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, September 21, 2021

A Blast from the Past

How time flies! It's been 35 years since my first overseas training at Grumman Aerospace Corporation (GAC) in Long Island, New York. I was part of the pioneer team responsible for bay repair of the now decommissioned E-2C early-warning surveillance aircraft. During the six month stint there, I was introduced to the concept of automated test equipment (ATE), learning how to operate and maintain two sophisticated test equipment designed by GAC (now Northrop-Grumman) to service the avionics of four E-2Cs purchased by the RSAF.

Posting for photo shoot with the CAT-IIID with the ATE team's instructors, Kevin Campbell (left) and Frank Lockwood, Jr. Wonder if they're still around...

And here is the coveted certificate:

Well, I didn't display it at my work desk in my previous company of 25 years, and now that I'm into full-time writing, it is locked away in a cabinet along with the rest of my other ATE certifications. I had dreamed of putting my knowledge on these machine marvels into four volumes, but now it seems that will only remain a dream and I will take all that I've learned to my grave...

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