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, June 5, 2026

The Hidden Engine of Refurbishing


A novice refurbisher focuses on cleaning and repairing products. A professional refurbisher focuses on flow—a steady, predictable stream of incoming used products (cores) and an efficient, low-cost channel for delivering finished goods to buyers. Refurbishing creates a circular supply chain. Unlike linear manufacturing (raw materials → factory → use → disposal), refurbishing feeds used products back into the value stream. 

If you really want to go into the refurbishing business, you'll need to know about supply chain and reverse logistics, which include the following areas:

▪ Sourcing cores (where used products come from) 
▪ Reverse logistics networks (getting cores to your facility) 
▪ Inventory management (balancing supply and demand) 
▪ Quality variability (handling the unknown) 
▪ Outbound logistics (selling and shipping refurbished units) 
▪ Metrics for a healthy refurbishing supply chain 

I've listed some references for further reading:

▪ Rogers, D. S., & Tibben-Lembke, R. S. (1999). Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics Trends and Practices. Reverse Logistics Executive Council. 
▪ Guide, V. D. R., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2009). "The Evolution of Closed-Loop Supply Chain Research." Operations Research, 57(1), 10-18. 
▪ International Organization for Standardization. (2018). ISO 14021: Environmental labels and declarations—Self-declared environmental claims (includes guidance on refurbished claims).

Hope that helps.

 

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