Chinese clones of STM32

[Cesare Riva]

Hello friends,

I am working on STM32L151RDT6 and today I was trying to read the unique ID using the ST HAL.

I have around 20 boards with the same chip and when I read the unique ID it comes out that all of them have the same ID.

In addition if I start the MCU in USB bootloader mode and I see the message of the Linux kernel, I get the same situation:

[ 8093.003173] usb 2-1.7: USB disconnect, device number 38
[ 8111.661825] usb 2-1.7: new full-speed USB device number 39 using ehci-pci
[ 8111.775013] usb 2-1.7: New USB device found, idVendor=0483, idProduct=df11
[ 8111.775019] usb 2-1.7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 8111.775022] usb 2-1.7: Product: STM32  BOOTLOADER
[ 8111.775024] usb 2-1.7: Manufacturer: STMicroelectronics
[ 8111.775027] usb 2-1.7: SerialNumber: 194738320000

Serial number "194738320000" is the same for all the boards I have.

I found out on a forum that this strange behavior is attributed to Chinese clones despite they were purchased from a famous distributor.

Did anyone experienced the same?

Should I report to ST?

Thank you in advance

[Imen.D]

Hello @Cesare Riva​ ,

Please check the DEV_ID in DBGMCU_IDCODE in the RM0038 (section 30.6.1 MCU device ID code).

Regards,

Imen

[Cesare Riva]

Thank you Imen for the reply.

DEV_ID is 0x0436

REV_ID is 0x1038

Chinese are experts to clone stuff, so I guess also DEV_ID is cloned

[S.Ma]

If the unique id is not, its out of spec and guarantee/support...

[MikeDB]

I thought it was just the STM32F103 they had cloned.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2018/01/19/stm32f103-vs-gd32f103/

https://olimex.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/chinese-clones-attack-stm32-microcontrollers/

They do seem to work ok, but nobody seems sure where they came from.