<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Companies like Texas Instruments will often sell Evaluation Boards for $5, even though the primary part costs more than $10 or $15, not to mention all of the other parts. For TI, taking a loss on Evaluation Boards is a way to make it easy for designers to use their parts. Presumably, a design might end up using tens of thousands of parts in production, so TI earns back their losses.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;" class="">AD9833 Signal Generator Module is an Analog Devices chip, so it's safer to avoid <a href="http://Amazon.com" class="">Amazon.com</a> and AliExpress to go directly to the source.</span></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><a href="https://www.analog.com/en/products/ad9833.html#hardware-ecosystem" class="">https://www.analog.com/en/products/ad9833.html#hardware-ecosystem</a></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">Unfortunately, AD is charging about $100 for their Evaluation Board. This is probably a well-designed board that will last a while.</span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">I have noticed that there are sometimes cheap Evaluation Boards for popular chips. I've tried some of these, and they might stop working after a brief use. Mostly, it's because the design is not robust. In a few cases, like Microchip PIC boards, the knock-off was actually more expensive than buying the original directly from Microchip.</span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">Basically, there is a wide range of pricing and quality, so it really helps to learn the marketplace for a given chip. You could even contact the Analog Devices support, mention that you're interested in the AD9833, but you're on a budget, and ask for their recommendations.</span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">Brian</span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div class=""><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">p.s. I'm very fond of a particular $5 Texas Instrument LaunchPad board because it not only has a built-in USB JTAG interface, but the board is designed so that you can desolder a set of resistors connecting the JTAG interface to the on-board chip, and then use a ribbon cable to connect the JTAG to the same processor on your own PCB. Since USB JTAG interfaces sell for much more than $5, I have repeatedly purchased LaunchPad boards and reworked the option jumpers to convert them to standalone USB JTAG interfaces. Like I said, it pays to know the whole ecosystem for a part, and how you can take advantage of deals like this.<br class=""></span></font><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><div class="">On May 19, 2025, at 8:26 AM, Jean-Pierre Desrochers wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><meta charset="UTF-8" class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">While I was watching a Youtube video on using the</div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">AD9833 Signal Generator Module (and it worked using an Arduino)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class=""><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAuL4cLVNJI" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAuL4cLVNJI</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">I checked the actual available sellers for this thing..<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">Amazingly I found that places like Digikey or Mouser would<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">sell<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><u class="">the chip only</u><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for $23.47CAD (reliable and original)<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">while places like Amazon or Aliexpress would sell<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">a complete evaluation board for around $5.00CAD<br class="">including an installed chip !<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">What’s goind on ?<br class=""><br class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">I know many of these installed chip are fake ones<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">But I can tell many users bought these cheap boards<br class="">and they worked at that low prices .. !!!<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="" class="">Very special..<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>