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

Friday, December 6, 2019

Deciphering Components

Except for ICs and components with large surface areas which permit printing of part numbers most surface mount devices use some form of cryptic coding system to indicate their identities or values. Some basic components like resistors, resistor networks, and capacitors may also contain long strings of alphanumeric characters that require their manufacturers' references to make sense of their package and content. Take for example the two types of through-hole resistor coding:


The pair on the left uses color coding, with four and five bands of color for the top and bottom resistors, respectively. The pair on the right shows the same value in alphanumeric notation wrapped around the resistor's body. Resistor color and numerical codes are necessary for deciphering both color and alphanumeric codes found on resistors and capacitors.

Surface-mounted devices, passive and active, are becoming common place these days so it's good to keep a copy of SMD codebook at hand for easy reference and be familiar with their outlines and packaging.

Exercise: Can you identify and decipher the components on a PCB shown below?


According to their layout:

Chip Capacitor, Tantalum                                                  Chip Resistor, size 0603
1uF 35V                                                                             10 Ohms

Diode, case SOD-80               Low-Capacitance               NPN Transistor, SOT-323
Switching                                Diode Array (5V)                 BFR92AW

Chip Resistor, size 0805
4.64K                                                                                 Chip Capacitor, unknown

Chip Capacitor, unknown

How many did you manage to get right?


Ps: If you have purchased The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering, you are entitled to get a copy of the SMD Code Reference Book (500+ pages) and other goodies.

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