The hand wiring is really easy. It just takes a long time.

Basically it’s just a grid, and a diode per switch. Then you wire each column and each row into a microcontroller.

You can do it!

My first job was extracting text from pdfs, in the end OCR was the most reasonable way. This was back in like 2010 when it was waaaaay harder.

Everyone who enjoys cosmic horror should read the PDF spec. https://pdfa.org/resource/pdf-specification-archive/

You can embed 3d models in PDF.

You shouldn’t but you can!

If you need stuff printed I, or someone more local, would be more than happy to help. Otherwise all the knowledge and tools are available for free.

Tried ball transfer units?

I’ve found Ruby balls ok sometimes but BTUs are where it’s at. Expensive though.

How is trackball? I wasn’t sure how easily layering would work giving up easy access to half the thumb cluster.

Tinkering with electronics alone indoors is like the opposite of punk.

I strongly recommend checking verticle clearance for the microcontroller if you angle it.

I also strongly recommend living somewhere where asking for enameled wire with an enamel that can be burned off with solder doesn’t get you blank stares.

If you can’t do the latter Livingston sells scapels which work well to remove insulation in the middle of wires.

There are always lunatics, you’d go mad trying to please everyone. It’s one thing to not promote harassment. But if you put something into the stormwater drain of the information superhighway it’s flowing everywhere with the rest or the shit.

You’d get further cursing the rain for falling on you.

What could I learn from that?

The person has not built a dactyl, they have not used this dactyl which has several customisations, they have not sat at my desk, they don’t have my body.

They’re just stating something useless from a position of ignorance because… why? If you don’t know what you’re talking about just don’t say anything. 90% of the misinformation on the internet would disappear overnight if people followed that. As a happy side effect men online might learn some basic manners too.

I have a trackball, but for pixel perfect placement etc. The knobs help me draw badly with more precision.

I haven’t noticed difficulty. Maybe because the layout is so different, maybe I will with time, or maybe I’m just better than you lucky :p

That’s not helpful

Helpful, how? Obviously I am using palm rests because it is more comfortable than not using palm rests. If I have made them to a specific height one might imagine I had a specific reason no?

indeed. Layers like an onion or an ogre.

I also switched to colemakdh with a series of layers and qmk tricks. My typing is quite slow so far, around 30 wpm, I was never an amazing typist but I haven’t noticed difficulty with standard qwerty layouts.

It’s not like you get confused between a harp and a guitar, or a spoon and a knife.

Nobody needs permission to post a link to something somewhere. What horror happened to you?

Never ask a lady about her beaver(s).

My beavers have wet fur, and a variety of things to play on.

Pretty easy with that cosmos thing I linked. you can literally drag and drop buttons and shit. Pretty neat!

The most time consuming part was cleaning up the keycap prints as that involved removing support material and a brim for each. Soldering was around 4 hours work.