Remote

Berte Bórquez

@Berto@woof.tech

mastodon 4.5.14-woof

Pretty big on making, fixing, or modifying my own stuff, when I can! There's always so much more to learn and practice.

Profile pic alt-text: A chest bust view of a bipedal, brown, very fluffy warg! Calmly smiling. Relaxed eyelids, lots of white neckfloof, protruding upper and lower fangs, a blepping red tongue, and a big ol' heart-shaped red nose.

Also! "Bórquez" is pseudonymous: I chose it because, well, BORK.

MakerTube: https://makertube.net/a/bertohuargo

Eventual Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/BerteBorquez

0 Followers

0 Following

20 Posts

Joined June 30, 2023

Location:

Denver Metro, Colorado, US. An EU move is a future goal; I'm upskilling as much as I can to best qualify for that move.

Languages:

EN/US, ES/MX, currently improving my PT/{PT, BR}, other Romanic languages seem recognizable. I occasionally search JP kanji via radicals. Also learned some NL vocab. Interested in learning DE too!

Pronouns:

any good-faith ones are okay; I tend to default to [EN] {e, ey}/em/eir || [ES] elle/le

Age:

In my forties. Never too old to learn from others (esp. younger than me), never too old to practice new things, never too old to experience wonder -- and neither are you.

Posts

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Replying to @erkhyan@yiff.life

re: Madagascar news, disaster Hover or focus to reveal Sensitive

@erkhyan@yiff.life Oh dear goodness. In addition to the mourning and trauma -- that's a lot of livelihoods, a lot of hard work -- just, my goodness. How are you doing? How are you feeling?

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Aug 03, 2026

Prep work is done for two micro-HDMI-plug-to-HDMI-jack dongles, including familiarizing myself the different pinouts of each, plus tinning lots of wires. Now just to solder everything together. These micro-HDMI (or HDMI Type D) plugs don't seem to break out the pins for individual TMDS shields (for 0, 1, 2, and Clock) and Ground for HEAC/CEC/DDC ground; these plugs seem to expect that a device will short them all together to Ground, via a wire that connects the HDMI plug/jack shields. I might see, then, if I can solder to those thin shield/ground pins, then, just for the sake of completeness.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @TechTangents@dialup.space

@TechTangents@dialup.space Huh. I could be wrong, but I seem to be getting Magic School Bus vibes from the box art illustration.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @VGPMedia@mastodon.ie

@VGPMedia@mastodon.ie Thank you for all your efforts in keeping these items available, and a big thank you to marqs for keeping the project going. I look forward to also seeing the updated KiCad PCB files, to see if it's possible to add this functionality to previous versions of this board without the RF input jack & associated components.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @jonn_blanchard@retrochat.online

@jonn_blanchard@retrochat.online Nice, hope you have fun with this project! I also saw your PortaSpeccy and liked it quite a bit. Once I get to a good stopping point for the time being with my soldering, I hope to resume microcontroller programming. I'm hoping to eventually get into C and even Assembly for RISC-V.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 23, 2026

Replying to @Tealfuleyes@mastodon.art

@Tealfuleyes@mastodon.art I really appreciate you sharing this piece. Just, like, both of them leaning into each other, intensely beaming with enjoyment as they hug each other -- it's like, yeah, you can feel the joy that they're expressing; I'm feeling it like a plant to sunshine. Thank you for this piece.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 17, 2026

If you want to make your own USB-C to USB-C cables for USB 2.0 and USB-PD (which use at least five wires, the fifth being for basic USB-PD communication and plug orientation), but all you have are USB-C plugs that are meant for USB-A to USB-C cables, as the attached PCB only breaks out the standard four USB pins on one PCB side (V_Bus, Ground, Data+, and Data—) -- you can still work with such USB-C plugs, given that they do still break out the CC pins (needed for that basic USB-PD communication) via much smaller pads on the other side of the PCB, which should have pull-up resistors soldered on. Those pull-up resistors are needed when the other end of the cable has a USB-A plug, which of course has no CC pin. USB-C to USB-C cables don't employ such pull-up resistors within the cables: they instead have a wire that connects the CC1 pins on both plugs (i.e the A5 pins on both plugs). As such, if you can verify to which USB-C pins the resistor-side small pads go -- maybe using a multimeter's continuity tester, along with the USB-C plug being inserted into a USB-C jack breakout board -- you can verify which pad(s) go to the CC1 (or A5) pins. Then you remove the resistors, solder each of the CC1 wire's ends to each plug's CC1 (or A5) pins -- and you should end up with your own DIY, custom-length USB-C to USB-C cable. Please note: the pinout listed in the first image may be different for the USB-C plugs you use.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jul 08, 2026

I've been doing a fair amount of wire-preparing and soldering lately; currently of five USB3 extension cables, plus one regular USB extension cable.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · May 11, 2026

Replying to @jonn_blanchard@retrochat.online

@jonn_blanchard@retrochat.online I've at least been watching, from time to time, Jeremy Parish's video series on the Epoch Super Cassette Vision -- so it's really good to know that capable folks can indeed try their hand at software for it! Thank you for taking the time and the effort to do so! And thank you, too, for releasing your code on Codeberg! Goodness, I do need to just sit down and prep some stuff to post on there, myself.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · May 08, 2026

