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

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Beyond the Boundary

The Chinese Lunar New Year (CNY) is just five days away and spring cleaning is currently underway in my house. Amidst the bustling activities in preparing for this festival, I decided to start writing Chapter 9 on Other Techniques of PCB diagnostics. My engineer friend is tied up after coming back from a long holiday and can only give me the materials I need after the CNY. Oh well...

What are the other techniques that I will be exploring? For sure, JTAG is one of them. Another two more will be AOI and AXI, and I will include a comparison of these two. There is something about virtual instruments but I've yet to decide whether to include it in this chapter.

Here's a two-page sample for Chapter 9:

Incidentally, my friend's company ABI Electronics also carries a JTAG diagnostic tool for which I've also requested for a case study. If he can provide that, it would be a good illustration to my collection of examples in this upcoming book.

I will try to squeeze some time to write during this busy festive season, so stay tune for more updates.


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