A bag of fakes. Or Not. or what?

[Scenic]

okay i'm a bit confused here...
bought those caps on ebay as a bag of 100pcs.
not really clear picture and the auction only said they are panasonics with 470uF 35V new in bag.
(private seller who obviously didn't know much about the stuff he was selling (in general))

i just bought them cause i was buying other stuff from that seller and he had those up as an auction.. less than 10mins left, 1eur start price, no bid.. so why not?

got the bag today along with my other stuff, which was exactly what it's supposed to be. except those darn caps..
those are (according to the label on the bag) Panasonic TA 35V 470uF 12.5 x 20 caps. (EEUTA1V471)

i immediately noticed something odd about them without even looking up the datasheet.
their sleeve is black with white (instead of the usual silver) printing, completely missing the dark red datecode. another obvious sign is that they don't have the panny T-vent, but a simple X one..

the "electrolytic capacitor quick guide" lists panasonic TA (search in pdf for "EEUTA") as "125°C for automotive application" ... body black, marking *silver* ... hmmmmm
there are already 2 things not matching up. the ones i have are marked 105°C and have white printing. not silver.

the datasheet for TA lists them as 125°C too. another oddity is that on page 2, 35V 470uF 12.5 x 20 is listed as a minimum bag quantity of 200.. my bag has 100pcs..

the rubber bungs shown on page 1 also don't match.

oh what the hell.. a whole bag of 100 fake pannys?

http://bambooz.pytalhost.net/badcaps...onic_TA/01.jpg
http://bambooz.pytalhost.net/badcaps...onic_TA/02.jpg
http://bambooz.pytalhost.net/badcaps...onic_TA/03.jpg

now what?
at least i didnt pay much..

[retiredcaps]

Re: A bag of fakes. Or Not. or what?

I'm new to all the "series" of caps so I'm probably dead wrong about this, but I remember reading one post that sometimes manufacturers get OEMs to make "custom" caps with different markings, sleeves, etc?

For example, if GE makes a 10 million widgets and they need caps, GE might want their own custom cap from an OEM for cost savings or special engineering purposes?

Maybe you got one of these "custom" caps?

If you received 100, maybe unravel 1 to see if there is another smaller brand cap behind that like

http://www.instructables.com/files/d...IXT.MEDIUM.jpg

now what?

[japlytic]

Re: A bag of fakes. Or Not. or what?

These units are very likely to be fakes.
From what I have seen, Panasonic (previous Matsushita) electrolytic capacitor vents have a “T” (rounded horizontal line on “T”) vent for radial units; snap-in units have a cross-like “T” vent.

[c_hegge]

Re: A bag of fakes. Or Not. or what?

I agree with japlytic. The rubber seal on the bottom also looks wrong. Compare these two pics. The one on the left is one of my Panny FJ caps. The rubber seal on it is what I see on all genuine pannies 10mm and up in diameter, whether they be FJ, FC, FM or whatever. Your cap (right) looks different to it.