Replying to @Berto@woof.tech

I've been rewatching Displaced Gamers' videos on standardized video signals, re: 240p, 525 lines, Luma, and Chroma -- and yeah, I'm realizing I should've called "Chrominance" as Chroma instead, given how Chroma would indeed be gamma-corrected Chrominance values. I forget which source it was that taught me to use the terms "Luma" and "Chrominance", instead of "Luma" and "Chroma". ---- Anyway, yeah, if you haven't watched them already and have any sort of interest in analog video, I recommend watching.them. Yhey may be worth future re-watches too, as I'm doing now, especially for the Chroma video and absorbing even more info from it. Displaced Gamers: The History of 240p [about 7m] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDPx6hP_4Y Displaced Gamers: What is 525-line Analog Video? [about 14m] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MY-jUkogbg Displaced Gamers: Analog Luma - A History and Explanation of Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymt47wXUDEU Displaced Gamers: Intro to Chroma: From RGB to Component Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3evgy0N8Sic

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · May 04, 2026

Replying to @diyelectromusic@mastodon.social

@diyelectromusic@mastodon.social Ooh, hey, nice work. I do have some PGA2350s, but I'm thinking about how best to spread the pins across a breadboard. So, yeah, I think I'm gonna go much more horizontal.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · May 02, 2026

Successfully did my first CRT video input mod! I added S-Video (i.e. Y/C) to a Sony Trinitron KV-20FS12 (manufactured Nov 2000), which comes default with only CVBS (i.e. yellow-plug Composite) inputs. Though I could've directly tapped the jungle chip (CXA2131CS), I went about the method of populating add'l parts, removing jumpers, and changing the service menu IDs to match a KV-20FV12, to enable S-Video input. I used primarily two resources: https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-kv-20fs12 -- CRTDatabase entry on the Sony KV-20FS12, from which a service manual is available for this & similar sets with a BA-5 chassis https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=1447502#p1447502 -- Shmups post by BazookaBen, on modifying a KV-13FM12 for S-Video, using same methods Current issue was, at this point, DigiKey and Mouser appear to no longer carry NJM2534M switching ICs, and they're only available in batches of 2,000 at around US$800 a batch. Instead, an ebay seller offered these chips, in two-digit amounts, for about US$1 each × number of chips, + shipping. They thankfully arrived much quicker than anticipated, and one indeed did the trick. I still need to make the S-Video input jack more physically secure. I also hope to add a YPbPr input mod, as well as an RGB input mod via Mux. I don't plan on further keeping this set -- but even so, now that I'm much more confident in my soldering skills, I at least wanted to mod it first before listing it, so that it's more useful to the next person. I want to be able to service other CRTs, too!

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Apr 28, 2026

Growler Linux might not be a real thing but 🐶 compelling point 🐶

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Apr 26, 2026

Replying to @nicole@oldbytes.space

@nicole 🎼 Don't play that 2A03 🎼 And look-up waves ain't there 🎼 Make some assembly 🎼 for the chip that plays squares

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Apr 23, 2026

Replying to @Beetalerry@mastodon.online

@Beetalerry I am indeed here for PC Engine related cuteness!

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Mar 31, 2026

Ooh, came across an Animal Art Crimes style of scrunkly in the wild, here in Denver.

Brightened my day.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Mar 19, 2026

Getting in some rotary tool practice, to speed up my work compared to using blades and saws.

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Mar 13, 2026

Happy Friday 13th! [Reclaim today from the patriarchy!]

The Zelda II run that's happening right now on Frozen Fatales is reminding me --

@ClarusPlusPlus@gamedev.lgbt, the maker of an awesome Zelda-II-like called Enigma Heart, has been having trouble finding a publisher and is running out of savings, so any help you might be able to extend to her would be excellent!

Her call for mutual aid is at @ClarusPlusPlus@gamedev.lgbt

and the listing for the in-progress game can be found at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2986980/Enigma_Heart/ (where it can be wishlisted)

or at https://hadrosoft.itch.io/enigma-heart!

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Jan 15, 2026

Replying to @avavsystems@mastodon.world

@avavsystems@mastodon.world Yeah, it's most certainly a blessing, that hobbyist builders and programmers have been working hard at methods to adapt modern storage mediums to classic hardware. It's just that much more of a way to experience retro hardware without as many of its technical frustrations. It's even better if those modern adapters are aesthetically designed in retro hardware styles!

Berte Bórquez @Berto@woof.tech · Dec 12, 2025

Replying to @paulrickards@mastodon.social

@paulrickards Excellent work! Goodness, that's looking super clean. I've been working my own portable computer based on a Pi 5 -- though, er, it's still most certainly at the casing-made-of-balsa phase, as I got it to a presentable point and then switched gears to an RP2350-based digital watch. Instead of a higher-discharge single battery, I went with four 3Ah batteries connected in parallel, then used two sets of them for two AmpRipper 4000 chargers: one for the Pi 5 itself, another for the USB hub that powers the monitor and any other connected components. It works, but ideally I should be putting in parallel battery managers as well too. Also now that I have more experience with I²C and SPI, I should implement battery stat readers from the chargers. [I'm also planning to combine the output from the two AmpRipper 4000s with an LTC4370.] I did end up going for an HDMI monitor instead of a DSI one, since there were a greater variety of HDMI monitors that were suitable for daily driver use. I tried to use adapters to run HDMI signals over ribbon cables, but the ribbon cables I was using were just not durable at all -- so yeah, regular cables it is. But, yeah, this system has been working well as a primary computer! https://woof.tech/@Berto/114883167574533511 [Pictures of the front are a bit further back in the thread]

Remote instance

woof.tech

Open on original server