Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to get some cheap clones boards to examine. Two Pico clone boards arrived first before Pico Ws, so I took a look at the Picos first. These are from online sellers who are traders that offer cheap deals, so remember, if anyone wants peace of mind, buy your boards from a reseller or a well-known outfit.
The TL;DR summary: The board works, as you can see below, BUT it does not have a buck-boost converter. Instead it has an LDO. YET there is what looks like an inductor on the board.![:?]( "Confused")
Let's take a closer look. First, here are two boards. One is an authentic board from a reseller and the other is one of the clone boards that I just received.
The colour of the clone is a different shade of green and the PCB is slightly thinner. The silkscreen of the clone is less crisp with some missing bits on the underside. But take a look at the power section.
The seller used an authentic Pico picture to sell these clone boards. If you got duped, then you might want to get a refund. I'm not going to name names, because buying from "cheapest deals" traders always involve some risk. Question is, do they have proper clones to sell? My aim was to buy a dodgy clone so I am keeping my clone boards.
I did not see the LDO chip mentioned in conjunction with RPi Pico boards in a Google search, so I have taken a closer look to try and understand what the manufacturer of the boards is trying to do.
Continued in the following post.
The TL;DR summary: The board works, as you can see below, BUT it does not have a buck-boost converter. Instead it has an LDO. YET there is what looks like an inductor on the board.
I did not see the LDO chip mentioned in conjunction with RPi Pico boards in a Google search, so I have taken a closer look to try and understand what the manufacturer of the boards is trying to do.
Continued in the following post.
Statistics: Posted by katak255 — Sun Nov 17, 2024 7:06 am — Replies 4 — Views 53