The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering: Tools & Techniques: July 2023

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, July 25, 2023

Bestseller Title in the Netherlands

Soon after Antrisksh and Aseem's recent visit to Singapore and our meetup, I noticed an increase in sales of my books in the Netherlands. In fact, one of the titles got into the bestseller category:

This is not surprising, since The Essentials is priced lower than the other engineering books. But I believe there is more to it. While The Art of PCB-RE is still the best overall consistent seller, what it lacks in real-world application (after all, it is an introduction to PCB-RE for those learning this niche skill, albeit a good book to start with detailed step-by-step guidance), The Essentials filled in with a complex example (which can be overwhelming for beginners who're thinking to jump into the deep end of the pool).

So, if you intend to take the manual PCB-RE route, these two books would be your safest bet to get you up to speed. As one reader, Michael Boewe, puts it:

Want to know how to reverse engineer a PCB? Buy this book. The book gives a very thorough explanation of how to reverse engineer a printed circuit board. It discusses different techniques that can be utilized with real world applications.

Click on the book cover and secure your copy today!

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

A Special Meetup

A few days before I flew off to Taiwan for holiday with my wife, I received a message from Antriksh, founder of Hardwear.io, via LinkedIn. He told me he'd be coming to Singapore on a business visit and would like to meet up with me, and have me sign my books. I was delighted, of course.

Soon after returning from my overseas trip, I fixed a lunch date with him on July 18 at City Hall station which is central. Well, he didn't come alone but had a friend, Aseem, the co-founder of Hardwear.io, in company. Being the host, I treated them to lunch at the Coffee Club in Raffles City.

We had a good time sharing our personal stories in the career journey we undertook. I also got to know about the nature of their business proposals to the various government agencies on IoT security solutions. As a surprise, Antrisksh brought some souvenirs from the recent Hardwear.io USA 2023 conference for me, two T-shirts, two luggage tags, a tout bag and a mini hand carrier.

It was an hour-and-a-half meetup and they were off to meet Bunny Huang, author of The Hardware Hacker book. Before we parted ways, Antrisksh asked if I would be interested to give a four-hour presentation and workshop at the next Hardwear.io conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands sometime in November. I felt honored to be invited and told him I will work out something and plan my schedule. It's still preliminary at this stage, though my incentive for going will be to meet Joe Grand in person there.

Maybe someday, I will link up with Bunny Huang and meet him over coffee. After all, we're both living in the same city-state, though our paths have not crossed so far. Life is full of surprises, so who knows...?

Monday, July 17, 2023

My Profile as an Engineer

Formerly, I worked as a test engineer in the home-grown defense industry, Singapore Technologies under the Engineering arm. I was privileged to be trained and had worked on the following automated test equipment (ATE), and developed over 30 test program set (TPS) projects:

1. Schlumberger S700 Series Testers

a. S720 Functional Tester
b. S730 In-Circuit Tester
c. S750 Combinational Tester
d. CADAT concurrent fault simulator
e. CATS 10000 hardware modeller
Programming language: Mediator

2. Teradyne Testers

a. Spectrum 8851 In-Circuit
b. Spectrum 8852 Combinational
c. M910 Digital Test System
d. Inline Device Programming (ILDP)
Programming language: C

3. F5E Tiger Aircraft

a. AITS Test System
b. P200 Power Supply Tester
Programming language: ATEasy and
PowerBasic

4. F16 Fighting Falcon

a. DATS/2000 Test Station
b. LASAR simulator
Programming language: ATLAS-716

5. AS332 Super Puma

a. Apodis SDC/CCU Test Station
Programming language: ATEasy

Of course, no test station is standalone or self-sufficient on its own, and I had the opportunity to work on the following test and repair equipment:

1. Data I/O 3900 Device Programmer
2. Altera Device Programmer
3. Acugen ATGen Test Vector Generator
4. Pinpoint Workstation
5. QMax QT150 and QT200 Testers
6. Polar Toneohm 950 Short Locator
7. Polar PFL780 Fault Locator
8. ABI System 8 Test Systems
9. PACE Soldering & Rework Station
10. ERSA SMT Rework Station

In retrospect, it was an exciting and fulfilling engineering career I had which allowed me to put my valuable experiences into print, though the current six engineering books cover less than half of what I knew and did. It's a shame that my seven years endeavor could not afford me the luxury of full-time writing to continue imparting my knowledge. Perhaps one day, if there is a turn of fortune, I may return to complete what I left undone. Hopefully it will not be too little, too late...

Saturday, July 15, 2023

My Profile as an Author

In my seven-and-a-half year as a writer, I have written a total of thirteen books, half of which are engineering related while the rest are of personal and religious nature. Most of my readers are interested in PCB-RE and diagnostic stuff, so it's no surprise that my engineering books fare better in sales. But if you really like my writing style, and have a knack for theology or eschatology, then please take a look at my other book titles, which are available in e-book edition as well.

Self-Published Author

Jan 2016 - Present · 7 yrs 7 months

Authored the following books:

Engineering
1. The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering
2. PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques
3. PCB-RE: Real World Examples
4. Manual PCB-RE - The Essentials
5. Deciphering Schematics
6. PCB Diagnostics

Memoir
1. Love's Chronicles (English and Chinese)

Family
1. The Marriage Puzzle (English and Chinese)

Theology
1. Volume 1 - NT in 77 Days
2. Volume 2 - OT Law & Prophets in 157 Days
3. Volume 3 - OT Writings in 87 Days

Eschatology
1. Revelation - A Concise Study
2. NFS Laboratory

Available on Amazon and other online bookstores.

I'm still doing part-time writing at present, as I explore other options. In particular, I hope to write on fiction novel and politics. If you are interested in such topics, keep a look out in my Amazon store.

As always, stay safe and well, my friends!

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