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

Monday, October 12, 2026

Restless in the Heat and Haze...


In the past weeks, Singapore has been enveloped by haze from its neighbor Indonesia, as more than 800 hot spots of forest fire were detected by satellite images over Sumatra and Kalimantan regions. The sun is shrouded in amber but its heat is not letting up as the pollution index rises into the unhealthy range.

I'm used to having my morning walk before settling down at my writing desk, but due to the poor air quality outside, I have been homebound for quite a while now. This has definitely affected my inspiration to write but I'm pushing hard to complete and release the first volume of Engineering Sovereignty.

A writer's journey is a lonely one, and the gloomy atmosphere outside isn't helping to uplift my spirit anytime. Hopefully there'll be an occasional shower to lessen the haze and ease the heat a little.

Oh, well, we'll see...

 

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