The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering: Tools & Techniques: March 2022

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, March 18, 2022

Analog Circuits

Now that I've completed the section on deciphering digital circuits, it's time to move on to something more interesting and different——analog circuits. As you would probably know by now, my style of writing is geared towards engaging the readers so I tend to use metaphors here and there to bring out certain concepts for better clarification or understanding. Here's the introduction to the next section of my book:

If you'd notice, even the choice of fonts is intentional to intrigue my readers. After all, it's about deciphering, get it? I'm a perfectionist and I'll spare no effort in making sure that each book I write bears the mark of my craftsmanship, which is why I'd painstakingly draw (and redraw) my illustrations in Visio for the best picture quality possible.

For the amount of time and effort put in, it should be worth every cent readers paid for my books. All I ask is for those who believe in rewarding hard work to support authors like me with honest purchase——not shortchange or steal my months of sweat and toil. Someone once said:

If it costs you peace of mind and your conscience, the price is too high.

So do yourself a favor by doing what is right.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Update on Chapter 4

I've completed Chapter 4 of the book Deciphering Schematics. Besides going through a 3-page MCU-based schematic diagram, I've added a bonus section that showcase a CPLD circuit:

Now, I need to make it clear that I'm teaching readers how to decipher a circuit. It is beyond the scope of this book to teach CPLD programming, so don't expect any lesson on hardware description language or how to program FPGAs. There are plenty of resources available online that readers can easily find and learn from, whether in written form or video tutorial.

Nonetheless, I do make recommendations every now and then on useful resources that are related to the topics I'm illustrating or discussing. Hopefully, that will supplement what this book does not cover and allow interested readers to pursue further on the subjects at hand.

That's all for this short update.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Out of the Woods, Finally...

Since contracted the Omicron variant two weeks ago, we were basically out of action for one week due to symptoms of fever, cough, and muscle aches for myself. One week into recovery, we did another ART as instructed in the protocol. My wife came up negative but I was still positive, albeit the T line was much fainter:

Today, after 14 days and feeling much better without any more symptom, I did an ART after breakfast. This time I am finally cleared and good to go:

While the Omicron symptoms are considered 'mild' compared to the Delta variant, it still feels terrible once you are down with it. Having to struggle with body fatigue while working on my book is certainly no small feat. The physical discomfort does affect the mental capacity.

Thankfully with this episode behind me, I hope to catch up on lost time.

Pages