Bluepill is dead! Long lives the Blackpill or BlackBluepill

[madias]

After struggling with all of those fake/counterfeit stm32f103c8xx chips nowadays found on the "classic" bluepills (see this thread ---> viewtopic.php?f=7&t=127 ) with dropout quotes from 28 of 30, I decided to buy some of Robotdyn Black/bluepills:
https://robotdyn.com/stm32-arm-arduino- ... oader.html

Background:
I'm using Bluepills within my project https://diroaudio.wordpress.com/ , so I need about ~10 Bluepills a quarter of a year. Price is nothing to talk about, but about quality.

So my needs because of my already ordered PCBs:
Bluepill factor size (pinouts, header distance)
128kB flash (yes, I was spoiled from the fact, that "real" STM32F103C8 has 128kB flash....)

Ok, the Blue/blackpills arrived (I cannot call them Blackpills, because this term is occupied by the Blackpills found on Aliexpress with slightly different pinouts)
First check:

• Unique "QC" sticker on each device
• same pinout layout, but smaller
• extrem good build quality
• fixed many Bluepill design mistakes (like false USB resistor, bad real time crystal....)
• works without problems with 128kB file size and passed all of my checks. So the device uses a real STM32F103C8

I'm not talking about the price (and this is also more than a bargain) , but about quality. If everything goes wrong, Robotdyn has a "blackbluepill" with other MCU options:

• STM32F103CBxx
• STM32F303CCT6

It sounds like I'm promoting Robotdyn, and that's the way it is. Robotdyn are doing a good job, damn good.

BTW: I ordered one of those STM32F303 examples. As I remember, this was a idea from the community of the old forum - Rick or?

[ag123]

i've been thinking about something kind of, robotdyn is a viable order source, so that'd be a primary order source if i need boards.
we can stil occasionally order small quantities from other sources and if we receive fakes, just make a complain to the vendor (perhaps air them here). i'm not too sure when are they going to correct that.but if different people complain, it would finally get the attention of some of them.and some of them may clarify their stand about shipping fakes as not all vendors want to be associated with the fake sellers. make that same complain to aliexpress so that it gets registered in their logs, i think they'd at least do something as aliexpress do have a bigger stake than do those fake sellers. otherwise sellers such as robotdyn, would choose to distinguish themselves and offer their own web sites on which to order boards instead of going through aliexpress, after all you are the same customer whether you use aliexpress.

the other thing is to 'build from scratch', i've been dragging my feet on that and i think it is a good thing to at least try.
at least then one'd not be dependent on those vendors and they can go do whatever they want

the other thing though, the original blue-pills are apparently from vcc-gnd on taobao
https://vcc-gnd.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1. ... c73bQppk9d
the trouble with taobao of course is that the pages are in chinese, this can prove a challenge. i'm not too sure if google translate can help.
one tactic is that on the web one can try to type a message in english to converse with the vendor. it is rather possible that some of them understand english. after all, some of them are pretty much the same people behind aliexpress. apparently vcc-gnd is also the vendor for the F401/F411 pill boards, just check their web on taobao

the other thing though, taobao has some kind of logistics aggregation centers, one way is to ship locally to the local aggregation center in china and let alibaba transship that to you (you need to do that on the taobao web) and transshipment has a separate fee. or while ordering directly on the vendor's taobao store, to check for direct shipping option. there are apparently 2 routes and one would need to choose the appropriate one.

[mrburnette]

... and if we receive fakes, just make a complain to the vendor (perhaps air them here). ...

I really think that using this forum to air grievances is not a good idea. Making a concise statement along the line, "Ordered n bluepills and received x bad/defective/not-as-advertised boards; filed a complaint with seller abcde and requested <...>" Include a hyperlink to the board.

The above is "factual." I would not use the word "counterfeit" as only STM could make that determination. Editing the post later to include what the seller did or how Aliexpres responded is again just facts and valuable forum info that members can utilize.

What members should not do is embellish or make statements that could be interpreted as libelous. We all know that cheaply made, low cost, no QA imported microcontroller boards are statistically a gamble and my experience is around 10% defective: most come to life after a treatment with my little hot air rework station.


Ray

[madias]

Apart from my angry other thread -> viewtopic.php?f=7&t=127 , I didn't wanted to start another "hall of shame" thread, but a "hall of fame" thing.
Unfortunately, at the moment there is no insurance to get a 100% working bluepill, regardless of which dealer, so I was looking for alternatives and fortunately Robotdyn did the job. So my question wasn't to get a cheap Pill, but a working Pill.