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, October 6, 2026

Feeling Lost? Get the Memoir!


Recently, an ex-colleague from ST Electronics called me out of the blue. He sounded troubled and not the usual, confident person I knew a decade ago. After talking with him for five minutes, I realized he's feeling lost and apprehensive at the prospect of retirement. He is the same age as me.

Such feeling does not happen to people facing retirement after years of working; it can also happen to young graduates who are just stepping out into the world. What should I do? Which company should I join? Where can I find my place in the industry? And many myriads of questions that overwhelm the mind, be it starting out afresh or changing runway mid-career, or entering into the final phase of a work life.

This is the reason I wrote a book about my own engineering journey that spanned three decades from the air force days to the home-grown defense industry, and into my passion and calling as an author. For the first time, readers of my PCB-RE books can now take a peek into the inner world of the writer and understand why he took the paths, whether through necessity or by appointment. Friends who knew me since the early school days had read it and found gems of inspiration, and a better appreciation for the person I am.

For anyone who has ever wondered how things work—or how a life is built—this memoir offers a rare glimpse into a world of precision, problem-solving, and the hidden connections that shape us all.

Get your copy today! 

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