PIC developmenyt tools

[ABSF]

You mean putting chemical-resist black tar on the soldering side of the PCB after the board is tested? That might work. But if the board is faulty and was sent back for repair, only the producer would be able to repair it as only he got the schematics and program. The customers who bought the product wouldn't be happy. I have seen this type of protection method and the board looks really messy.

Using other Made-In-China mcu means the traces has to be modified as well as the program too. In that way the production cost would be very high. According to my friend, the maufacturer would charge very highly for any mods or cracking the codes in the mcu. But making exact copies is a different story as long as the volume and price met their targets. I can imagine how they clone the PCB. Just remove all the chips and solder masks. Take photograghs of both sides of the PCB. Use photo-shop to clean up the picture and make them really sharp. After alignment of the top and bottom sides and the vias. They can start making PCB out of it. Of course I am talking about double-sided PCB only. They dont even need to understand how the circuit work.

HP used to protect their designs using in-house ic numbers like 1820-2435. But looked like not very effective. Their in-house vs real chip numbers tables are all over the net. And besides, you need to have enough quantity only then the chip manufacturer would print the in-house numbers for you.

Allen

[zhenning]

Err... I mean scrape of the part no and made of the mcu you use on the pcb. this will make them guess the mcu that is on the product. make your pcb at least 4 layer that should keep them designing for the inner 2 layer which they cannot see them but it will increase the cost of course.

[happyrush]

Hi,

We are not simply clone the debugger/internal debugger.We goes into very deep details and does not need to read back the firmware since it is code protected! impossible to read.For example, you buy a PIC32Kit Development board, you understand that it build in a internal debugger on PIC18F4550, it is code protected, how to get it out?you can read it out with programmer, but all in 0x0000.If you think carefully, there is a simple way to get the firmware without buying PIC32Kit but it is not easy too, just playing puzzle.


For ICD3,even you find a FPGA expert, nothing can do also.I am very familiar with FPGA, but Microchip use the PIC24F as a bootloader to load a definition into FPGA because each family ic gas its own definition firmware . If want to get PIC24F firmware inside ICD3, you will be crazy, better buy one ICD3.

ICD2 long time people cloned it, who copy who no one care at all, last few years ICD2 clone origin from Russia website.I do not think can make a lot of money for now because Microchip require credit card before order samples.

Actually we are not always stay on Microchip, we can use Texas Instrument controller, ARM for better learning, power up ARM9 with Android,there is a lot of thing better than spend time on cloning:) i cloned it just for fun not because money.

[ABSF]

Actually we are not always stay on Microchip, we can use Texas Instrument controller, ARM for better learning, power up ARM9 with Android,there is a lot of thing better than spend time on cloning:) i cloned it just for fun not because money.

Yes, I understand. I am also doing it for hobby and not for money. But spending rm300-400 for an ICD2 clone is not what I can afford at the moment. I am doing part-time job repairing E. pianos and organs and I used that money for my hobbies. Now I am designing a bicycle computer for my bike. May be it's a waste of time, but I think it's gonna give me lots of fun. I know I can get it from eBay for USD 9.90. But doing it yourself is different. That's how I learn PIC - by designing and constructing.

Allen

[ABSF]

Err... I mean scrape of the part no and made of the mcu you use on the pcb. this will make them guess the mcu that is on the product. make your pcb at least 4 layer that should keep them designing for the inner 2 layer which they cannot see them but it will increase the cost of course.

Scrapping off the marking on mcu will not be able to stop people from copying. I have done it before. By looking at which pins are connected to Vdd, Vss and osc, you can roughly guess which mcu it is using. And also the package used is a good clue too.

I think using multi-layer board is the only way to stop people from copying.

Allen

[zhenning]

Oops.... forgot to consider that. Sorry ~~

[shiyan]

Yes, I understand. I am also doing it for hobby and not for money. But spending rm300-400 for an ICD2 clone is not what I can afford at the moment. I am doing part-time job repairing E. pianos and organs and I used that money for my hobbies. Now I am designing a bicycle computer for my bike. May be it's a waste of time, but I think it's gonna give me lots of fun. I know I can get it from eBay for USD 9.90. But doing it yourself is different. That's how I learn PIC - by designing and constructing.
Allen

Like this! Same here, but not doing computer for bicycle.... doing wireless control for home appliances

[ABSF]

Like this! Same here, but not doing computer for bicycle.... doing wireless control for home appliances

Really? My friend also invite me to do home appliances and lightings control, not using wireless but using X10 protocol. I didn't take up the offer yet. He wanted to design a central centrol console (CCC) with a touch screen (like PR28 using 16F727) and mount it on the wall. This CCC will interface to X10 to control all the lightings and light appliance like fans of the whole house. He has some concepts in his mind but I still haven't realized it 100%.

Anyone here familiar with X10 protocol?

Allen