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

Sunday, February 4, 2018

New Series of Books?

I am still deliberating and hesitating whether to kick start a new series of books that detailed my experience and knowledge in automatic test equipment (ATE). I have been trained in various kinds of ATEs in the 30 years of my engineering careers, from my time with the air force to working in a home-grown defense industry.

Of the many test equipment that I've worked on, there were four that really stood out which I wanted to write about: the RADCOM WSTS (AN/USM-467), Schlumberger's Factron S700-series, the Teradyne Spectrum 885x and the WesTest DATS/2000. These are interesting ATEs that served their era in the electronic testing industry and each has its unique strength and technology to learn from.

To give you an idea, I have created the cover page for the RADCOM WSTS out of inspiration as the first in the series to write (if I decide to write, that is):


I know there are many ex-US Navy technicians as well as those from countries with the E2C aircrafts who had worked on this amazing piece of test equipment. They would probably be delighted to get a copy of this book (if it is published) and relive the good times and memories they had as they read the technical biography of a familiar old friend.

The question is: will there be enough interests to warrant my time and commitment to write it?

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