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

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Hare and Tortoise

I have to admit I had trouble spelling 'tortoise' despite being able to pronounce it properly. Whenever I'm making great strides in my writing, I feel like the hare breezing towards the milestone I set for the chapter I'm currently working on. That's provided I'm not experiencing mind freeze or suffering from an inspiration deficit, or having to attend to essential matters that interrupt my thought flow. When that happens, I feel like the tortoise inching my way through a chapter one page or less at a time.

As the story goes, it's the tortoise who won the race in the end, so I'm keeping my spirit high and moving along in short bursts instead of full steam (which often comes at the expense of content quality). The good news is, I'm almost done with chapter 4 of my book and here's a two-page sample to reward my readers for your patience:

Three interesting examples are earmarked for this chapter and I have completed two with the last one in the pipeline. Meantime, I am already thinking ahead of the next two chapters (the hare in me is just raving to overtake the tortoise, really). But I'll need to make some connections with an engineer friend of mine to give me the needed details and permission before I can start writing. Hopefully, he'll grant my Christmas wish.

Ps: I could have finished this chapter earlier if not for that perfectionist in me insisting on re-doing the illustrations and touching up the photos. It can be painful at times but if I don't do it, it will bug me to no end. Sigh...

 

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1 comment:

  1. Biotech97December 2, 2022 at 2:01 PM

    Thank you for the sample. The wait will totally be worth it. I'm assuming this will not be done by the deadline since you still have 5 chapters to go ? Either way I'll continue to patiently wait. I hope everything is well with you ! Remember I'm always rooting for you.

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