What is PCB reverse engineering?
PCB Reverse engineering enables you to understand more about their designs and functions.
PCB reverse engineering is an activity through which printed circuit board designs are produced. It targets reverse analysis, PCB research, technology reproduction, PCB designs, etc. It also controls the product’s processing flow, functional characteristics, structure, and technical specification components to create new products having few similar functions. PCB reverse engineering’s primary work is to analyze the completed product and bring out its design proposition when it becomes difficult to obtain product information.
What is PCB reverse engineering?
PCB reverse engineering is a process in which you disassemble and analyze the very physical product to produce documentation, remanufacture and figure out its design and how it works. Most of the time, documentation helps the customers upgrade their products.
What reverse engineering services can we offer you?
Many PCBs reverse engineering companies use reverse engineering PCBs for many purposes like documentation and upgrades.
Maintain important PCBs:
If you have an outdated PCB that works fine in powering gadgetry and if your PCB requires replacement and you can’t find it. PCB reverse engineering will help you to fix it. It helps to maintain essential PCBs for a long time, and it also helps to clone them to provide a replacement in need.
Find information in PCBs without documentation:
Recent PCBs come with the facility of documentation or CAD (computer-aided design). Sometimes PCBs don’t contain any information; at that point, PCB reverse engineering helps to get the info in PCBs. This PCB reverse engineering also helps create new or own documentation on the product. It also allows you to understand PCBs and reproduce them.
Reduce your dependency on experts:
Initially, if you find any problem in your PCBs, you will seek help, probably from an expert from some PCB reverse engineering company. Reverse engineering helps you to receive critical information about your PCB and fills you with the knowledge to identify the problematic area that might cause the problem.
Detect weaknesses in computer’s design:
If you are likely to produce PCBs, you might want to make these better than others. PCB reverse engineering competitor PCB allows you to find weaknesses in your PCB. After detecting the weaknesses in your PCBs, you can enhance them and make an effective one.
Create less costly PCBs:
If your competitors are selling PCBs at a high rate, you can reverse engineer it to find the actual cost and make less costly PCBs of your own and beat your competitors. Thus, you can attract more customers than your competitors.
PCB reverse engineering can use 3D scanners such as structured light source converters, laser scanners, x-rays, etc., to measure dimensions and construct 3D visuals.
PCB reverse engineering regular flow process:
Find a PCB and record the model, position, and parameters of all elements on paper, especially the path of the diode and the triode and also the IC gap. You can also use a digital camera.
After cleaning the alcohol:
- Scan it well.
- Take the top and bottom layers and scan them too.
- Use photoshop and scan them separately in color.
- Placing the PCB horizontally and vertically is essential. Adjust the brightness and contrast to have a strong contrast between with and without copper image. Then take a black and white photo and make sure the lines are clear. Finally, save and name the picture as BMP format files.
- Convert the BMP files into PROTEL files and shift the two layers to PROTEL.
- Next is the conversion of BMP of the TOP layer to TOP.PCB. Pay more attention to the silk layer. Delete it after drawing it. Import TOP.PCB and BOT.PCB in the PROTEL. Now print the top and bottom layers.
Multilayer PCB reverse engineering operation method
To reverse engineer circuit boards, find a suitable circuit board, make a detailed record of the components, and scan it before disassembling them. Clean it and scan the smaller components with good resolution to have a clear image of everything.
Heat the components with a small air gun to systematically remove the resistor, capacitor, and IC. Record the number, value, package, etc., of each component carefully. Then, glue a double-sided tape on the column and correctly put them.
Use flux to remove the lasting tin dross from the PCB. A Multilayer board gets quickly heated, so use a proper way to remove it and then clean it with water and dry it.
After scanning the surface image, put them from top to bottom layer, respectively. Then, transform them into the bottom picture that is easily recognized by different copying software.
Use sandpaper to clean the PCB surface to uncover the glossy copper. It is vital to have a clear PCB map to clone it.
The last step is checking. Use an image processing software and PCB drawing software with the manual connection of the circuit to make a wholly accurate judgment.
How to choose PCB reverse engineering software?
The quality of the copying software primarily relies on its functionalities. The efficiency of the copying software is high, so it is best to do all the work in it. PROTEL99SE would be best if component placement supports it. The 99SE element library is sufficient, and you can download it. We can’t make hand-made components for the colony boards like before because time has changed, and many components like BGP have hundreds of components. It is too expensive to build.
Which products can use PCB reverse engineering?
With the emergence of the copy board industry’s all-around technical skills, the copy board scope is continuously expanding and the fields involved in it. Huge names such as the orange box can clone any electronic product. RayMing is suitable for detailed copy board varieties and technical implementations. The particular electronics commodities that can be copied are network class, communication, instrumentation, consumer products, and industrial control.
The PCB reverse engineering method and process of a 4-layer PCB.
- First, you have to scan the board, save the image, and title it as TOP.jpg. DPI cost can be fixed according to the density of PCB;
- Scan the bottom board and rename it as BOTTOM.jpg;
- With sandpaper, abrade the TOP layer copper to expose the second layer copper circuit. Clean and scan it and save it as MID1.jpg;
- Repeat it for the second layer to expose the third layer of the copper circuit diagram. Clean and save it as MID2.jog;
- Use Photoshop for each picture accordingly; for instance, you can horizontally convert the BOTTOM layer image into a mirror. After adjusting each image, save them as BMP, for example, TOP.bmp, MID.bmp, etc.
- In the software, after clicking the main menu and opening BMP, click TOP.bmp and set the DPI value, and save temporary as TOP-2, TOP-3, etc.
- Open BMP from the main menu, and click the BOTTOM.bpm. First, align the TOP-1.dpb with BOTTOM by using some reference points. Next, place elements through the hole and arrange the circuit line on the BOTTOM layer. After arranging, save it temporarily as BOTTOM-1.dpb.
- Repeat the previous three processes to complete it.
FAQs
Q:- What is this reverse engineering in PCB?
A:-It is a process in which a physical circuit board is used to fabricate and clone the design data of the circuit board.
Q:- Tell me about the PCB schematic?
A:-It is a two-dimensional circuit pattern that shows the functionality and connectivity between other components.
Q:- Why is it a reverse compiler?
A:-It is a tool that revises machine code into the source code in a higher language such as C.
