Old version in the back, new version in the front. Fresh off the printing bed. Haven’t tested it yet, but pretty happy on first inspection. Have a few sneaky features. Aiming to release it in a month or so to the community. Using it as an excuse to try out Lemmy :-)
This is awesome. Great work! The track balls give me
ofFlight of the Navigator vibes.Almost a month later, release coming?
It’s getting close… But I’m a bit hung up. I’m building the second cut using amoebas so I have a bunch of soldering to do… Trying to drum up the motivation. I figure if it’s a feature of the case, I should test it :-)
Thanks for the interest! I haven’t forgotten about it, hehe
This is awesome! What keycaps are on both sides?
Thanks!! The one with the grey trackball has Chicago Stenos by Asymplex and the black trackball has LDSAs by Daryl from lowpro keyboards.
Awesome, thank you!!
Dang that looks crazy. With carpal tunnel I was considering building one. This is great inspiration !
Super cool! I’ve been looking at a 3x5+2 dactyl, and thought about trying to squeeze a trackball in there too. This design is so close to what I envision as my ideal keyboard.
What controller/firmware are you looking at?
Controller will be a PI pico from We Act, the old version is using a blackpill. Under the hood, it’s running QMK. I also have an MX version in the works, actually it’s currently my daily driver, hmut there’s some small tweaks that need to be made…trackball positioning is super hard to get right.
Curious, what is it missing from your ideal keyboard? I’m open to making changes…
Fewer keys is the main one, I whittled my layout on a preonic down to 34 keys and have a ferris sweep now which I am very happy with.
I want to try some more options in terms of form factor, but keep the same key count, a 34 key dactyl was next on my list, with the idea of integrating a trackball potentially.
There are a few builds out there with the dactyl + trackball combo, but every person that makes and shares their process makes it easier for the next person, so kudos to you.
Ah OK…I have a 36 key MX variant also close to being released which is closer to what you’re after…assuming you’re OK with MX.
Damn, that’s a ton of hard work… but is it actually practical?? I can’t imagine myself getting used to the shape
It just takes a bit of practice. I was already a touch typist, so I didn’t find it that hard to learn. Aside from the ergonomic benefits, having the trackball right on the keyboard is huge…no more moving between mouse and keyboard. I use this keyboard or others like it all day at work. I can still type on a normal keyboard at my normal speed, but my strong preference is keyboard like this one :-)
Beautiful!
Thanks!
