Back in 2013 when I started out to write my first engineering book, The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering, while working part time, I had only one thing in mind—to document my own experience in this niche skillset which I've developed over the span of 15 years. After two years of grit and sweat, the book finally went online in all Amazon bookstores.
Little did I realize that it not only created a stir in the PCB-RE community because no one had ever attempted putting this much coveted topic into print, it launched me further into deep waters as readers prodded me on to give the PCB-RE subject a more thorough treatment. Of course, besides being delighted, I was painfully aware of my own inadequacy since my expertise lies mainly in the manual method, although I had limited exposure to semi-automated approach using the clip-and-learn equipment in my workplace, and explored with industrial equipment provider on the flying probe platform as a plausible alternative which, unfortunately did not materialize due to cost justification.
After few months of extensive research and intensive read-ups, I was convinced that if I were to have any success in writing a sequel book addressing other PCB-RE techniques, I would need the help of engineers with the relevant experience and knowledge. One of the first person I looked up was none other than Joe Grand aka 'Kingpin', the legendary hardware hacker of the Boston-based hacker group L0pht Heavy Industries who achieved mainstream popularity at the age of 33 after appearing on a Discovery Channel series Prototype This! In all honesty, I was just trying my luck but never in the world did I imagine that Joe not only responded to my email and request, but heartily endorsed the book in his own website! So two years after 'The Art' book was published, PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques was released with much anticipation, albeit without any fanfare. But it made big waves with the PCB-RE community, thanks to the many well-known contributors who supported my daring endeavor.
I would have easily called it a day after the dust settled over the initial excitement but somehow the nagging feeling that a third book—a trilogy, would be fitting to complete the PCB-RE reading experience, something of a practical nature to show those picking up this skillset how it's really done in the real-world. And so, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples came into being a year later.
With three PCB-RE books now available to any aspiring PCB-RE engineer wannabe, perhaps one question remains to be answered—which book should I start first? Well, I'll leave that to another post for now...
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