Re: [EE] Reverse engineering a product

Not a job... trying to assist someone I know.

Cheers,
-Neil.



On 7/26/2025 2:03 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> I would steer well clear of that job.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Martin.
>
>
> On Saturday, 26 July 2025 at 15:52, Neil <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm in discussion with an entity who wants a couple products reverse
>> engineered. It's actually their products (and have their brand), but
>> they've parted ways with their CEM/design house who now doesn't want to
>> hand over the design & assembly files. And they need to be the same as
>> they are currently, else it may re-trigger a re-evaluation/approval by
>> one of their major clients. What they need is gerbers, BOM, and assembly
>> files so they can continue to make the product.
>>
>> For one product, I have a schematic, list of component part numbers (not
>> calling it a BOM as there are no quantities), copper layout for all
>> layers, and a sample assembled product.
>> For the other product, all I have is the copper layout for all layers,
>> and a sample assembled product.
>>
>> I'm trying to figure out what methods are available to reverse-engineer
>> these products back to gerber and assembly files so they can continue to
>> have it made by another CEM.
>> For one product I can pretty much re-design the board from the
>> schematic, but not sure how to figure out the component parameters (not
>> just values like 0.1uf, but also tolerances, thermal characteristics,
>> etc). One is a very tight board with lots of mosfets so thermal design
>> will be important.
>> For the other product, I can come up with a non-valued schematic (so I
>> know where say capacitors and resistors would be), but won't easily know
>> what the values are. Can all of these be measured?
>>
>> The products may be able to be re-engineered, but I expect re-interating
>> prototypes to finalize the design would be somewhat different and would
>> take longer.
>>
>> Any suggestions here? Are they any design houses that specialize in this?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -Neil.
>>
>> --
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