Counterfeit Alps or dreadful moulds? (Focus FK-2001)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I came across these photos last night:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=20740.0

It's a Focus FK-2001 with either:

a) counterfeit Alps complicated white switches (which we know Focus were producing), or
b) unbelievably dreadful moulds

Since we cannot see the internals (which would answer the question immediately), my question is this:

Would Focus be bold enough to actually have someone counterfeit switches right down to the Alps logo?

We know they counterfeited the older unbranded blue Alps switches — they look real on the outside, but they have Hua-Jie–style internals, and they even had to make a little jig to get this mash-up to not short circuit.

With these, the Alps logo is terribly distorted, some of the numbering was written by spiders, and the distinctive circular recesses around the numbers is completely missing (which they copied perfectly at another point).

My feeling is that these are in fact counterfeit.

[calavera]

How can you tell they're fake?

[002]

He didn't assert that they're fake. He just has a feeling that they are.
They do look pretty shonky, especially the last image in the original post - the gap in the letter 'P' and the thin left wall on the 'A' - it looks terrible. Anyway hopefully the person who bought it could crack it open for a look.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

How can you tell they're fake?

I've already said, but:

• Mould numbering on some switches is over-size and hand scrawled
• Mould numbering should be in circular recesses, which are missing
• Alps logo on one is too thick, with gaps in it
• Alps logo on some of the others is distorted across its width
• The shell design looks more like Omron than Alps

They have made better fakes: Alps.tw type OA1 shell is a perfect blue Alps replica on the outside (the moulding is spot on), but open it up, and the shell has all the recesses required to hold simplified clone contact plates.

Simplified Type III is also fake — these have the circular recesses where the numbering should go, but no numbers. However, the shell is a direct copy, so there's nothing to hold the contact plates apart. A small jig is put into each switch instead; I'll post Sandy's better photos of this at some point.

These two fakes give me precedence to believe that Focus really had the Alps logo counterfeited.

I can't prove it without checking the internals of the switch, as existing evidence suggests that this would still be a simplified switch inside.