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, January 27, 2023

When Machines Take Over...

Humans always have an innate fear that one day the machines they created to make their lives easier will take over their jobs and make them redundant. This is true of any industry and it is more felt in the PCB manufacturing and repair sectors. The word 'automated' is associated with machines and an antithesis to the word 'manual', referring to man the operator.

In this age of rapid technological advancement, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and learning (AL) is a foreboding trend that many engineers embrace as an evil necessity, yet choose not to think too much or too far ahead. Nonetheless, without such industrial revolution, we would not have enjoyed the proficiency and power these technological marvels afford us at work and leisure.

Take automated optical inspection (AOI) for instance. Without this innovation, it would not be possible to detect manufacturing defect fast and accurate enough to ensure production yield of PCB products. And while it will still be some time before the machine can take on a mind of its own to learn how to initiate an inspection without human aid, it has greatly reduce the workload and errors contributed by human factors.

Perhaps when that day finally arrives, it may not be as fearsome as we thought it to be. After all, there's something about human ingenuity that machines will probably never be able to duplicate, however 'smart' they may become.

Who knows, we may not even be around when that happens. So go get a beer or something and chill out...


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