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, February 10, 2023

Into the Final Lap

With the long Chinese New Year holiday over, I'm back to writing Chapter 6 on the Clip-n-Learn method of PCB Diagnostics. This is the final chapter of the book I'm writing (not the last chapter) and based on the sample test report provided by my engineer friend, it's going to take at least one and a half to two weeks of work. Why is that? Because the document is in Chinese! Not only do I have to translate the content into English, but amend the text and adjust the flow so it blends well into the book. Additional effort is also needed to edit the numerous photos and screenshots so they fit nicely into the pages.

Here's a two page sample:

When can readers expect the book to be released? If everything goes according to plan, I reckon it would be end February. I still need to do a final proofread to correct grammatical errors and possible technical glitches. This book is larger than the rest in terms of file size due to the number of illustrations included. It's 50% bigger than the PCB-RE trilogy and Microsoft Word is struggling to handle it at this point. Thankfully it's the final lap.

I will follow up with another update and then round up with a summary post in the next two weeks, so stay tuned.


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2 comments:

  1. Biotech97February 10, 2023 at 11:48 PM

    I can't wait ! I hope you be the first to purchase when it goes live. Although it's a bit saddening that you'll be leaving us as an author ( which is very understandable why ) your legacy will never die with your loyal readers. Cheers !

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  2. Ng Keng TiongFebruary 11, 2023 at 9:25 AM

    Thanks, Sebastian, for your encouraging words, as usual. It would be nice to hear from my other readers and to have them leave comments in Amazon as a way of support. Things might have turned out differently to allow me to continue writing and sharing my engineering experience, and to afford my wife a better quality life that she deserves for staying by my side all this time.

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