[kallistisoft]

I really like the concept of the M5Stack product line and was ready to suggest it to some friends that were looking into getting into embedded programming / gadget building, but a recent experience has given me some pause...

I was debugging an issue with a gps chip on a custom PCB and decided to get a reference hardware implementation to do some sanity checking. After doing some searching I found the M5Stack U032 GPS module which claimed to use the same chip and amplifier that was on the PCB...

So I ordered it and it showed up and printed on the case is the model # of the GPS chip which matched the documentation. Doing due diligence I open the case and notice that the footprint of the GPS chip on the board doesn't match the datasheet for that IC and there is no identification marking stamped on the chip housing, but there is a spot of glue residue where it looks a sticker was removed...

After some sleuthing I finally identified the gps chip on the board, which was not the chip listed in the documentation or printed on the case of the module!

I can understand having documentation that gets out of sync, but the fact that it looks like an identification sticker was intentionally removed from the chip housing leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

[reaperman]

Perhaps Espressif will improve this situation. Seems like their product line is generally decently documented at the diagram-block level at least. Obviously with embedded platforms, "proper" documentation can stretch into the range of 1000+ pages (e.g. what you'd expect to see from ARM), and Espressif doesn't deliver documentation to that level of detail with their ESP32 / ESP8266 offerings.

But despite the lack of super granular detail, I haven't ever noticed their high-level documentation being straight-up misleading like that.

[drekipus]

The big problem with many embedded hobby electronics, is the proliferation and supply of counterfeits, sometimes even making their way through official supply lines.