"Nelson" wrote in message
.com...
I don't know if anyone here has tried this before, but I thought I'd
mention it. I have found creating a circuit diagram from a PC board a
big PITA. Especially vexing is continually flipping the board over to
determine the connections. If you have ever tried, you know what I
mean.

Recently I found a way to make this problem a lot easier. First, take
a digital photo (close up, high resolution) of both sides of the board.
Then use an image editing program like Photoshop to flip the trace
side image to it's mirror image and remove everything but the traces
from the image. That's relatively easy because the board is all green
and the traces are all gray. Finally, paste that image as an "alpha
channel" with semi-transparency into the component side image.

The result is a full color "x-ray" of the PCB showing the traces and
solder joints directly under the components. It takes a little
experimentation to get the transparency and alignment of the two images
just right but the result is worth it.

--
Nelson


Jim Garland had this same issue -- needing to create a circuit diagram from
a PC board.
He used CIRCAD - for the HRO-600 project.

His challenge was the very rare National HRO-600 receiver.
http://www.miami.muohio.edu/presiden...ers/hro600.htm

The details of his extensive investigations, repair and restoration
(including finding a long-discontinued Motorola IC of the "MECL II" family
for the repair)
http://www.miami.muohio.edu/presiden...storation.htmg. beat