Twitter Chatter

Since posting the release of my new book on Twitter, there has been quite some flurry of feedback and following:

It remains to be seen just how well received the trilogy will be as I have not advertised nor promoted it, but simply depend on my loyal readers to spread the word around.

The book is priced affordably and filled with many hand-crafted schematics, drawn and re-drawn using Microsoft Visio for the best visual appeal and overall learning experience, and photos are carefully selected and edited for quality and clarity, coupled with an enjoyable literary style of writing and sprinkled with generous and informative footnotes. It should be worth every cent and time invested.

Trilogy Available Now

To all readers who have been following the progress of my third book, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples, I am happy to break the good news that the wait is finally over. The trilogy to my PCB-RE series of books is now available on Amazon for purchase. Here is the book covers, front and back, with its updated look and feel:

You can click on the image above to order your copy on the Amazon website. Appreciate if you can help spread the word to those who are interested in this subject as well.

Many thanks and happy reading!

Into the Final Lap...

Have not been updating my blog for quite a while as I was busy working on the final chapter of the trilogy book. There were plenty of schematics to draw and re-draw just to make sure readers get the best bang for their buck, besides writing the chapter content.

After over a month of hard work, I'm happy to announce that the first draft of the book was finally submitted for proofing with a new book cover artwork (click here for a preview). Keeping my fingers crossed to release it on my 10th wedding anniversary just like my first book four years ago...

Here's another two-page sample of chapter 7:

Do help to spread the news so that people who are interested in this subject will also get a chance to learn the practical aspect of this niche skillset through the contributions of like-minded engineers in the book. Much appreciated!

Tea with Wesly Lo

Met up with Wesly Lo of ABI Electronics for afternoon tea during his business trip here. It was eight years since he came over to my workplace to give training on two testers which we ordered from him. Good time catching up. He even brought my book along to get my personal signature. ;)

Quadcopter RE

Completed the chapter on X-Ray PCB-RE about two weeks ago, and now beginning with the chapter on quadcopter RE.  Progress is a bit slow as the Chinese Lunar New Year is just two weeks away and there's a lot of preparation to be done including the annual spring cleaning.

Here's a two-page sample:

While there are four categories of drone types, I will focus on the more popular and widely deployed, the quadcopter. Of course, there are many articles and write-ups on this drone model but I hope to cover more grounds in a systematic way of analyzing its design and parts.

The DJI developed models, in particularly the Mavic Air, is of interest to me. I may not be able to post its schematic diagrams even if I reverse engineer it as there are legal implications if I do. However, a detail inspection into its components should be no issue since there are teardown videos on various drones online.

To be sure, a good understanding of how a commercial drone is put together certainly helps any drone enthusiast appreciate his or her kite better and who knows, it might come in handy for troubleshooting and repair when a fault develops.

Anyway, it's too early to know how the chapter will go. Hopefully, it will be worth my time to write and for my readers to read.

A Shred of Sliver Lining

Continuing from my previous post on the setbacks encountered during the writing of my trilogy book, just when things seem dark and despondent despite my best effort to keep on working, I received an email out of the blue from the president of Elgris Tecnologies, Inc., Igor Luvishis.

He wrote:

First of all, let me thank you for the work you do writing about PCB reverse engineering. As our company is working in this field for many years, I really appreciate your effort.

We got both of your books with the PCB-RE Tools and Techniques book arriving just few days ago. This second book is devoted to the PCB-RE tools available on the market.

It's a pity that Elgris Technologies and our tool (E-studio For Test) are not mentioned in the latest book. 'E-studio For Test' is one of the major tools used by customers for schematic generation from netlists for boards that are being reverse-engineered. 

We will be glad to work with you and to help/participate in any possible way by writing, providing material, sponsoring a section or chapter devoted to Elgris Technologies tools.

We would also be happy to discuss other potential business arrangements with you.

I look forward to your response.

It's definitely a game changer with this surprise voluntary contributor knocking on my door. I see a shred of silver lining breaking through the dark clouds, and that's a good thing indeed!

Setbacks and Crawlbacks

If being a self-publish author is hard enough, imagine trying to orchestrate several contributors for an engineering book!

In the second half of last year, I invited five PCB-RE engineers to contribute a chapter each for my trilogy book. Along the way, one dropped off after showing initial enthusiasm; then another delayed replying my emails and I found out later that his dad passed away and he was having a hard time coping with work. Then near Christmas, the one whom I had such high hope dropped a bomber and pulled out after telling me he's just landed on a new job.

