Been lurking for a while, but this topic hits true
with some recent
experiences. I would not hesitate to buy most common digital ICs on Amazon
or ebay
I mean we had to stop buying 7400 series from Jameco over counterfeits, so it's
definitely a problem for jellybean parts too. We had so many reject 74F573 latches go out
in XT-IDE kits we just scrapped the remaining Jameco-provided inventory. We also started
having issues with 28C64B EEPROMs from them, obvious relabels that wouldn't program
with the Atmel SDP algorithm -- that's actually why they started shipping
pre-programmed in kits! Real shame, I've bought from Jameco since I was a kid,
they'd actually sell to Just Some Kid :P
Personally I'm not willing to save the relatively small amount of money on TTL by
buying from random sources. It's especially infuriating when you're building
something for the first time (prototypes, someone else's project you've never put
together, etc.) and it turns out to be a dead 25 cent chip.
Thanks,
Jonathan