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, October 28, 2022

Hallå Sweden!

Following Poland, there is now readers from Sweden who bought my first (The Art of PCB-RE) and latest  (Deciphering Schematics) books:

There is one more country left: the Netherlands.

It would be nice to hear reviews from readers of these countries too. These days, however, book reviews are few and far in between. Maybe because of the nature of this topic, many engineers are not willing to be in the limelight. As one early reader remarked:

Reverse engineering PCB's is to electronic circuit boards what hacking is to computer software...something people do, but no one admits to doing it, LOL.

 

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Email from the UK

Well, it's been quite a while since I received emails from my readers. This morning I was notified of an incoming and was pleasantly surprised that it came from the UK:

I recently purchased two of your books. I am enjoying the books very much and am learning some new tricks. Thank you for your dedication to such a topic. I am looking forward to your new book PCB Diagnostics and I will be one of your early customers.

PS: When I started as a computer technician back in 1990, we used to do board-level repairs and I had to learn how to reverse engineer PC boards and power supplies. I have always enjoyed reverse engineering as part of my daily work and as a hobby (guitar gadgets). A few years ago I started repairing automotive computers and electronic modules and of course, there is very limited information available. Over the years I have developed plenty of techniques on my own, however, your information and resources are a real treasure.

Bob Lawrence
Cosmic Computer Services
Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia, Canada
Website: cosmiccomputerservices.com
It always makes me glad when readers tell me they enjoy my works. When I embark to write a book, readers can be assured that I'd put my heart and mind into it to bring out the best reading experience possible, on top of the knowledge and skillset I want to share. Time and money are well invested when you pick up a book that engages and enriches you from cover to cover.

And that is what I aim to achieve in my writings.

 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Lightning Don't Strike Twice...

For those who're wondering about my inactivity on the blog...

After more than ten years, quite a number of things started breaking down around the house. It began with the wall-mounted LCD TV showing a bright spot in the middle with occasional image blur. Then the aircon unit started acting strangely turning on and off by itself. Some say that it's a telltale sign of aircon short cycling. Later on, my wife bought a new electric kettle to replace the old one but after two weeks of use, the kitchen power socket suffered a meltdown which led to the discovery of current leakages in two of the main ELCB units.

And if things couldn't get any better, the kitchen light went down followed by the study light. More recently, the faucet tap of the master toilet which I bought and installed only a month ago started leaking with rust in the water. It's supposed to be 304 stainless steel but when I opened it up to check, the valve and bottom shaft were completely rusted. That really put a damper on my writing inspiration as I wrestled to rectify these problems. And it cost me quite a sum especially the new aircon system.

Now that I managed to put things back in order, hopefully I can refocus and catch up on my writing again. Here's a sample on Chapter 3 which I'm currently working on:

They say that lightning don't strike twice on the same spot. Yeah, more like a couple of times in my case. And it ain't funny at all. It's one thing to feel the seven-year itch of being an author, but it's a different thing altogether to experience a series of disruptions in a short space of time. Maybe it's telling me the time has come to call it a day.

Hopefully, I can get through this last engineering book before that happens...

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)