[sdiy] AD9833 Signal Generator Module price.. fake or not ? Questioning..

[Eric Brombaugh]

Those modules are likely built with gray-market parts that were sold at 
the "China Price" - many US semi mfgs sell their products in China at 
significantly lower prices due to the large volumes and buyer leverage 
of the big assembly houses there, and when a product is cancelled then 
the inventory is resold on the gray market at significantly lower cost. 
When you buy at Digi-Key, you're paying the manufacturer's low-volume 
list price that includes a lot of middle-men and overhead.

These DDS modules are not fake, they do work, but the reference crystals 
are generally not the most accurate or stable and the passive parts 
(bypass caps, etc) will not be of top-quality. They're fine for hobbyist 
use though.

Eric

On 5/19/25 8:26 AM, Jean-Pierre Desrochers via Synth-diy wrote:
> While I was watching a Youtube video on using the
> 
> AD9833 Signal Generator Module (and it worked using an Arduino)
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAuL4cLVNJI <https://www.youtube.com/ 
> watch?v=NAuL4cLVNJI>
> 
> I checked the actual available sellers for this thing..
> 
> Amazingly I found that places like Digikey or Mouser would
> 
> sell _the chip only_ for $23.47CAD (reliable and original)
> 
> while places like Amazon or Aliexpress would sell
> 
> a complete evaluation board for around $5.00CAD
> including an installed chip !
> 
> What’s goind on ?
> 
> I know many of these installed chip are fake ones
> 
> But I can tell many users bought these cheap boards
> and they worked at that low prices .. !!!
> 
> Very special..
> 
> 
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