Such frustrations and disappointments are real and can sometimes throw the progress of a book off course or even terminate it prematurely. But I'm not one to give up easily, so in the midst of these setbacks, I have worked doubly hard and come up with two additional chapters to compensate for the loss. The chapter on X-Ray PCB-RE using an Arduino UNO is near completion. Here's a two-page sample:

I foresee the release of the trilogy book will be delayed till early February or perhaps March. Readers of my first two books will have to wait a bit longer, but I'm sure it will be worth the while...

Chapter 5

Another contributor to my trilogy book has submitted his draft chapter for review. Though I will not mention his name at this time, I'll give my readers a clue: he's a PCB-RE engineer from ENA Electronics Inc, who also leads a team doing various RE projects. Here's a two-page sample of his work:

I'm still in the process of vetting and editing, and will be going through the finer details with the writer himself to ensure an accurate representation of what he intends to share in his work experience, while at the same time providing an overall consistent and pleasurable read for potential buyers of this (I hope) much anticipated book.

Once the content of this chapter is incorporated, the trilogy book will hit almost 300 pages. There's one more contributor to go and I shall be giving him a tinker after I'm done with this review task.

Twilight Zone

I'm not referring to the well-known TV series by Emmy Award-winner Rod Serling, who served as host and wrote more than 80 episodes of the original show's 150-plus episode run. But doing PCB-RE does has its strange mix of confusion, frustration, jubilation, and trepidation along the way. In fact, what's left of the unverified portion of a PCB, I called it the twilight zone.

Just as we enjoyed the suspense and surprise ending at each episode (if you're that old like I am, chuckle), there will always be the same feeling when you reach this portion of doing PCB-RE. Then again, where's the fun and challenge if PCB-RE is a piece of cake?

So take it from the man himself:

“You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into… the Twilight Zone.”

10,000

After one year and nine months, and 122 posts later, my blog has garnered over 10,000 views. This is cause for jubilation as another milestone is achieved.

The number of countries has also hit 85 though it slowed down quite a bit since. Of course, it would be nice if readers can help promote and recommend my blog if they have been helped or inspired by what I've written. I'm sure there are still many out there who're interested in the PCB-RE topic but not many are aware of the resources available here and in my books.

Christmas is just slightly over a month away and it's a season to share good tidings of great joy. I'm sure if my readers can help some to find what they need here, it will most certainly bring a smile of gratitude in return.

Would you do that favor?

PhreakNIC 21

Was watching a video presentation on YouTube by Jonathan Ryan at the PhreakNIC 21 annual hacker and technology convention, when near the 26-minute mark during the Q&A session someone posed a question and he whipped out my book, The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering, to answer.

That was some pleasant surprise indeed, considering the event was slightly over a year ago! Now that my sequel book, PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques, was out since the beginning of this year, wonder if he had also purchase it and showcase at the recent PhreakNIC 22 event last month...

Readers interested to watch this video, click here.

Chapter 6

One of the contributors to my trilogy book, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples, has submitted his draft chapter for my vetting and review. I will keep his name and the rest of the contributors in confidence for now. Here is a two-page sample of what you can expect:

PCB-RE involves multi-disciplinary skills and a good deal of engineering experience. Besides the manual method of doing PCB reverse engineering which I'll showcase in my own chapter, there will be other techniques shared by different engineers in their own fields of expertise. Chapter 6 focuses on firmware hacking and you'll learn some very useful lessons as the author takes you step by step through the process, illustrated with many photos and screenshots.

To date, the trilogy has attained 240 pages. I expect it to hit the same number of pages as my other two books when the works of the other contributors come in and take their places.

Black or White

This post has nothing to do with the late Michael Jackson, or even Mike Binder. Rather, it's about a book on doing manual PCB-RE which is in the works, alongside the trilogy book which I'm also working and coordinating with a few contributors.

I've come up with two versions of the cover, one in black and one in white:

Would like to hear from my readers which of these two cover designs is better.

Some readers may ask, "What is the reason for this book? Why work on another when you're already working on the current book?" Inspiration is a funny thing, really. While writing my chapter in the trilogy book, an idea just popped up in my mind to write a bare-bone PCB-RE book for those who simply want the essential know-how of the manual approach, but with enough depth to help them take on real-life projects: a no-frills guide to doing PCB reverse engineering by hand.

