The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering: Tools & Techniques: September 2018

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

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Digital Zone

Been working on Chapter 3 of my trilogy book, and today I've just finished the 'digital zone' of the real-world PCB example. Here's a two-page sample:

The 'digital zone' covers address, data and control buses, common signals, communication drivers and receivers, jumpers, etc. Next, I'll be covering the 'transition zone'. As to what that is, I'll leave my readers to guess until I'm done with that section.

There's still a lot of grounds to cover so let's get going...

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Re-engineering Our Minds

Just received a complimentary copy of the book 'Think to Thrive' from the author Dr. Henry Toi himself, a personal friend of mine:

The subtitle 'Re-engineering your mind for growth' is interesting and insightful, coming from the pen of one who is a thinker as well as an educator. Somehow it struck me that just like reverse engineering PCBs, our minds too need to re-engineer not only to stay relevant and useful, but to attain the next level of excellence.

And that is something for us to THINK about, isn't it?

Interested readers can order a copy at the following online stores:

Kinokuniya
Times Bookstore

Monday, September 17, 2018

Trilogy - Chapter 3

Had started working on Chapter 3 of my trilogy book, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples. I'm into 21 pages and still counting. Here's a two-page sample of the partial schematic on the Control Logic card I'm using for my manual approach in PCB reverse engineering:

Hope to complete the chapter by end of this month. Then I will start to collate the works of the other contributors...

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