PCB Repair

A friend of mine who is in the PCB repair industry, representing ABI Electronics as a field support engineer to train customers on how to use their range of test and troubleshooting products, wrote the following post on his LinkedIn account:

Thought I'd join in the fun and share my two cents' worth:

The term PCB repair is more involved than just testing component or diagnosing faults. From my 30 years experience in this endeavor, I learned that you need to acquire the following skills of the trade:

1.  Conformal removal and reapplication
2.  Board and component test
3.  Fault diagnostic and troubleshooting
4.  Schematic analysis (if available)
5.  Partial or full PCB reversing (if unavailable)*
6.  Soldering and rework
7.  Component identification and handling

The fifth point is necessary if the board is burnt or suffered physical damage that impacted its electrical integrity. PCB-RE is especially useful in the absence of schematic diagrams.

Trilogy on Show at CMTS

It's not often that an obscure writer gets his book mentioned at a large technology show, but that's what happened to my trilogy book, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples. The CMTS is Canada's national stage for manufacturing technologies, best practices and industry connections, and the ENA President Mr Gabe Del Bello was invited to speak on the topic of PCB Reverse Engineering. Now that's cool!

In the very first slide, he showcased my book and encouraged those interested in this niche topic to get a copy and find out for themselves what PCB-RE entails. You can click on the snapshot below to go to YouTube and hear his presentation.

Mr Gabe's endorsement can be found at the 5:40 mark.

For those who already have some basic understanding regarding PCB-RE, this IS the best book to get a feel of what real-world practices is really like. To preview its content, click on the book cover at the right of this blog to go to Amazon store.

Ps: Thanks to Marc Hickling for notifying me about this presentation. He's one of the contributors in the trilogy book, and in the chapter attributed to his work he gives a glimpse of ENA Electronics Inc. PCB-RE business process and showcase several examples of successful projects involving obsolete PCBs. As what Mr Gabe would say, "We support the unsupportable."

Coming in Third

I don't usually bother about how my blog fairs compared to the other well-known and better branded ones. Occasionally, though, I would take a glimpse just to have a feel if what I posted is receiving good readership. Here's the standing from blog.feedspot.com:

Out of the top 25 PCB-related blogs and websites, mine came in third. Now, that's kinda reassuring indeed!

No CAN Do!

I have a friend who gets exasperated whenever someone talks to him in American slang. One of the issues he had was figuring out if the other party is in the affirmative or not whenever he asked, "Can you do this for me?" There's a subtle nuance that differentiates between "I can" and "I can't" that's hard for him to detect due to his hearing, he'd follow with another question, "So can you, or can you not?" just to be sure.

Given a choice, I suspect my friend would prefer a "No can do" over "I can't" for a reply. I think the phrasing is meant to imply simplified English, as if speaking to a non-native speaker. The proper usage should be "No, can't do" but people just got lazy and omit the 't' sound altogether. Then again, the other party may be implying, "It might be possible, but I'm not willing to try." So it's anybody's guess. 

Thankfully, the CAN bus has its own way of arbitration for devices sharing just two common data lines:

After so many years, I wonder if that friend has gotten over this matter. Should I bump into him one day, I may just suggest to him to read up the CAN protocol and see if that helps.

CAN do? You betcha!

Happy 2022

2021 has been a challenging yet enriching year for me. I hope it had been the same for you. As we enter into 2022, let's make it a better year not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones, friends and even those who may cross our paths.

Wishing all my readers a safe, healthy and happy 2022!

Oh, by the way 2022 sounds like "2020 too"... but don't worry about it, I'm sure we'll all do just fine if we keep our heads high and put our hearts where it should be, in the right place and for the right reasons. We should be OK then (grin!).