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

Monday, June 27, 2022

Analog Sentimentality

Writing an engineering book is not all about technicality on the subject matter. Sometimes, a little sentiment can come in handy to give an otherwise intellectually stimulating topic an emotional dimension. Readers may not know it yet, but I think it's about time I reveal the person I'm dedicating Deciphering Schematics to——my mother.

Neighbors knew her as a dedicated homemaker, but she is more than that (at least to me). All her life (she's nearly 80) she abides by the principle of integrity, despite a hard life in her early to middle years. In fact, some relatives took advantage of this and swindled all her limited dowry, leaving only a pair of bangles which she passed to my wife on our wedding. But instead of being bitter, she became stronger in her character and conviction. And I'm proud to say that she has taught me well by her own example.

So here it is:

To my mother——a woman who, despite her lowly education, taught me the value of integrity that shaped my character and attitude. This book is dedicated to her for showing me how to decipher the myriad of choices in life and to discover my true passion in the world of electronics.

Sometime back, the Philips CD Sound Machine I bought her stopped working. I took it back to see if it could be fixed, then realized that some electronic parts have died. But I did not throw it away and get her a new one because it has sentimental values. After some thought, I decided it would be a good idea to immortalize this sentimentality by including it as an extra teaching material in my book.

Here is a two-page sample:

Things don't last forever, but memories do, at least for a lifetime.

 

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