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, January 12, 2023

Looking Good, Feeling Good

This week I'm 'on duty' at the National Library @ Chinatown for a mini-Roadshow by the National Silver Academy (NSA), a government initiative to promote lifelong learning among the seniors in Singapore. Here's the booth setup with yours truly:

It's a good break from my writing and allows me to interact with people, especially the elderly. There's always wonderful people you can meet at such events, more so as the Lunar Chinese New Year is just around the corner and people are in jovial festive moods.

Outside the mall there is a display of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs where shoppers can take photos. This is the year of the Rabbit so it's not surprising that its figurine is much larger than the rest:

Lately I'm feeling good that there is progress with my book, PCB Diagnostics. I have just finished Chapter 8 on Thermal Imaging and gotten permission from a Malaysian engineer to feature two of his repairs using thermal camera. I sent him a copy of the draft and here's what he has to say:

Wow, really didn’t expect the writing is that good. It’s straight to point and good English.

Like all my other books, you can expect clear, concise English that presents engineering knowledge that is not boring but engaging, with lots of useful footnotes and interesting anecdotes. This is more so with my upcoming book which uses parallel analogies with TCM. So you'll not just learn how to perform PCB diagnostics with various techniques, you'll pick up some valuable knowledge on Chinese medicine at the same time!

Stay tune for more updates, my friends.


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