Re: Complaint about counterfeit STM32 chips - please read.
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 1:32 am
In fact we never had issues with counterfeits, and we sell thousands of Blue Pills and Black Pills.
Some Chinese sellers clearly offered us "Blue Pills" with CS32F103 chips, remarked as STM32F103 chips, as super great deal. The problem is that they really think these chips would be identically, but they sell better with STM32 marking. If these chips would be identically, probably most hobbyists wouldn't care too much about their genuineness. But the problems start as soon you are not installing an Arduino bootloader and use it as Arduino module, but try to programm it with STM tool chain, or try to address internal memory on assembler level. Besides the legal issues, of course.
Interesting is, that on most CS32 or GD32 modules the USB data+ resistor is wrong, and on most modules with STM32 the resistor value is correct (1k5).
When ever we purchase a higher volume of these modules, we require samples from the same batch prior to our larger orders.
That way, we can be pretty sure to only have genuine STM32 chips on out modules, together with the correct resistor value, of course.
About the F4 series, there are only "clones" for F405, F407 and F450 on the market. These "clones" are absolutely legal chips, just like the CS32, using a licensed ARM core and manufacturer specific periphery. As for the CS32, memory allocation, timings and some specs regarding I/Os are different. But this is all explained in the data sheets. Same with the CS32; differences to the STM32 can be found when reading the data sheets carefully (good luck with the Chinese data sheet LOL).
But the Black Pills we stock are having STM32F411 chips on board. We don't sell modules with the also well known F401 because you get for not even 3 bucks less only half the recourses, what doesn't really makes sense.
You can find Blue Pill with STM32F103 and proper 1.5k USB resistor here (with and without Arduino bootloader pre-installed):
https://www.universal-solder.ca/?post_t ... =stm32f103
You can find Black Pill with STM32F411 (brand new version 2.2 available on March 19th) here:
https://www.universal-solder.ca/?post_t ... =stm32f411
Cheers,
Volker
Some Chinese sellers clearly offered us "Blue Pills" with CS32F103 chips, remarked as STM32F103 chips, as super great deal. The problem is that they really think these chips would be identically, but they sell better with STM32 marking. If these chips would be identically, probably most hobbyists wouldn't care too much about their genuineness. But the problems start as soon you are not installing an Arduino bootloader and use it as Arduino module, but try to programm it with STM tool chain, or try to address internal memory on assembler level. Besides the legal issues, of course.
Interesting is, that on most CS32 or GD32 modules the USB data+ resistor is wrong, and on most modules with STM32 the resistor value is correct (1k5).
When ever we purchase a higher volume of these modules, we require samples from the same batch prior to our larger orders.
That way, we can be pretty sure to only have genuine STM32 chips on out modules, together with the correct resistor value, of course.
About the F4 series, there are only "clones" for F405, F407 and F450 on the market. These "clones" are absolutely legal chips, just like the CS32, using a licensed ARM core and manufacturer specific periphery. As for the CS32, memory allocation, timings and some specs regarding I/Os are different. But this is all explained in the data sheets. Same with the CS32; differences to the STM32 can be found when reading the data sheets carefully (good luck with the Chinese data sheet LOL).
But the Black Pills we stock are having STM32F411 chips on board. We don't sell modules with the also well known F401 because you get for not even 3 bucks less only half the recourses, what doesn't really makes sense.
You can find Blue Pill with STM32F103 and proper 1.5k USB resistor here (with and without Arduino bootloader pre-installed):
https://www.universal-solder.ca/?post_t ... =stm32f103
You can find Black Pill with STM32F411 (brand new version 2.2 available on March 19th) here:
https://www.universal-solder.ca/?post_t ... =stm32f411
Cheers,
Volker