> So what’s going on with the cheap parts? My best guess is that these are either quite good copies, or failed parts that somehow made their way into the hobbyist supply chain.
The vast majority of counterfeit chips I've seen were from ghost shifts but IIRC TI fabs all their analog parts in house, I doubt they're ghost shift parts or failed QC.
Author here. I did consider this, as others have reported getting ADS1015 marked as ADS1115. If it were an ADS1015 the readout would be truncated at 12 bits. These parts definitely delivered 16 bits of readout.
The vast majority of counterfeit chips I've seen were from ghost shifts but IIRC TI fabs all their analog parts in house, I doubt they're ghost shift parts or failed QC.
I think its probably a relabeled ADS1015.