PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques (PCB Reverse Engineering Series Collection)

There are currently only two books that comprehensively cover the niche topic of PCB RE. Both of these books are authored by Mr. Tiong, this is his second book. His first book a great example of a well documented process of PCB RE and this book covers fundamentals, tools, and other techniques.One chapter in particular, "Manual Override", briefly and concisely describes the fundamentals that design engineers adhere to when laying out a board. Coming from a design background myself, I really appreciated his explanations of layout rules and the constraints that design engineers are faced with. The chapter practically describes my design experience with mixed signal PCBs and it was spot on! I credit my previous design experience with my ability to RE PCBs. I believe that hardware/embedded reverse engineers that don't come from a design background should read this section carefully. It should provide some valuable insight to find interesting test points, debug interfaces, interactions and relationships between digital and analog signals. Also in the book is a very useful chapter dedicated to JTAG. There are chapters dedicated to high end tools, that I didn't even know that existed! I'm still trying to get over the chapter on ScanCAD and how that works. The resources section of the book has some great references and DIY ideas/projects. The PCB-RE equipment and vendors almost reads like a wishlist to me...Overall, I found this book to be super useful and it will probably be on my bench more than on a bookshelf. If you are doing this kind of work on a daily basis, like me, you are definitely going to be writing notes, marking up the book, and putting in book marks everywhere. I think students, enthusiasts, and engineers looking for a career change will definitely take away something from this book.

I've started doing component level repair of electronics with (and without) schematics more then 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 then 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 Windfield HIll, Phil Hobbs, Jim Williams, Bob Piece, Howard Johnson and Marting Graham, Sam Godwasser, and other world's top electronics experts.

Books on this topic are as rare as hens teeth.The first book 'The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering' was mainly about RE techniques and ways to keep the extracted data organized. It was really well written and an enjoyable read. The latest book 'PCB-RE' is about the tools (hardware and software) that can be made or purchased to ease the RE process. Again it was really well written and a good read. I've been doing RE for years mainly to help in the repair undocumented products and yet I still found some very useful stuff in these two books. The reader should be aware that RE takes a lot of time and no book is going to be a magic bullet that will give instant results. However learning to be organized and to correctly document the results can be learned from these books and that means you get to waste less time. You can also reuse and expand a well documented partial RE when tackling a different fault on the same product. Have no fear that Mr Keng Tiong Ng's English might be poor. It is really good.

Excellent book on PCB construction and deconstruction.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It has many chapters on all sorts of techniques to reverse engineer printed circuit boards with the intent of either replacing them with identical boards that no longer exist, or determining the schematic for debugging a faulty circuit. From low-tech to high-tech techniques. I've been inspired by the book to troubleshoot and fix a vexing 1970's calculator for which schematics no longer exist.

Fantastic book!

All the essential concepts and tools to learn RE..

Great book, great content for those designing PCBs as well as Reverse-Engineering them. Well worth the purchase price.

Fantastic book, with loads of interesting information. From using the right light wavelengths to see through solder mask, to the theory and practical uses of X-Ray to see the inner layers of a PCB; the book has plenty of information at all levels of complexity.Highly recommended.