Spotting fake AB modules on eBay

[phuz]

They're out there. Beware.

 

[kolyur]

Pretty good fake I must say... it took me a few minutes to spot the mistake.

 

[PLC]

Share it with us non AB guys

 

[Ken Roach]

Do you think that the module itself is counterfeit, or only the sticker ?

What we think of as a "part number" in Allen-Bradley is a "Bulletin Number", a traditional term left over from the switches and capacitors days of the company, where new product data sheets were called "Bulletins".

So I think the error is the "MAT NO".

On genuine labels, the format is a "PN-xxxxxx" number, not the Bulletin Number of the product like "1756-ENBT".

EDIT: I see it now: the description text is mis-spelled "ControLogix", missing the lowercase "l".

I do have a 1756-EN2T box right here, and its description text is "CLX HI-CAP ENET/IP MODULE - TP".

 

[drbitboy]

Also possibly ENET vs. Enet?

 

[rupej]

I'm really curious if it works.

 

[padees]

The box itself looks fake. GIT mentioned that some are re-boxing items and selling them as factory sealed new items.

 

[Ken Roach]

The box looks very similar to the real factory boxes. I mean, cardboard isn't hard to counterfeit.

What sparks my interest is what's not visible: the ASA serial number.

If the actual device is counterfeit, it might have an invalid or duplicate serial number. Two Ethernet modules in the same ControlLogix control system with the same ASA number wouldn't be immediately detected as duplicates like ones with duplicate MAC IDs would be, but they could not exchange CIP data.

I think it's most likely that somebody's just selling refurbished modules as new, with fake stickers.

 

[blperkins]

Does it work?

 

[geniusintraining]

GIT mentioned that some are re-boxing items and selling them as factory sealed new items.

Yep, they have been doing it for a few years now

Rockwell is cracking down on Asia and the way they can find out who is selling them is by the serial number... so the distributors in Asia being really smart (not) figured out if they alter the serial number the products can not be traced back to them and they are in the clear, but a simple check in RSLinx will show the serial number on most parts, this is one of the reasons I am getting out of the business

Also as Ken stated they are not fake or black market, they are gray market and being sold from un-authorized markets

In the box are the real products and they work just fine but Rockwell will void any warranty that they offer... the bad part for Rockwell is they make a good product and they dont fail very often so most people take the chance and save the money, I offer my own warranty

Its also not just on ebay, its just about any on line seller, RA does not want their products sold on line because they cant control where or to whom the product is sold to (but thats a different conversation), more reading here https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=131227

Not just AB I have been seeing Siemens, Omron and others also.

This the best one I have seen...

 

[drbitboy]

I know my beloved upstate New York is a backwater, but is this the reason for the problem?

=> ?

 

[MikeyN]

I know my beloved upstate New York is a backwater, but is this the reason for the problem?

Not sure why it didn't work for you, but I found two, one within 10 miles of your zip.

 

[drbitboy]

It was NoScript: that button needs to run js scripts from bing.com and/or google-analytics.com to work.

 

[CENTER]

I don't know if they are still a AB distributor but I recently bough a bunch of analog modules from Rexel up there. My local distributor has nothing in stock any more and getting things from AB these days is fine if you can hold out to next summer.

 

[padees]

...this is one of the reasons I am getting out of the business.

I can understand that...