The time has come to begin the Dactyl Manuform!
Thanks to some incredibly fast shipping form Aliexpress, some forethought, and some borrowed supplies from co-workers I have everything I need to get cracking on this. Right off the bat, it's clear that completing the wiring in the case of the dactyl is tight at best, and downright impossible in the deepest corners where I found myself melting the case with the soldering tip more than once.
I had really grand visions of knocking everyone's socks off with how tidy my wiring was going to turn out, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.
Dactyl Build 12-01-2018
Even though the quaity of this print is way better that anything I could produce, I found that some of the switches would pop out when removing the keycaps and considering there is no circuit board to hold them in place, you wouldn't want to rip out wires just for swapping a cap. For that reason, I used a bit of hot glue on the underside of the switches to help secure them to the case. I also added bits of hot glue to hold the wires where I wanted them for the rows, and I'll likely do the same for the columns. However, it's clear that this is ruining the aesthetic I was going for. sigh
I'm also being doubly cautious and checking each solder connection as I go so that I, hopefully, will have a fully functioning keyboard when I'm done. I'm a little worried about shorts, but I think the hot glue will also act as insulation when needed and will secure the wires so there's no accidential connections....
I think.