Reverse Engineering 15 yr old electronics

[Scott Stevens]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:29:29 +0000
Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> John Elliott wrote:
> > Paul Koning <pkoning at equallogic.com> writes:
> > : The only way I can think of is to take a large piece of paper, draw
> > : the components (ICs, etc.), then trace each etch on the PCB.  You
> > : might use a felt tip pen to put a dab of color on each pin whose
> > : connection you have marked on your drawing.
> > 
> >   If you've got a digital camera, take pictures of both sides of the PCB, 
> > and you can then draw on the pictures using a graphics program. 
> 
> Duh, good plan :) Previously I've tried sticking boards on the scanner, 
> but it doesn't cope well with the upperside due to raised chips - the 
> image ends up out of focus and difficult to work with.
> 

Depending on the depth of field of the scanner you use, you can get very good results scanning 'objects' that are 3-d.  I have a scanner at work (that I got at a auction for $1) that has really good depth, that I often use instead of a camera to 'photograph' items.  Just lay them on the glass and scan.

Many of the cheaper and newer scanners have terrible depth of field.  Probably the cheap optics.  The older-generation Hewlett-Packard scanners, which you can get cheap these days (and which require a SCSI controller) are usually pretty good.