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

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Trilogy Controversy (Part 3)

The rocky mountains of Colorado are not only a majestic sight to behold, situated in the midst of this scenic setting is the office of a remarkable company that has as its mission to help other companies manage the precious resources of our planet by means of PCB-RE. If you haven't guess it, ScanCAD International is what I'm talking about.

I had not the faintest idea what I was getting myself into when I posted my request via the company's online portal, without any particular expectation that it would get read or answered. Just one day after ScanCAD auto acknowledgement of my request, I received a courtesy email from Jeff Rupert, the director of sales and business development of the company. Wow... did I strike gold or what...? I went into overdrive and wrote a reply with a more formal and detailed introduction of myself and the sequel book I was writing, indicating the areas of interest for the PCB-RE subject.

Jeff, as I began to call him, became interested and got his CEO, Bill Loving, into the picture. Before the dust settled, I was already corresponding with these two heavy weights of the company that has a long history in the PCB-RE practice, with businesses spanning 1000 companies in 48 countries. That's pretty mind boggling to say the least.

Incredibly, Jeff took on the challenge to write the chapter dedicated to ScanCAD's diverse approaches with Bill overseeing the progress. There were discussions back and forth as we exchanged ideas and views on the content and presentation. When the first draft was done, Bill roped in his team of staff to do a thorough proofreading, listing out grammatical and typos so meticulously and stringently you'd thought we were doing audit on a major contractual document! When we were finally done and satisfied, the chapter had not only become the largest in the book but also the most informative on their product ever assembled. It's a win-win situation which both parties could walk away with a great sense of satisfaction.

As usual, I included Bill and Jeff's bios to give them credit with acknowledgement to their staff as well for doing a fantastic job. At my request, they submitted the following portfolio photos:


In appreciation for their tremendous contribution to my sequel book, I produced a ScanCAD edition featuring their chapter as a promotional material which they are free to reproduce and distribute to customers and at international exhibitions.

Bill was kind enough to pen the Foreword to both books and even bulk ordered my books as additional giveaway gifts and bonuses. What set out as a humble request from an obscured author ended up as a windfall that rekindled my passion in writing and confidence in knowing there are people who not only believed in what I do but went further to support my works. I felt deeply indebted to these wonderful people who made writing the book worth every bit of toil and sweat.

And if I may add, they ARE the motivational force behind my writing the trilogy book...

(To be continued)
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