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Timeline for Burning Arduinos one after another

Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0

20 events
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Aug 1, 2017 at 12:56 comment added Majenko Besides, China make all of my PCBs...
Aug 1, 2017 at 12:56 comment added Majenko Sure - a lot of them are coming out of Malaysia and Vietnam now anyway.
Aug 1, 2017 at 12:55 history edited Majenko CC BY-SA 3.0
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Aug 1, 2017 at 12:01 comment added Nick Gammon Your comment that you would rather buy Chinese than Italian is racist itself. @Majenko - it might be better to say "cheap clones" rather than insult a particular country.
Aug 1, 2017 at 11:46 comment added pipe No need to be so racist. I'd rather buy Chinese electronics than Italian electronics - The Chinese knows what they are doing and have a huge industry.
Aug 1, 2017 at 11:37 comment added Jules @Majenko I've been using clones with CH340G chips for years, am not particularly careful with them, and have never had a related failure. I see several suggestions online that their internal power management is flaky and that they should therefore be used with an external regulator, but checking the clone boards I have that seems to be the way it has been done. As to the PTC, I'm not sure how to test it, but there definitely is a component labelled as one on the boards I have. All in all, I've had nothing but good experiences with clone Arduinos, so I'm really not sure what the issue is.
Aug 1, 2017 at 9:32 history edited Majenko CC BY-SA 3.0
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Aug 1, 2017 at 6:48 comment added Clonkex I disagree with buying a genuine one. I mean sure if you've got the money, go for it, but unless your goal is to support Arduino, just go to eBay and buy a Chinese-made Arduino. I get mine from eBay. The trick is to find the good ones. Start by limiting the search to your local country and setting Price Low > High. Find the ones with the DIP socket chip as they're usually better-made (not sure why), then find the cheapest one from a reputable seller (I'm in Australia, so I look for sellers that use solid English and take their own photos - my favourite seller is LearCNC, for instance).
Jul 31, 2017 at 22:35 comment added hobbs This would be a better answer in the opposite order. Someone who isn't following the basic rules can, and often will, fry a board within 30 seconds of taking it out of the box, no matter how "genuine" it is. There aren't all that many protections in the design — and speaking of regulators, aren't they still using those little SOT-223 ones that get blistering hot when you draw rated current at rated input voltage? There are also clones out there that have noticeably better builds.
Jul 31, 2017 at 21:06 comment added Majenko @AleksandurMurfitt The USB cable on it probably has so little metal in the power wires it acts like a resistor limiting the current and protecting everything ;)
Jul 31, 2017 at 21:05 comment added DividedByZero This is generally good advice, but keep in mind, there are exceptions. My first Arduino was a Chinese clone (cost about £3 and came with a USB cable too) but it has managed to outlive two genuine ones, even though I usually try risky things on it first.
Jul 31, 2017 at 18:43 comment added Majenko @MattiVirkkunen The genuine Uno has a decent PTC on it. One has to question the quality (and thus efficacy) of the PTC (if there even is one) on a Chinese clone. Also you only have to cough in the same room as it and the CH340G dies. All adds up to far more fragility than a genuine one - and none of it is to do with the MCU.
Jul 31, 2017 at 18:40 comment added Matti Virkkunen I don't think even a supposedly superior "genuine" board would have protection on the I/O pins for instance, at least any of the popular standard ones. At most, they might be using a regulator that has better overcurrent protection. And it shouldn't be too hard to put a better regulator on a cheap Chinese board, and save a lot of money by avoiding boards where the price is 20% substance and 80% brand image.
Jul 31, 2017 at 16:59 comment added Majenko Ruggeduino is OTT protected (ruggedized) for industrial applications.
Jul 31, 2017 at 16:47 comment added Edenia Aren't there a little more expensive (say 10$) ones that are more secure. One mentioned Ruggeduino
Jul 31, 2017 at 16:38 comment added Michel Keijzers Actually I do, at least for now, until I'm getting more confidence in my electronics knowledge ... of course I try to be regularly safe. But it's always a trade off - buying a decent product which breaks less often or a 'cheap one' which breaks easily.
Jul 31, 2017 at 15:39 comment added Majenko That is fine if you are going to treat them as a disposable item. Use it a few times and throw it away. Personally I have two Uno R2 boards that I have had for many years and treated them like crud. They will work well.
Jul 31, 2017 at 15:36 comment added Michel Keijzers I agree, although I think also for learning it might be better to use cheaper ones than burning real ones (although they have more protection). So far I burnt one and that was a genuine one (after putting it in a case and used a 12V adapter).
Jul 31, 2017 at 15:34 vote accept Edenia
Jul 31, 2017 at 15:14 history answered Majenko CC BY-SA 3.0