Making a keyboard off of a purchased PCB has been fun, but like any good mechanical keyboard junkie, you very quickly discover that it's a slippery slope.
The whole reason I started on this journey was to be able to get my hands on the most ergonomic keyboard, for my poor hands, that I could possibly find. And it wasn't long before I started lusting after a Dactyl of my very own. With no readily available PCB's it's a bit more of a challenge to build, but I think after building 2 keyboards successfully, I can figure it out with a little help from the internet.
So, that brings me to...
Step one - Picking the right Dactyl for my needs.
This is the easy part. I really like the Dactyl Manuform and think the 5x6 is ideal: https://github.com/tshort/dactyl-keyboard
I've been flip-flopping between the Iris (50%) and Fourier (40%) and like them both quite a bit, for different reasons, but I think that the Iris is a bit more user-friendly for everyday use. That's the main reason why, I'm opting for more keys.
Step two - Building the case.
3D Printing is finicky business. I purchased a second-hand printer to learn the ropes and with hopes of getting a Dactyl out of it. It was clear from the start that the resolution was more suited to drafts but I still had high hopes.
After a few weeks of tinkering and practicing on smaller items to iron out the details, I was ready to give the Dactyl a go...
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As you can see, it was clearly a failure. sigh