designer purses:
sometimes it's obvious (name is mispelled), sometimes "experts" can't
tell it's a fake.

TTYL

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[Randy Glenn-2]

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:19, Herbert Graf <hkgraf@...> wrote:

> On Fri, 2009-10-30 at 02:04 -0400, solarwind wrote:
>> Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which
>> ones are counterfeit and which ones are not?
>
> Depends. The simplest cases are binned parts being sold as "new", or
> stolen parts sold as new.
>
> I've heard of some people actually taking parts off of old boards,
> reballing them (in the case of BGA) and selling them as new (obviously
> this only makes sense for expensive parts).
>
> I've even heard of some cases where parts are relabeled with a more
> expensive part number, change a few numbers on say an MCU (many MCUs
> have multiple parts in the same package, so if you take an MCU with 2k
> RAM and label it as if it were a part with 64k RAM you can sell it for
> more).
>

I've heard of even worse: I was told of an op-amp (I think?) that had
been relabelled with the part number of a multi-GHz cable equalizer at
a company I used to work for. Somehow it wasn't quite up to snuff.

Another favourite of the shadier vendors is to change the temperature
/ reliability code, remarking consumer-grade parts to look like
extended-temp parts, or even military-grade parts.

-Randy
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[Alan Smith-10]

I have an unusual shape that I want to modify the Tstop shape.  I tried drawing it with a polygon but when I went and looked at the gerbers, it didnt show up.

Anyone modified these or created new ones?


     
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[Forrest W Christian-2]

solarwind wrote:
> Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which
> ones are counterfeit and which ones are not?
>  
"Counterfeit" basically refers to parts which the manufacturer didn't
build/test/sell through their normal channels.  Sometimes they are ones
tested as defective and not properly scrapped (aka somebody took them
from the garbage can).   Sometimes they're a relabeled part (take a
low-quality, low cost part and relabel it as an expensive one).   And
sometimes they are actually a knock-off manufactured in some fab
somewhere where the parts are manufactured under less than quality
conditions.

In this case, I had to send parts to the manufacturer - although the
very high failure rate was a good indicator.   RAM chips are notorious
along with transistors, etc.

On the futurlec counterfeiting issue, google futurlec counterfeit , and
read the threads ..  pretty common stories, lots of ok responses and
seemingly always 1-2 people saying that they got counterfeit goods.


-forrest


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[Alan Smith-10]

FYI..found a work around.  Instead of the symbol, I drew a poly on the board and used that layer.  Cam complained about a large draw, but...it worked.

--- On Fri, 10/30/09, alan smith <micro_eng2@...> wrote:

> From: alan smith <micro_eng2@...>
> Subject: [OT] Eagle:Tstop layer
> To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@...>
> Date: Friday, October 30, 2009, 10:58 AM
> I have an unusual shape that I want
> to modify the Tstop shape.  I tried drawing it with a
> polygon but when I went and looked at the gerbers, it didnt
> show up.
>
> Anyone modified these or created new ones?
>
>
>      
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[Robert Young-3]

Alan -

I believe you can also "create" a secondary tstop layer, put your stuff there and then when you go to generate the Gerbers, you need to update the CAM file to include your extra layer when generating the top side mask.

While I have not tested this for the tstop layer, I do use this for logos to go on the silk screen.  The ULPs that exist for converting graphics to logos create very messy files and the DRC usually barfs on them if you put them on tplace.  I've created a layer, #210, which I use for the logos.  The DRC won't touch that layer and so no more messages.  Then my CAM files are modified to create the silk screen using tname, tplace and #210.

Rob

> Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:23:11 -0700
> From: micro_eng2@...
> Subject: Re: [OT] Eagle:Tstop layer
> To: piclist@...
>
> FYI..found a work around.  Instead of the symbol, I drew a poly on the board and used that layer.  Cam complained about a large draw, but...it worked.
>
> --- On Fri, 10/30/09, alan smith <micro_eng2@...> wrote:
>
> > From: alan smith <micro_eng2@...>
> > Subject: [OT] Eagle:Tstop layer
> > To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@...>
> > Date: Friday, October 30, 2009, 10:58 AM
> > I have an unusual shape that I want
> > to modify the Tstop shape.  I tried drawing it with a
> > polygon but when I went and looked at the gerbers, it didnt
> > show up.
> >
> > Anyone modified these or created new ones?
> >
> >
> >      
> > --
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>
>
>      
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[William "Chops" Westfield]

>> I drew a poly on the board and used that layer.  Cam complained  
>> about a large draw

Use a larger "width" for drawing the polygon...

BillW

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[Sean Breheny]

Here is one example of counterfeit parts which is pretty funny (unless
you designed them in to something):

http://blog.makezine.com/MAKE_PT0153.jpg

Sean


On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 2:04 AM, solarwind <x.solarwind.x@...> wrote:
> Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which
> ones are counterfeit and which ones are not?
>
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[Vitaliy-14]

Sean Breheny wrote:
> Here is one example of counterfeit parts which is pretty funny (unless
> you designed them in to something):
>
> http://blog.makezine.com/MAKE_PT0153.jpg

ROFL!!!!

:-D

A colleague suggested that they should open the blue one too, to see if
there's an even smaller capacitor inside.

Vitaliy

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[Jinx-4]

> A colleague suggested that they should open the blue one too, to see if
> there's an even smaller capacitor inside.

Hehe, I didn't know the xxxxxxese were into matryoshka dolls

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[Tamas Rudnai]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 2:25 AM, Vitaliy <piclist@...> wrote:
> A colleague suggested that they should open the blue one too, to see if
> there's an even smaller capacitor inside.

LOL! That's a good one :-) Like the Russian Matryoshka doll :-)

Tamas
--
/* www.mcuhobby.com */ int main() { char *a,*s,*q; printf(s="/*
www.mcuhobby.com */ int main() { char *a,*s,*q; printf(s=%s%s%s,
q=%s%s%s%s,s,q,q,a=%s%s%s%s,q,q,q,a,a,q); }",
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[Tamas Rudnai]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 8:45 AM, Jinx <joecolquitt@...> wrote:
>> A colleague suggested that they should open the blue one too, to see if
>> there's an even smaller capacitor inside.
>
> Hehe, I didn't know the xxxxxxese were into matryoshka dolls

Yep, sorry, I could not see your message before I sent mine :-)

--
/* www.mcuhobby.com */ int main() { char *a,*s,*q; printf(s="/*
www.mcuhobby.com */ int main() { char *a,*s,*q; printf(s=%s%s%s,
q=%s%s%s%s,s,q,q,a=%s%s%s%s,q,q,q,a,a,q); }",
q="\"",s,q,q,a="\\",q,q,q,a,a,q); }
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