Ak2i carts from nds-card, are they hw:44 or hw:81?

So if they are clones does that mean they do not support AKAIO 1.9.0?
Can anyone who bought from nds-card.com confirm if they are clones or not and what AKAIO version they are?

 

I bought one about a week ago, and while I have no idea if it is a clone or not, it is compatible with the latest AKAIO, and works perfectly.

 

Based on the article about fake ak2i do you have rough edges in the front panel? (like here and here)
Also what about the pins in the back panel? (see here)

this Link can help too, near the end of the page you can see pictures of clones

Thank you

 

While the sticker looks like a fake one, the cart itself, judging by the pins and the edges, seems to be authentic.
Here are pictures of the cart I got:

Spoiler: Pics:tm:

 

I can confirm this is a real card. Mine looks the same, identifies as HW:81, and can be flashed using the official acekard bootrom flashing tool. Yes, the sticker looks fake, but everything else about the card is real

 

I am positive the picture of the fake one in the other post is actually the real one. It is reversed. I have two I bought when O3DS had FW 2.0 (Chessmaster FW) and I checked with the code from the back on their site and I got real cards back then. My both original cards have the letter a open.

Go here: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/AKAIO

 

Man I miss my acekard. Stupid friend never returned it.

 

On the left: Acekard 2i purchased 6 years ago, before Acekard's website vanished.
On the right: Acekard 2i purchased from nds-card, arrived today.



Both are HWID 81 and work with the latest AKAIO. I even downgraded the bootloader in the new one without any issue.

Acekard the company might have vanished, but either nds-card has a stash of leftovers or someone is still making them - or a good enough clone to function exactly like the original. It even has an anti-counterfeit sticker on the back, not that it is useful at all given that the website has been offline for many years now.

 

From what I can tell the clone carts are essentially perfect replicas hardware-wise. So getting a clone at this point will be essentially getting the same thing. Any website saying the clone cards don't work the same are years old, created back when acekard was still actually producing carts.