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Mostly directed towards Sean (Yahiko), but its an open question.
A few years ago my VCM clone stopped working, and I just pulled it open to find one chip nuked. Looking at the current clones on eBay, it looks like ther are current two board layouts, a singular board and this mutiple board, which doesn't have as many sellers. Other sellers note single chip/best, or whatever. I still have my orginal cables and software discs from the years it was working.
I know Sean is out of the game for a few years, but he had mentioned some are better that others. Sean, is that due to the board layouts/chip counts?
My gutted VCM2.
There is one vendor with a board layout like mine, but it's not coming in until May, and I've got a hurting LS.
I had one from ebay, the other directly from China. The ebay part works, the part I got directly from China did not work.
I don't have a solution for you Jack, but I will follow your post.
Have a great weekend!
Jack if you look at several of the VCM2s from China you will see that the run the gambit when it comes to board quality and
chip population. Some only have the one board and wave soldering where the really good ones also have gold terminals and
multiple stack boards. Well two anyway. I once got one that the caps on it had started to leek. Needles to say it did not work
for squat. I have even gotten 2 from my supplier that sort of don't work in that they won't let you roll-back the firmware so you
can run V86.x I still have those two and am not sure if the new firmware can be reloaded or not. I would have to load v100
onto the laptop to even test them.
Thanks Sean. Mine was purchased maybe 8 years ago. I had screw up and loaded something newer that V86 if I remember correctly, then used another hard drive to reload. And I remember I used to set the date back. This thing blew up 4-5 years ago I believe, and when needed I've used AW and Forscan. But I'd like to have IDS available again.
I did find one vendor with a board like mine, who knows if it is, or what is shipped will be. My gut was with the stacked boards, it had to be better. I'm almost considering getting a real Bosch unit for $700-800 to have a reliable VCM. So much time has gone since I last played with this.....
The nuked chip as noted above... just for reference.
You boys are really at another level.....very interesting stuff.
What exactly is the board out of?
They're at another "level" alright -- these clones come from the Intellectual Property THIEVES in China who are stealing from American and European firms constantly.
Not sure why Americans continue supporting Copyright Violators / Intellectual Property Thieves in China -- if they stopped these purchases, the thieves business would dry up, go away.
Back when I got my Bosch VCMII there were other sellers I remember with pics of knockoffs with less hardware and chips inside. I never took mine apart but it has always worked. And for the IDS software i removed the files that attempt to auto check via internet for license and updates. It will give you a pop up for updates but i also always have the wifi off when using it for precaution.
Back when I got my Bosch VCMII there were other sellers I remember with pics of knockoffs with less hardware and chips inside. I never took mine apart but it has always worked. And for the IDS software i removed the files that attempt to auto check via internet for license and updates. It will give you a pop up for updates but i also always have the wifi off when using it for precaution.
Thanks, Pete. But man do I have apprehension about borrowing someone else's tools, especially electronincs. So you bought a real Bosch unit?
