To My Readers



If this is the first time you're visiting my blog, thank you. Whether you're interested or just curious to find out about PCB reverse engineering (PCB-RE), I hope you'll find something useful here.

This blog contains many snippets of the content in my books to provide a more detailed overall sampling for my would-be readers to be better informed before making the purchase. Of course, the book contains more photos and nice illustrations, as evidence from its cover page. Hopefully, this online trailer version will whet your appetite enough to want to get a copy for yourself.

Top Review

I started doing component level repair of electronics with (and without) schematics more than 40 years ago, which activity often involves reverse-engineering of printed circuit boards. Although over the years my technical interests have shifted into particle beam instrumentation, electron microscopy, and focused ion beam technology fields, till this day——and more often than not——PCB repairs have returned multiple multi-million-dollar accelerators, FIB, and SEM instruments back to operation, delivering great satisfaction and some profit.

Many of the methods described by Keng Tiong in great details are similar to the approaches I've developed, but some of the techniques are different, and as effective and useful as efficient and practical. Systematic approach and collection of useful information presented in his books are not only invaluable for a novice approaching PCB-level reverse engineering, but also very interesting reading and hands-on reference for professionals.

Focus on reverse engineering instead of original design provides unique perspective into workings of electronics, and in my opinion books by Keng Tiong (I've got all three of them) are must-read for anybody trying to develop good understanding of electronics——together with writings by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, Phil Hobbs, Jim Williams, Bob Pease, Howard Johnson and Martin Graham, Sam Goldwasser, and other world's top electronics experts.

Valery Ray
Particle Beam Systems Technologist

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Some Personal Background

I was introduced to Electronics at the age of 15 in my higher secondary school days. I was one of those fortunate batches of students—in fact, the last in-take to study basic electricity and electronics in the school's curriculum in 1978.

Electronics was totally new to me, and I had problem understanding some of the basic concepts back then. It might surprise you that I had trouble figuring out the milli-, micro-, nano-, Kilo- and Mega- prefixes in Ohm's Law, struggling with corrections and re-corrections in my class assignments I almost gave up the subject for fear and frustration. Thankfully the light bulb turned on in me after a harrowing first semester, and from then on there was no looking back as I went on to do well for my final exams and did my major in Electronics and Communication for my tertiary education.

Due to family financial difficulties, I signed up with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) after my graduation as an aircraft radar and communications (RC) technician. I did well in the Air Engineering Training Institute (AETI) and was selected for the E-2C Hawkeye program. In May of 1986, I attended a six-month training at the Grumman Aerospace Corporation's premise in Long Island, New York. There for the first time, I was introduced to the concept of automated test systems (ATS) as I learned how to operate and maintain the CAT-IIID and RADCOM test stations, and used these awesome equipment to perform test diagnostics on 75% of the E-2C's sophisticated avionics (radar, communications, navigation, displays, power supplies, etc.)

My invaluable experience as one of the pioneers in setting up the E-2C squadron's third-line repair bay and running the daily maintenance operation, as well as training three batches of local technicians, laid a solid foundation for my engineering career in electronics, so much so that I was head-hunted and invited to join Singapore Technologies (ST) Electronics Limited, a subsidiary of Singapore's home-grown defense industry, ST Engineering Limited, right after my first contract with the RSAF expired. I've been with the company since for over 23 years and now a Principal Engineer by title.

Learning is a life-long process. The same is true in electronics and in the field of test engineering, which is still my primary job scope and interest. I've worked on a variety of printed circuit boards (PCBs) from through-holes using the humble TTL logic circuits, to the high-density surface-mount type multi-layered boards containing complex VLSI, FPGA and ASIC BGA chips. The rate at which integrated circuits grow in complexity and density is staggering, especially in the last decade or so.

In this book, I will share what I've learned in my years of working on PCBs with no schematic diagrams, my approach of assessing a PCB, analyzing and reconstructing its electrical connectivity, the tools and methods I employed, useful tips to take note, as well as pitfalls to avoid. Sprinkled in the footnotes you will find some interesting anecdotes and personal takes to keep the subject of this book light-hearted and (hopefully) engaging.
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