In a way, it will supplement my first book, The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering for what it lacks of a complex board example, but which is still full of useful information in documenting the PCB-RE process using Microsoft Visio. However, the book will also be a complete guide in its own right as far as manual PCB-RE is concerned, and with a lower price tag that should appeal to more engineers interested to learn this covert art.

Judging from the progress so far, the trilogy will probably be available sometime in early 2019. But I hope to get this book out by end of 2018 or earlier, depending on how well the contributors to my trilogy are doing.

So keep a look out for more news on these two books...

Analog Zone

Analog ICs are generally simpler compared to their digital counterparts, yet their configurations and connectivity can be more complicated and illusive than we imagine. This is evident as I worked on the Analog Zone of the board, which to date I've covered about two-thirds of the content. Here's a two-page sample:

I'm actually running a little out of steam due to eye and mind fatigue. Writing is definitely hard work compared to hands on which, I suspected, might be the reason why many engineers prefer to work on projects rather than writing reports, or for that matter engineering documentation.

Time for a much needed break!

5-Star Review

It's been quite a while since my sequel book, PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques, received a review, so I was pleasantly surprised to see one, and a comprehensive one, from Sales Manager Mr Daniel Evans of Saelig Company, Inc.

If you're not an engineer, you may think of reverse engineering as a black art by which copycats steal technology or clone a product. Among engineers, the vast majority of reverse engineering is done to facilitate equipment maintenance. 

Regardless of industry, electronics repair shops are often asked to fix circuit boards from equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Perhaps the support period has expired, or the company is out of business. There may not be any source for a replacement board. The only way to keep the equipment running is to fix the board. In some cases the cost of replacing the equipment may be tens of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars. So repairing the faulty board can be extremely cost effective, even if the repair costs thousands. 

In cases where a replacement board is available, the cost and/or the lead time to acquire a replacement board may be prohibitive. Repairing the board is a better option. 

Whether the equipment is old or new, a schematic may be helpful or essential for repairing a board. But schematics are often not available, especially for older unsupported boards and even for some newer boards. That's where reverse engineering comes into play. 

PCB-RE Tools & Techniques is a comprehensive resource for anyone or any organization that needs to make schematics for printed circuit boards (PCB). While the author has over 30 years experience in circuit board testing, reverse engineering and repair, the book is much more than one man's experience in reverse engineering. The author has leveraged the reverse engineering expertise of a dozen other engineers from around the world. The result is a compilation of information, techniques, and equipment that will help achieve better, faster solutions to the problems that reverse engineering can present.

Coming from someone with relevant experiences in test and repair equipment, especially the highly popular RevEng system from ABI Electronics, this is a strong endorsement on my book indeed. Thanks and much appreciated, Dan!

Transition Zone

The next step in doing PCB-RE on a mixed-signal board is identifying and tracing the connectivity of the 'transition zone'. This is where 'digital' meets 'analog' in the form of ADCs and DACs:

Readers of my book, PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques, would have been quite well acquainted with the various strategies mentioned in my approach in doing manual PCB-RE. In this trilogy book, readers will be able to see how theory is put into practice, not just by me alone, but by a collective group of other engineers with their own methodologies as well.

Moving on to the next zone...

Digital Zone

Been working on Chapter 3 of my trilogy book, and today I've just finished the 'digital zone' of the real-world PCB example. Here's a two-page sample:

The 'digital zone' covers address, data and control buses, common signals, communication drivers and receivers, jumpers, etc. Next, I'll be covering the 'transition zone'. As to what that is, I'll leave my readers to guess until I'm done with that section.

There's still a lot of grounds to cover so let's get going...

Re-engineering Our Minds

Just received a complimentary copy of the book 'Think to Thrive' from the author Dr. Henry Toi himself, a personal friend of mine:

The subtitle 'Re-engineering your mind for growth' is interesting and insightful, coming from the pen of one who is a thinker as well as an educator. Somehow it struck me that just like reverse engineering PCBs, our minds too need to re-engineer not only to stay relevant and useful, but to attain the next level of excellence.

And that is something for us to THINK about, isn't it?

Interested readers can order a copy at the following online stores:

Kinokuniya
Times Bookstore

Trilogy - Chapter 3

Had started working on Chapter 3 of my trilogy book, PCB-RE: Real-World Examples. I'm into 21 pages and still counting. Here's a two-page sample of the partial schematic on the Control Logic card I'm using for my manual approach in PCB reverse engineering:

Hope to complete the chapter by end of this month. Then I will start to collate the works of the other contributors...

