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

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Some Statistics

This blog began in February of 2017. Less than four years into its run, it has garnered over 24,000 views by readers from 117 countries worldwide. That's exactly 60% of the countries in the world based on the 195 figure given by Wikipedia. Of these countries, the top 10 have over 100 readers and the leader, which is US, has over 1000.




It would be nice to have more engineers interested in this niche topic visiting and finding information that will help them in their PCB-RE journey. This can only happen if current readers help spread the word in electronic forums and social media to create greater awareness.

With the current CoVid-19 situation and many staying and working from home, perhaps it's a good way to spend time reading up on this subject and preparing yourself with a new skillset that will prove invaluable to your career when the lockdown or restriction is finally lifted.

Think about it and invest your time wisely, my friends.

No comments:

Post a Comment