Imitation picoPSU's on Ebay

[BecauseScience]

Anyone have any experience with the imitation picoPSU's available on Ebay? There are always a bunch of 120W models for less than the genuine 90W picoPSU. I've been pretty happy with similar items bought directly from China on eBay. I see some crooked components in one of the listings but I can always straighten those out myself.

I guess I'm most interested in knowing if the overall circuit design is solid and really able to handle the advertised wattages. Really, how hard is it to follow the datasheets for a couple of switching regulators? I think the only risk is that they might have compromised the design to save manufacturing cost.

Here are some example listings:

http://cgi.ebay.com/12V-120W-DC-DC-...mQQptZPCA_Cables_Adapters?hash=item3a4ecfc5c6

http://cgi.ebay.com/12V-120W-DC-DC-...mQQptZPCA_Cables_Adapters?hash=item35a1f43acd

 

[[Spectre]]

If it sounds to good to be true it is.

 

[BecauseScience]

If it sounds to good to be true it is.

But my nine dollar 802.11g PCMCIA card says otherwise!

- total cost $9 and some change
- brand new
- good chipset
- shipped from Hong Kong to my doorstep
- works great

 

[eli2k]

But my nine dollar 802.11g PCMCIA card says otherwise!

- total cost $9 and some change
- brand new
- good chipset
- shipped from Hong Kong to my doorstep
- works great

You got lucky. My $30 'Sandisk' memory pro duo stick turned out to be some counterfeit dud, which I never had the time to resolve with the seller and Sandisk.

kristof, I would be wary of those. Do the circuitry images look similar to a geniune one? I imagine I would not be happy when plugging this into some expensive board, and frying it because I went for a cheap route for the power supply component.

 

[Blazestorm]

Cheap cables are about the only thing I'll buy generic from china... something like a power-supply even if it is/small and really just a DC converter... I wouldn't want to cut corners there...