Almost legit source of UAA170 for Series II LED bargraph displays

spmac

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#1
I ordered 5 pcs UAA170 from this dubious looking listing on Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/32805454426.html

To my amazement, they arrived today. They were all scratched up and clearly RECOVERED FROM OLD BOARDS via solder pot! So these are the real thing. I put a socket on one of my PL400II displays to test and found that 2 of the 5 UAA170s actually work perfectly. 2 of them have issues (not filling the LEDs from end to end correctly), and 1 completely bad.

But anyway, $7 shipped for 2 real UAA170s doesn't seem bad. I contacted the seller. Will report if they send additional to replace the bad ones. Thought I would pass along my success story! :glasses8:
 

laatsch55

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#2
Glad it worked out....one of the problems of running used takeouts is are the people doing the takeouts as careful of that IC as they should be. Heat kills IC's, and it doen't take that much, so there is that to consider...
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#3
I ordered 5 pcs UAA170 from this dubious looking listing on Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/-/32805454426.html

To my amazement, they arrived today. They were all scratched up and clearly RECOVERED FROM OLD BOARDS via solder pot! So these are the real thing. I put a socket on one of my PL400II displays to test and found that 2 of the 5 UAA170s actually work perfectly. 2 of them have issues (not filling the LEDs from end to end correctly), and 1 completely bad.

But anyway, $7 shipped for 2 real UAA170s doesn't seem bad. I contacted the seller. Will report if they send additional to replace the bad ones. Thought I would pass along my success story! :glasses8:
It says 60 day guarantee in the listing... I wonder what my dozen NOS 170's will be worth down the road... maybe I'll trade them for something I need!!! Glad you got your meters working.
 

spmac

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#4
Thanks, I only really needed 2 chips to get 1 of my completely dead meters working so it actually worked out. The original good UAA170 I removed from my test amp was still good after unsoldering it. I installed a DIP-16 socket and put the original chip into the socket first to make sure everything was still good. Then just ran my function generator up and down and watched the display. Repeated test for each of the 5 chips I got.

I bet you are onto something laatsch55 -- they probably just totally baked the board they came from and shook the chips out or something. I wouldn't doubt it. One was kind flashed up with solder on its side so I figure it took a dip in the pot. That happens to be the one that completely doesn't work, even after cleaning it up.

FYI, I heard back from the seller. After a Google translate from Chinese to English, it said "items were tested before shipping"........ So it looks like 2 is all I get. Will attempt a resolution and leave medium feedback accordingly. Still worth it though. :)

I have yet another meter that sits at the 2nd dot and occasionally makes it down to the first dot. I will play around with that one, hopefully it isn't the UAA170 in that one too. It is actually hard to notice though.
 

spmac

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#5
I explained the problem with a video to the seller. I put a 1kHz sine into the amp and dialed up and down the knob on the front of the amp, showing the problem on the display. This helped with the language barrier. The seller offered to send additional chips or send 60% (3/5) refund. :) So I accepted refund and ended up with 2x good UAA170 for original price of $1.39 each. These chips, including markings and physical details of the package, appear identical to the originals.
 

orange

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#6
Good news all around.
 

laatsch55

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#7
I explained the problem with a video to the seller. I put a 1kHz sine into the amp and dialed up and down the knob on the front of the amp, showing the problem on the display. This helped with the language barrier. The seller offered to send additional chips or send 60% (3/5) refund. :) So I accepted refund and ended up with 2x good UAA170 for original price of $1.39 each. These chips, including markings and physical details of the package, appear identical to the originals.
No doubt an acceptable outcome..
 
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