some people still selling clones of my chips

[CW325]

I'm not trying to be a dick but why do they cost so much? Honest question.

[nando]

I'm not trying to be a dick but why do they cost so much? Honest question.

R&d. Also, $200 is nothing, but we are talking about broke baggypants / hipster kids here. :p

[Threehz]

200$ for an approximate increase of about 15hp and 15lbft of torque or more? (correct me if I'm wrong but I remember dyno'd before and after results being an increase of more than 15 for both hp and torque)

That alone is a good deal, not to mention R&D as nando said and everything else.

[FunfGan]

One of the recent chips that was sold, then turned out to be fake was mine. Wish I could track down who actually installed it.

[noid]

I'm not trying to be a dick but why do they cost so much? Honest question.

Mix between charging what people will pay and having future incentive to create more great products. I fully support buying authentic product, counterfeiting discourages further R&D.

This problem seems to plague all the major chip producers, mainly because it is so easy to copy, and a chip costs under $10.

Is there no way to encrypt these?

[der affe]

Mark, for the benefit of the people on the forum, you should (without risking giving away every detail so they could be copied exactly), give everyone some pointers on how to spot a FAKE markd chip.

I am sure there are people who have unwittingly sold what they thought were real chips.
just like you were questioning one in a for sale thread recently.

Just a thought........

[F34R]

I hate fake "chips" too, you know the fake cheese doodles? They look like them but taste like over cooked bland packing peanuts. I support this cause of not buying the fake "chips".

[agent]

Is there no way to encrypt these?

In a modern car I'd imagine so, though a smartphone of today has exponentially more processing power than an E30 (of more than two decades ago).

[Vivek]

Does a fake chip operate the same?

We'll find out. But there is a difference between an ebay chip and a MarkD copy. The ebay one may be a MarkD copy, or it may not. A MarkD chip, properly copied onto another chip, should work exactly the same.

[MR 325]

It's as simple as using a non copy-able chip, they exist.

[MarkD]

I just bought on of your chips used, from another forum member. How can I tell of it's a legit MarkD chip or not?

Send me a photograph, or post it here.

The interesting thing about some chips that are fake is that they are not even exact copies. Because the cloner used a cheap programmer and didn't even check to make sure that it was copied correctly, I've seen quite a few cases where the chip was not programmed properly. And in a few other cases, someone has tweaked my chip even further, but not in a good way.

[MarkD]

It's as simple as using a non copy-able chip, they exist.

Yes it exists but adds about $50 to the cost of the chip. But I am considering it. I also designed something very similar to the WAR chip (I actually had the idea over 5 years ago) but haven't put it on the market yet because I've had to do contract work for other companies for the last 5 years, and not focus so much on new chip development and upgrades.

[whodwho]

Yes it exists but adds about $50 to the cost of the chip. But I am considering it. I also designed something very similar to the WAR chip (I actually had the idea over 5 years ago) but haven't put it on the market yet because I've had to do contract work for other companies for the last 5 years, and not focus so much on new chip development and upgrades.

I don't think People will know the difference and with some fake label on it people will still fall for it like they do now. I think you need to make a label that is not as easy to copy like some hologram effect label. ;)

[8380 Labs]

I'm not trying to be a dick but why do they cost so much? Honest question.

if you were asking an honest question, you might phrase it "can you explain the process involved in setting your prices?"

but the way you put it is like saying, "no offense, but why is your girlfriend so ugly?"

;)

[ForcedFirebird]

That's too bad. We had someone steal our GM .bin file, but they also were using a cheap burner and they were having problems.

Can't stand .bin pirates.