I just recently went through this myself. Use the scanner to image the foil
side of the board, then mirror the image to make an x-ray view from the
component side. (My print dialog has this as an option.) Then using a red
pen, I draw the component symbols between the trace pads. Identify the DC
supply and ground traces, and use various color highlighters on them. When
done, it's fairly straightforward to draw the schematic of the circuit.

I've had moderate success scanning the component side of the board, too.
Seems many scanners have fairly good focus at 1-2" from the glass.

Neil



"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
writes:

A flatbed scanner instead of a camera might work better, consistent
scaling.

It will work great for the traces but may have problems depending on
how tall the tallest part is. Though, before I had a digital camera,
all the photographs of circuits boards in the FAQs were done on ab HP
scanner.

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