The Final Lap...

As those following my blog would have already know that I am writing the final chapter on FPT-RE, reverse engineering (RE) using the flying probe tester (FPT). Like I said, I would love to have an industry expert write the chapter and guide the readers through the steps, using his machine of choice and sharing his valuable experience. As it is, things did not turn out the way I wanted; instead I had to take on this unenviable task, just so that my book will progress to see the light of day, albeit delayed by almost two months because of this unfortunate incident.

Well, I'm happy to say that I'm almost done with the chapter, and into the final lap of the FPT-RE process. As usual, here's a two-page sample:

I should be able to wrap up the chapter in a day or two, and then it's sending a proof copy to the Editor-in-Chief of EDN Magazine for his review and hopefully, pen the Foreword if he thinks the book befits his time to write it.

ATX Power Surprise!

Finally gotten the ATX power supply schematic redrawn and corrected all the reference designation errors:

Since it is done with Microsoft Visio, the drawing will look much better in print, better than what you see here with its limited display resolution. Can you identify the main components of the ATX power supply? The answer is also provided in the one-page scaled-down version following this two-page spanning schematic.

Now back to working on the FPT chapter...

A Good Distraction...

While working on the FPT chapter, I got a nagging feeling that I missed out something in the power supply section of Chapter 3. As it turned out, I forgot to include the topology diagrams for the linear types and went ahead to create and include them. And since I'm at it, I thought I might as well throw in some additional stuff——an ATX power supply as a PCB-RE example.

Here's a two-page sample:

In my search for a schematic diagram that best illustrates the SMPS design aspect for an ATX model, I found one that suits my expectation in terms of layout design——except that there are a number of errors in the component designations. I decided if I want it to look good in the book, I might as well redo and clean up the drawing myself.

Will revert back to writing the FPT chapter when I'm done with this task.

ScanCAD Edition

As mentioned in my previous post, I've come up with an interim edition for ScanCAD International Inc. while writing the chapters for the full version of the book. This special edition is now in the final works and will be delivered to ScanCAD in 1-2 weeks time. Below is a 2-page sample:

It gives a rough evaluation of the chances of doing PCB-RE using different approaches for a medium complex 4-layer board. Besides the table and charts, there's also further explanations given for the FPT, X-ray and delayering techniques (not shown). As a bonus, I have included a rare interview with the CEO of ScanCAD on his views about PCB-RE too!

Their next stop will be at Productronica 2017 in Munich, Germany on November 14-17. Interested readers in Europe who are going to this exhibition, do keep a look out for ScanCAD's booth...

One More Chapter to Go...

I'm happy to announce that the JTAG chapter is finally completed! Here is a two-page sample of the 22 pages worth of interesting and informative work I've done.

Will take a short break and then start work with the Flying Probe Test (FPT) chapter. Hopefully, I can get the first draft of the book ready for review by end October...