How can ebay arduino be so cheap?

[Guest]

Arduino uno are like 30 USD and the micro tiny one is also fairly high priced however many "made in Italy" versions are a third the price or lower. 

Are these like old fashion pirated? Stolen/black market? Accurate replica?

Are they worth buying? I saw Great Scott (German technology youtuber) buys some off ebay and the nano he showed in one video was 2~ dollar/euro on ebay. 
Some of these prices are really low compared to Arduino's website. 

Spoiler

 

I did some reading online before I came here saying things like:

Quote

If it's not genuine you can never be sure quite what you are getting. You have to ask with some of then just how they can make them so cheap. Poor quality components is one way. Either counterfeit or reject components which may fail after a short time, or under certain conditions is a big risk.

There are different grades of board each with their own risks...

1. Genuine. High price, good reliability and quality. Good after sales support. Supports the Arduino cause.
2. Arduino clone. Genuine Arduino design made by a reputable third party. Almost as good as option 1 but doesn't support Arduino financially.
3. Arduino Based. A board created for a specific job that is based around genuine Arduino design. Support really only from the (often smaller) manufacturer. Quality varies.
4. Chinese clone. Low grade components made to original Arduino designs. Little or no support. Poor quality. Often with different USB interface that is unstable and low quality.
5. Counterfeit. Low quality components. Claims to be a genuine Arduino. Bad build quality.

Options 1-3 are ones I would consider buying. 4 and 5 I would stay well away from.

How can I be sure it's (1.) Genuine? Does being Genuine matter? link

 

Someone elsewhere stated 

Quote

For me, it's about respect.  

The Arduino folks have very generously open-sourced everything.  The software.  The hardware.  Everything.  Anyone in the world can make their own copy, enhance it, sell what they make, etcetera.

The ONE thing that is asked in return is to NOT use the name Arduino.  That's it.  Not a terribly huge price to pay.

The people who made that knock-off obviously have NO respect for others.  Do you really want to do business with someone like that?

So apparently the hardware is open source... Do I even need to buy an arduino? Can I just but the processor, and install Arduino software and be good to go (obviously I need a few more parts) link

 

What do you think of Elegoo? They sell a few "Arduino style" boards on Amazon for cheaper than Arduino sells theirs for. 

Example: I can get THREE nano arduino for 10~ dollars, or an uno r3 for 10~.

Spoiler

Are they a reputable seller? Are they equivalent to the Arduino in every important way? 

 

I want to pick up one of these arduino and program it for a project I have planned. I'm currently in a class where we're learning C (just original classic vanilla C) and then the Arduino boards so I wanted to get a portfolio going with a project over the winter break/summer. I also don't want to get scammed, or spend too much money on the micro controllers. 

 

PS:

If anyone has any recommendations for a mosfet that can be used with this board I'd like to hear what you think is good. It needs to power a 4.5v-12v 9.6v nominal motor at 2600+ g.cm motor. link

[iamdarkyoshi]

The knockoff ones aren't as reliable, and none of that money goes into research and development of the hardware and software.

 

The ebay ones cut corners to bring the price as low as possible, possibly even using chips that failed QC. I've had more than one ebay arduino just straight up die on me.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

The knockoff ones aren't as reliable, and none of that money goes into research and development of the hardware and software.

 

The ebay ones cut corners to bring the price as low as possible, possibly even using chips that failed QC. I've had more than one ebay arduino just straight up die on me.

What about the amazon "Elegoo" company? Do you know anything about them? 

[manikyath]

"knockoff" arduinos (or any other variation of similar hardware) are essentially companies who take an opensource design (arduinos are opensource) and then replace the components with the cheapest alternative they can find.

 

for example, they may have knockoff usb to serial chips, they have knockoff processors, the PCB probably isnt as high quality, the capacitors on the voltage input very likely are total garbage, and so on.

 

they'll work, they just dont come with the guarantee of how long, and as before mentioned they dont fund the developent behind these amazing platforms.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 minutes ago, fpo said:

What about the amazon "Elegoo" company? Do you know anything about them? 

I've never heard of them. If you want to get reliable, high quality units, you can't go wrong with the originals. If I'm just dinking around, I'll probably use a cheapie. If I'm making something production, I'll use a genuine one.

 

I'd reccomend your very first one be a genuine one from the source.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

"knockoff" arduinos (or any other variation of similar hardware) are essentially companies who take an opensource design (arduinos are opensource) and then replace the components with the cheapest alternative they can find.

 

for example, they may have knockoff usb to serial chips, they have knockoff processors, the PCB probably isnt as high quality, the capacitors on the voltage input very likely are total garbage, and so on.

 

they'll work, they just dont come with the guarantee of how long, and as before mentioned they dont fund the developent behind these amazing platforms.

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

I've never heard of them. If you want to get reliable, high quality units, you can't go wrong with the originals. If I'm just dinking around, I'll probably use a cheapie. If I'm making something production, I'll use a genuine one.

Would the both of you say you recommend the official Arduino from Arduino, or nothing at all? (Or from a reputable official re-seller like Walmart or whoever sells these.)

[manikyath]

Just now, fpo said:

Would the both of you say you recommend the official Arduino from Arduino, or nothing at all? (Or from a reputable official re-seller like Walmart or whoever sells these.)

buy an official arduino, i dont care where you get it from, just buy an official if you care about the people who made it available to you.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 minutes ago, fpo said:

Would the both of you say you recommend the official Arduino from Arduino, or nothing at all? (Or from a reputable official re-seller like Walmart or whoever sells these.)

The actual store from arduino.cc is really the only place you can be absolutely certain that you're getting an official unit IMO. The uno is only 22$ right now on their store (Excluding VAT)

 

Aidafruit also seems like a reputable place to get them though.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

The actual store from arduino.cc is really the only place you can be absolutely certain that you're getting an official unit IMO. The uno is only 22$ right now on their store (Excluding VAT)

 

Aidafruit also seems like a reputable place to get them though.

That's pretty cheap. I'm used to seeing them for like 30 dollars. Or I mixed it up with the raspberry pi. 

 

What is VAT? Vatican City? 

I think I'll start with arduino.cc but I may check out Aidafruit at a later date. Thank you!! 

[Max_Settings]

6 minutes ago, fpo said:

That's pretty cheap. I'm used to seeing them for like 30 dollars. Or I mixed it up with the raspberry pi. 

 

What is VAT? Vatican City? 

I think I'll start with arduino.cc but I may check out Aidafruit at a later date. Thank you!! 

Confirmed American if you don't know what VAT is.

[Max_Settings]

1 minute ago, Max_Settings said:

Confirmed American if you don't know what VAT is.

And I say this as an American

[Hackentosher]

I'm sure @iamdarkyoshi and @manikyath have already said this, but the knock off boards use really shitty components that aren't as reliable, are cheaper, and are more likely to fail if they haven't already shat the bed in the apartment of the guy who made it. Also Arduino charges more than what the board costs to produce because they fund the development of the Arduino project. It's open source, so money has to come from somewhere. It doesn't cost Arduino $25 to make an uno, but they sell it to you for $25 because they need to pay the people that drive the project forward.

[danr]

4 hours ago, fpo said:

 

What is VAT? Vatican City?

Stands for value added tax, its similar to sales tax in the US, but its included in the advertised cost (what you see on the sticker is what you pay).