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, August 26, 2020

PCB-RE Preparation Checklist

There are things that often bear repetition. This is especially true if you are doing PCB reverse engineering which requires not just the skillset but also the supporting information and trade tools. As I mentioned in The Art of PCB-RE, there are four basic consideration when beginning a PCB-RE project:

1. Accessibility of the probe points
2. Bill of Materials
3. Conformal coating
4. Datasheets

I termed them the ABCD of PCB-RE preparation work which in a nutshell summarizes the key areas to help you decide whether to proceed or call off the attempt. Of course, as most readers would realize, there are more to the above involved in real-world PCB-RE practice. This is just the appetizer, not the main dish. Nevertheless, it is still an important serve.

Perhaps there are those who work best with a kind of standard checklist. Well, your wish is granted! I've just completed the chapter on preparation work for my upcoming book, Manual PCB-RE: The Essentials and included the following checklist:


I'm releasing it here for the benefit of my readers and hopefully it will be useful for your PCB-RE preparation work just as it did for me. It's free for personal use but if you intend to put it in your article or blog, please respect an author's copyright and either make mention of the source or include a link to this post.

Take care and stay safe, my readers.
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