• Dactyl Manuform 5x6 full with trackball.
  • Resin case, Amoeba King PCBs, and hot swaps.
  • Used Kailh Box Navy switches.
  • Adafruit KB2040 and PMW3389 for the controllers.
  • TRRS with full duplex between the halves.

Took my sweet time wiring up to not burn myself out, but I think it was worth the wait! My soldering skills certainly improved by the end of it. 😅

Also, big shout-out to Wylderbuilds!

    • XyreOP
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      38 months ago

      Thanks! I knew it was a bit ambitious going in but figured it’d be worth it if I managed to pull it off.

    • XyreOP
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      48 months ago

      It’s the intersection of Ergonomic and Mechanical keyboards. Some people get into it due to RSI, because it’s more comfortable, looks cool, or just for fun!

      Some companies do sell premades or even manufactured products. You can also 3d print a case and build it yourself. There’s a lot of customization that can go into it. From RGB and OLEDs, to trackballs or thumbsticks. Which depending on what you’re looking for may force you to DIY.

    • XyreOP
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      48 months ago

      So far, so good! I do think I need to tweak the DPI a bit but was actually surprised how quickly it felt normal to use. And I can easily reach all the keys. It’s a similar layout to the Kinesis Advantage that I’ve used for a long time.

      Only issue I’ve discovered so far is that I might need to put some rubber feet on it or something. I found it slides around my desk a little too much. 😅

    • @olafurp@lemmy.world
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      38 months ago

      I have a similar keyboard and prefer regular keyboard when playing starcraft for example. Most games shourd be fine though.

    • XyreOP
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      38 months ago

      Haven’t tried it yet. The plan going in was to try and ditch the mouse entirely. It may take some tweaks and remapping but I hope to make it work!

      • @Necromnomicon@lemmy.world
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        48 months ago

        A gaming layer with the entire left side “shifted to the right one” so WASD falls on ESDF has worked well for me. I use a quick toggle layer on the right hand side to switch back to my typing layer and then back to gaming if I need to type something up in game.

  • Shadow
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    28 months ago

    I’m on the edge of doing a very similar build, but how do you find the buttons in front of the trackball? Is the ball big enough you don’t hit those keys accidentally?

    • XyreOP
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      28 months ago

      Yup! My thumb rests on the enter key but can still use the trackball without triggering it. I do wish there was a little more space between those two keys but otherwise it’s fine.

      • Shadow
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        28 months ago

        Is that breakout board you’re using for the trackball? (I just ordered a raw sensor)

        • XyreOP
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          38 months ago

          It’s the PMW3389. Following Wylderbuilds’ trackball guide I soldered a header onto it to make it easier to connect.

          • Shadow
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            38 months ago

            Thanks, wasn’t aware of the nicer versions on tindie.

  • @bbuez@lemmy.world
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    28 months ago

    Really slick! I just recently started browsing ergo and you have me inspired now! I do have to ask, what was your considerations incorporating the trackball on the keyboard as opposed to a separate trackball mouse? And how do you click? Those two arrows underneath?

    • XyreOP
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      8 months ago

      My main motivator was to stop having to take my hand off the keyboard to use the mouse. It’s inefficient and ultimately I was worried I was developing RSI in my shoulder. The alternative would be to have keyboard navigation everywhere but that’s not always feasible.

      The mouse buttons are the arrows on the left thumb. I was worried putting them on the same thumb for click and drag actions. They’re layered for secondary buttons too, so <-||- is Left or when the layer is activated Backward and -||-> is Right or Forward.

      The arrows on the right are also layered with PgUp or Home and PgDn or End.

  • @DanL4@lemmy.world
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    28 months ago

    How do you find the right hand thumb keys? How many of them do you need and how many are east and comfortable to reach?

    • XyreOP
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      28 months ago

      No issue with the right thumb keys. I do think it might be possible to squeeze one more key in, but would be a bit of a design challenge.

      I can easily reach all of them comfortably. Depending on the key, I use different parts of the thumb to hit it. For example, space uses the inside of the thumb whereas enter is closer to the pad on my hand.

  • @Necromnomicon@lemmy.world
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    28 months ago

    Looking really good. How comfortable do you find the left thumb cluster? I’ve been eyeing that layout for my next build. You don’t see too many DM with a full bottom row like that, interesting, what did you use to to make that happen?

    • XyreOP
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      28 months ago

      The left thumb is pretty similar to the Kinesis Advantage which I’ve used for years. No issues with comfort there!

      The layout is a 5x6 full matrix. Wylderbuilds has the option to print with it, but I think the software used to generate the model supports it as well.