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, November 23, 2019

Old but not Obsolete

Good things never die, even if they grow old. The same can be said about software, one in particular which I've fondly remembered since my early engineering days...

You might not believe me if I tell you that there's a community of PCB designers who're die-hard DOSbased OrCAD fans. For readers who've worked with the DOS version of OrCAD products, it may come as a pleasant surprise that these EDA tools, which used to cost from between $495-$1,995 individually or $3,995 for a complete suite, are now available for download complete with user and reference manuals. You'll need to register as a member first—subject to approval by the moderators of the group, though.

OrCAD ESP
OrCAD SDT
OrCAD VST
OrCAD PCB

The last DOS version is the OrCAD ESP 4.40 release which comprises the following modules:
  • SDT 386+ 1.21 Schematic Design Tool
  • VST 386+ 1.20 Verification & Simulation Tool
  • PCB 386+ 2.22 PCB Layout Tool
  • PLD 386+ 2.01 Programmable Logic Design Tool
  • MOD 386+ 4.04 PLD Modeling Tool

I've worked extensively with the SDT 3.21 in my early engineering days from 1990-1995, mainly to draft schematics as well as flowcharts and 2D mechanical drawings for my test program set documents. To the hardware engineers in my company's engineering design department, this humble piece of software was just a toy compared to their powerhouse EDA suite from Mentor Graphics running on Sun's top-end graphical workstations. Perhaps, but then again there are many products out in the market which were designed and produced using OrCAD too.

So how do we run these legacy DOS software from within modern operating systems that are now the dominant landscape of most PCs today? The answer: Virtual PC or DOS emulator. And there are many flavors to choose from—Microsoft's Virtual PC, Oracle VM's VirtualBox, VMware Player, the open source DOSBox, etc. Most of these x86 machine emulators are free and they support and run different OSes such as Linux, Windows, OS/2, BeOS, and even the Mac OS X.220 I've installed and run Microsoft's Virtual PC and DOSBox with some of my favorite software of by-gone era just to re-live the good old nostalgic DOS days.

For more details and links to these resources, get a copy of The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering. The full-color and standard editions are similar in content, except the color edition costs slightly higher but hey, you get to see the illustrations and photos in their full glory!
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7 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 27, 2022 at 8:12 AM

    You write that DOS OrCAD and support documents are available for download. Can you tell me where? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ng Keng TiongJanuary 27, 2022 at 10:59 AM

      You can find it here:

      https://groups.io/g/dosOrCAD

      Delete
  2. Carlos AlbertoOctober 24, 2022 at 10:41 PM

    hello, I have ups plans in orcad/sdt III Draft v3.21 and I want to print them with an ink printer, so I need to convert them to a current orcad, how do I do it, thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ng Keng TiongOctober 25, 2022 at 10:28 AM

      Join the dosOrCAD group above and post your question there to get the assistance you need.

      Delete
  3. DarioGJanuary 11, 2023 at 2:15 AM

    Hi, do you know a method to export Gerber files from an Orcad DOS Layout from 1992-3?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ng Keng TiongJanuary 11, 2023 at 9:49 AM

      Join the dosOrCAD group above and post your question there to get the assistance you need.

      Delete
    2. DarioGJanuary 15, 2023 at 3:45 AM

      Yup, after many years and a wasted attempt by Cadence, I was able to get my Gerber files in the end!
      thanks

      Delete

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