
How can I reverse engineer a simple through-hole circuit board? - segfaultbuserr
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/80527/how-can-i-reverse-engineer-a-simple-through-hole-board
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sigmaprimus
IMHO If your just going to blatantly copy a board your better off desoldering
all the components and scanning or photocopying the board, then your hole
spacing is layed out too. Otherwise I think it would be better to start with
the ICs locate their support components such as pull up resistors or timing
caps and you will start to see the groups of electronic components forming
circuit blocks similar to how you can see functions and routines in source
code. For the example shown it would almost be easier to just google
"schematics for a 12v pulse battery charger".

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rolph
use a small flood light to illuminate through the board, and avoid having to
keep flipping it over to swap and paste the two sides in your head.

when you have layered boards you want to be sure there are only the two sides
to the board, and no inbetween layers, especially when the component holes are
plated through not just drilled. The most layers ive experienced [11 trace
layers] was a slightly dated logic analyzer/ DSO Oscilloscope combo, fisher
lab products i think.

now adays you can have component layers in the board structure not just
traces.

