Woooaaah nelly! These Dactyl boards sure are popular!
Spoiler Alert: That's because they're great!
I post a lot projects that I'm tinkering with on my instagram account and my boss reached out to me to ask about comissioning a custom Dactyl Manuform as a surprise for his wife! WHEE! Of course I was totally up for it!
I really, really, love building mechanical keyboards but I already have 4. Considering I only have one desk and one set of hands, there's no way I need more (Said no member of r/mechanicalkeyboards, ever.). If I can build keyboards for other people, then I get the joy of building them and none of the hassle of choosing a favourite among my keyboard babies. Err, forget I said that. That's not to say I'm open to doing comissions for just anyone, they do take up a considerable amount of my time. I already have too many hobbies to squeeze into what little free time I do have.
After going over some options, we decided to keep the board relatively quiet and went with linear switches (Cherry MX Red) for the alpha keys, and Tactile switches (Cherry Brown) for the modifiers. This gives some more feedback when typing and learning to type on the dactyl. We also decided, since he liked the gradient of my Iris keycaps, to get the keycaps printed from WASD Keyboards. I've used them before and their customer service is outstanding, the prices are very reasonable and they're lightening quick with production. The bonus with designing your own keycaps is that you can change the labels to suit your layout.
Again, this was printed on the Prusa is MK3 with black PLA filament which really needs no finishing. I find that's the biggest bonus of upgrading my printer. All that's left to do after printing is ripping out the supports, which is kind of the best part!
So after waiting for the rest of the supplies to arrive (RJ9 Cables and Connectors, and some more Microcontrollers) it was finally time to assemble.
Here's the finished board, I think it's really sharp! (I know, I know I'm biased. What's your point?)
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I'm getting quicker at handwiring these bad boys, though it's generally not a quick biuld. Even with practice the shape makes the corners awkward so, it still takes a good 5-8 hours of tinkering.
Dactyl Build - Completed 03-May-2019
Worth it.
I'm going to need to take a break for a while, although I still have some pro micros, switches, cables and connectors on hand.... you know, just in case.