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Jeff Liebermann Jeff Liebermann is offline
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Default create schematic from circuit board images?

On Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:04:35 -0500, All Bumbed Up
wrote:

This is a long shot, but is there any software out there that will take
a circuit board with components and create at least a rough schematic
from it? I realize that board and components would probably have to be
overlayed. Just curious.


Automation would be nice, but I do it by hand, with the aid of a
computah to do the photo manipulation, drawings, and to connect the
dots. Something like this:
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-reverse-engineer-a-schematic-from-a-circuit/
The difficult parts (for me) are identifying the components and
photographing the PCB inside the original box, where the tangle of
wires and mechanical parts usually get in the way. I've never tried
to reverse engineer something as complex as the above example PCB.
Even with simple PCB's, I always wiring errors and component errors.

Plenty of articles and videos on other ways to do it:
https://www.google.com/search?q=circuit+board+reverse+engineering
I should probably read/view a few of these to see what I've been doing
wrong:
https://www.google.com/search?q=circuit+board+reverse+engineering&tbm=vid
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=circuit+board+reverse+enginee ring

Incidentally, if you have more than one of the PCB that you're trying
to reverse engineer, I've found it better sacrifice one PCB to the
electronics gods by removing all the parts and photographically
reproducing the PCB. Once the holes are located and cleared with a
solder sucker, it's easy to photo graphically locate the holes (light
from behind the PCB). Then, using a continuity checker (buzzer or
light), just connect the dots (holes) and you have a schematic. The
hard part is to NOT rip out the plated through holes when removing the
components. Chop off the component, leaving the leads. Heat the
leads with an SMD hot air desoldering station, and pull out what's
left of the lead with a pliers or tweezers. Then, clear the holes by
heating the PCB, and either blowing solder slag all over your
workbench, to sucking the solder out of the hole with a desoldering
pump. Solder braid will tear up the pads and traces and should be
avoided.

Good luck.


--
Jeff Liebermann
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