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

Friday, March 31, 2017

Datasheets

We now come to the last part of the basic preparation work—collecting component datasheets. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having the necessary information ready on hand as you work on the PCB. There is nothing more frustrating than getting stuck with a component and not knowing its pin-outs or functions to meaningfully relate its role to that part of the circuit it is located at. Doing PCB reverse engineering is more than just blindly tracing out the inter-connectivity of the components on a PCB, it is the ability to make sense of the board's topology and organize the various pieces of the puzzle as they form, and finally to recreate the schematic diagram as close to the original design, and as usable (and readable) as possible.


In this respect, component datasheets serve a number of purposes:

*  In terms of PCB layout, provide the physical dimensions of the package so you can:
    a. Create the layout symbol if it's not found in the Visio stencils,
    b. Accurately represent the component to scale on the layout diagram.

*  In terms of the PCB schematic:
    a. Provide the component pin-outs to help you determine possible connecting points, and whether
        the traced out paths are logical and correct,
    b. Provide the truth-table functions or signal properties (input, output, bidirectional, etc.) should
        the pin-outs are not obvious or self-explanatory in themselves,
    c. Provide design application notes that give hints on how the component can be used in relation
        to other components.
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