Safety · Authenticity

Warning: counterfeit PEAK-System products

Warning about counterfeit PCAN-USB interfaces

Copies of our hardware products are in circulation, especially in Asia. They have CAN communication errors that can damage your systems, and they come with no support. Learn how to identify fakes and where to buy genuine products.

Counterfeits of our hardware products are increasingly being offered in the Asian region, especially in China and Taiwan. This concerns in particular the much sold PC-CAN interface PCAN-USB.

Warning

We have verified that the counterfeit products have errors in CAN communication and operation that can cause significant damage to your CAN based systems. You won't receive any support by PEAK-System nor by our distributors when using a counterfeit product.

Recognizing Counterfeit Products

In general, many counterfeits use a casing with different characteristics in comparison to the genuine product. The genuine casing of the PCAN-USB (IPEH-002021, IPEH-002022) is light gray and has two sections with four inclined corrugations each. Furthermore, the bottom side of the plastic casing has a relief of the PEAK-System logo as direct part of the casing.

NOTE: Sellers of counterfeits may use the stolen original pictures from our website that don't show the imitated products.

Here are cases documented by PEAK-System in February 2021 and October 2023: online sales listings reusing our part numbers and our images, and photos of counterfeit casings. Click an image to enlarge it.

Taobao listing for a "USBCAN-Pro" claiming our IPEH-002021/002022 part numbers — *Figure 1 — Taobao listing for a "USBCAN-Pro" sold at ¥450-480, presented as compatible with PCAN-View and PCAN-Explorer and referenced under our IPEH-002021/002022 part numbers (February 2021).*

Listing for a "VCAN-USB" presented as a replacement for the PCAN-USB IPEH-002022 — *Figure 2 — Listing for a VECLL-branded "VCAN-USB", sold at ¥1,198 as a "replacement" for the PEAK PCAN-USB IPEH-002022 interface (February 2021).*

Figure 3 — Taobao listing offering white casings bearing our logo from ¥469 to ¥2,800, sold as "PCAN IPEH-002022" and "PCAN pro" (February 2021).

"RCAN-USB" image titled "PCAN-USB" and claimed compatible with IPEH-002021/002022 — *Figure 4 — Marketing image for a RoyalCAN-branded "RCAN-USB", titled "PCAN-USB" and advertised as "perfectly compatible with IPEH-002021/002022" (February 2021).*

Figure 5 — Montage of counterfeits found in 2023: casings reusing the PEAK-System logo, "RCAN-USB", "USBCAN-Pro" and "ECAN" presented as replacements for our interfaces (October 2023).

"PCAN 2 / SysMax" casing imitating our color scheme and our red square — *Figure 6 — White casing marked "PCAN 2" and "SysMax", imitating our color scheme and our red square: neither the name nor the logo is that of PEAK-System (October 2023).*

Figure 7 — Black casing screen-printed “PCAN-USB Pro” and “USB to CAN-FD/LIN Interface”: it copies the form factor and the name of our PCAN-USB Pro FD, but bears no PEAK-System logo (October 2023).

*Figure 8 — "USBCAN-FD II" casing, a third-party product sold as an equivalent to our CAN FD interfaces (October 2023).*

Supposedly Compatible Products

There are companies like Nanjing LIKE electronics technology Co., Ltd claiming to offer products that are supposedly compatible to PEAK-System products. This is not true: our drivers, software, and APIs are designed to work only with our hardware products.

The device drivers, API interface DLLs, and software files are property of the PEAK-System Technik GmbH. It is illegal to use them with a third-party hardware, even if it should be compatible. This is documented in the EULA or license text of the driver, software, or APIs, which must be accepted during the installation of the drivers or software as well as when using the APIs.

Nanjing LIKE page presenting the LCUSB-131A as compatible with PCAN-USB

Figure 9 — Nanjing LIKE electronics page presenting the "LCUSB-131A" as "perfectly compatible" with the PCAN-USB IPEH-002021/002022, and claiming the use of PCAN-View, our drivers and PCAN-Basic.

NOTE: Using our drivers, software, or APIs illegally with third-party hardware can lead to damage of your computer and your entire CAN-based system. In that case you cannot expect any support from PEAK-System or our partners.

Purchasing Genuine Products

In France, PEAK-System France is the official distributor of the PEAK-System, Ixxat and Owasys product lines. All hardware ordered on this site is genuine, warranted and supported by our teams.

View the catalog Contact us

We have official distributors of our products all over the world. For the two regions mentioned above those are:

China: Hongke Co., Ltd (Counterfeit notice)
Taiwan: Microport Computer Electronics Inc. (Counterfeit notice)

These are the only distributors for those regions that are authorized by PEAK-System. The full list of our distributors is available on the group's dedicated web page.

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