80 Countries and Counting...

Four and a half months after hitting 70 countries and 6,066 page views, my blog has finally reached out to readers in a total of 80 countries and 8,448 page views.

While it is no mean feat of an achievement, I believe more can be done to create awareness of its existence if readers would simply recommend my blog and work to friends and post it in electronics forums or discussion groups.

If you have benefited from what I shared, or even enjoyed what is posted, then please do me a kind favor by sharing the link (visio-for-engineers.blogspot.com). Better still, drop me a line (comment) so I know what my readers are thinking or would like to see in the blog.

Thanks again for visiting and making it happened.

Artosyn Drones

Received a query from a blog reader:

I just started a job this month which requires to RE some functions on a RC controller which has an Artosyn AR8001 and AR8003 chip on them but I am unable to find the datasheet on the internet. Any idea to approach this?

My reply:

The AR8001/AR8003 are a complimentary pair of image transmission modules customed parts by the Chinese company Artosyn Microelectronics. It is therefore unlikely you'll find any datasheet online for these two chips, especially if the company only sells their drone products and not the standalone ICs. 

If you're doing PCB-RE just to understand the design, or to produce similar products, the only workable way is backward signal annotations: 

1. Treat the AR8001/AR8003 as black boxes
2. Locate pin 1 as reference
3. Find out the power and ground pins
4. Trace out the address, data and control pins using known ICs or onboard CPU
5. Since these are image transmission chips, look out for video amplifiers and trace their pins back to these ICs. 

Hope the above pointers will give you something to work on.

An example of a RC controlled drone with imaging capability:

Partial list of main component parts (Chinese descriptions):

From Sketches to Streamlined

After some deliberation, I've decided to include the Rigol DS1052E into the Case Studies chapter of my trilogy book. As mentioned, someone by the name Hellene had done a superb job in reverse engineering this piece of equipment and placed the schematic diagrams online. Though he did not complete the whole unit, it does provide a good picture of a commercial digital oscilloscope, except for one problem: it's done in rough pencil sketches.

Below is a sample of the Channel 1's front-end:

I'd figure if I want to include his work, I'll need to clean up the schematics and do an overhaul using Visio. It's definitely much easier if I just copy and paste from Hellene's work but my sense of being a professional writer got the better of me. Here is the Visio rendition:

The rest are still in the works but readers will be pleased to know that they are getting a better deal with these pretty schematics when they buy my book. It will not be anytime soon, but I'm hoping that it will be released before the end of this year.

Meantime, do go to Amazon or the icon or menu links above to take a look at my other PCB-RE books, and consider supporting my hard work through honest purchase so I can continue writing and drawing these beautiful electronic artworks. Thanks!

Internet of Things

Recently picked up writing Chapter 2 - Some déjà vu Stuff, of my trilogy book again, after laying it off because of some pressing matters. There are a number of interesting topics that I cover in this prologue section of the book, one of which is the internet of things (IoT). Here's two sample pages for preview:

The main section of the book will probably contain seven chapters featuring works by various PCB-RE practitioners, followed by another section with additional case studies and essential tools for the trade. I'm not giving myself too much pressure to fix a deadline, but I'd figure when things are more firmed, I will brief the contributors on the guidelines for their chapters to begin work.

Will update my readers again on the progress, so stay tuned...

안녕하세요

If you're wondering, the post title means "Hello!" in the Korean language. After posting my findings on a Korean PCB-RE engineer and reader's blog sometime in early May, I finally received a comment - in fact, two - the same one in each of the two posts:

I am impressed with his level of English expression, considering that many Koreans are not very apt with this international language. Believe me, I've been to South Korea in 2012; it's challenging to converse with the locals there if you do not have a modest amount of Korean vocabulary. That said, I'm sure many are seeing the importance of picking up English, especially after the recent de-nuclearization summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore early June this year.

My third book (trilogy) is still in the works though, and I got the nagging feeling it will take much longer than the sequel to complete. Given the technical nature of such a niche topic, I'm not sure how well it will go with non-English speaking readers. Perhaps this Korean gentleman might consider translating my books for the benefit of his own people, since he has the desire to propagate the PCB-RE technology in his country.

Just a thought for now but who knows, it may become a reality (if he reads this post)...

SkillsFuture

This morning while doing my usual routine walk to begin the day, I stumbled upon two cards lying outside the gate of a secondary school:

On the flip side, two fields of industry are highlighted:

With the SkillsFuture Festival gaining momentum island-wide, the probability of coming across their publicity materials is significantly higher than striking the lottery...