| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| A simple tool to aid in reverse engineering a PCB |
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| intabits:
--- Quote from: rhb on November 30, 2018, 12:09:18 pm ---That looks like an undamaged IBM mainframe card. Do you have any more? If so send me a PM. I'd like to buy one. I have one I bought in the 60's for the transistors, but the connectors were broken off before they were scrapped. --- End quote --- Indeed it is. This particular one is the error amplifier for a power supply (full PS schematic in the ZIP). I too bought them without the fingers back in the '60's. But in the late 70's it was ME breaking them off for the gold. I had about 7000 of them. I still have quite a few, but being in the US, it would probably be cheaper for you to buy them on eBay. People do want a lot for them, but I don't think they sell many, so I reckon they'd take a lower offer. Look for "IBM SMS card" (which stands for Standard Modular System) If you can't get one at a reasonable price, you can PM me. |
| DaJMasta:
--- Quote from: intabits on November 30, 2018, 11:41:03 am ---It is just a simple thing, for simple jobs. Exploring an idea. But with double sided PCBs, it would still be of value I think. Traces under components would be a problem, but it apart from that, it would allow a trace to be followed around the PCB from top to bottom through vias and pads. If you find yourself tracing out a (simple-ish) PCB, even double sided, it's got to be a help. --- End quote --- Could be an interesting exercise to try, I would think traces under traces would be the biggest problem visually. That said, I wonder if you could adjust the colors for each layer, like CAD software does, and then overlay them. Maybe the contrast of colors could be enough to distinguish them with some practice. |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: rhb on November 30, 2018, 12:09:18 pm ---That looks like an undamaged IBM mainframe card. Do you have any more? If so send me a PM. I'd like to buy one. I have one I bought in the 60's for the transistors, but the connectors were broken off before they were scrapped. --- End quote --- Yes, that is an SMS card, used in 1401, 1620, 707x and 709x machines by the zillions. (7094 had 11,000 SMS circuit cards! Totally blows my mind how they even kept such a machine running.) These are certainly collector's items today. Jon |
| cdev:
Use a scanner with a transparency adapter and cut a mask that puts the PCB in the middle of a piece of opaque paper so the light from the transparency adapter doesn't wash out the image by shining around the sides. Take both reflective and transmissive images. Bracket your transmissive exposures. Shining a light through often is the key to figuring out where inner traces go. Also photos taken like that often make neat 'electronics' images artistically. |
| Simon:
Yes if you need a "photo" of a PCB and it needs to be in the flat a scanner is the best way, and way more resolution than a camera. |
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