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, February 21, 2023

Proofreading and Waiting...

Currently I am doing a final proofread of my book, PCB Diagnostics. Caught several typos and rephrase some sentences upon re-reading. Just gotten the barcode for the cover's ISBN image as well. I should complete the task by Friday but at the same time, I am also waiting for approval from a JTAG product vendor on the use of some material related to Chapter 9, which is already in place.

Here's a two-page sample that summarizes the PCB diagnostic process, with supplementary notes:

While diagnosing PCB failures is a more familiar topic than PCB-RE, it is by no means easier to write, considering the many different techniques (I covered six in detail and two in passing in this book) that are used to accomplish this challenging task. Even then, each has its own merits and challenges to take into account.

But I'm glad to be near the end of this writing journey on engineering stuff. If everything goes well, the book will be available for order end of this month. That's all for now.

 

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