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, March 19, 2026

The Affirmation


When the final draft of "The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering" was ready, I launched it through Amazon Createspace—now called Kindle Direct Publishing.

Then I waited.

Within two weeks, there were sales.

Not many, but some. Enough to know that people were actually buying the book. Enough to hope that they might read it.

Soon, reviews appeared.

Most were positive. Encouraging. Some readers expressed appreciation for my engaging style of writing—words that meant more to me than any technical compliment.

It was then that I realized something important. I had found a way to transform boring engineering facts into enjoyable narratives. Not by diluting the content, but by framing it as story. By sharing not just what to do, but why it mattered. By revealing the beauty hidden in the work.

That was the affirmation I needed.

 

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