Reverse engineering is the process of analysing a system, component, or product to understand its design, functionality, and operation – intending to remake the original product, or redesigning to make a newer modern version.
Reverse engineering can help you rebuild and modernise legacy hardware for the future.
Our normal method of working is to reverse engineer the product in its existing format to produce schematics, PCB layouts and Bills of Materials. At this point we will inform the client of any obsolete parts and then if necessary modify the design to use modern parts. In most cases, we can get cheaper parts that do the job better.
If a unit contains software that the customer is not able to provide, or copy from an existing EEPROM/storage device – we are capable of fitting an alternative processor and writing new software to a specification.
We find that, especially now, old technology and machinery is beginning to fail – and their drawings and schematics lost in time.
We carefully dismantle the board, scan all layers, and trace tracks to digitally rebuild the circuit in PCB design software. This produces a functional schematic, which we refine into a clear, logical design. Outdated components are replaced, and the design is finalised for manufacturing, ensuring a reliable modern replacement, even without original documentation.
The unit pictured here was recently re-engineered by Winter and Smith. This unit had been used by a customer for over 10 years, before they required 11 more of them. It was either a case of spend many days building a duplicate of the current product (no drawings or schematics existed) – or ask for professional help.Winter & Smith disassembled the unit component by component, and piece by piece built up a circuit diagram of the design. We then looked at the design and made several recommendations of changes to various parts of the circuit, to optimise it and make it more reliable. In this instance we replaced a part costing over £60 with one costing £1.50. The customer accepted all the changes, and we then designed the new controller pictured below and manufactured 12 of them.
