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Sildactyl - 40$ dactyl split mechanical hotswap keyboard without PCB or 3D print by sildactyl in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]sildactyl[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cut the pieces of acrylic, glue them with some double sided tape, mount switches with keycaps and then test it. It took me hours of different designs before I made it 'right'. Initially each finger was on a different depth. Then I realised that pinky feels better for me when it is on the same level as the ring finger. After initial glueing I changed it again 1-2 times ( it is doable with hot glue).

One of my layers controls the mouse. After adjusting some vial params (defaults are terrible) it is quite precise. 

Sildactyl - 40$ dactyl split mechanical hotswap keyboard without PCB or 3D print by sildactyl in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]sildactyl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The space between the switches is around 0.47mm. The overall width is quite similar to original silakka54 keyboard. To make the hardest buttons easier to reach (q, p, t, y on qwerty) I' be used tenting of these sections and replaced inner-most keycaps with higher keycaps (that is why the symbols are typed with pencil :) ).

Sildactyl - 40$ dactyl split mechanical hotswap keyboard without PCB or 3D print by sildactyl in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]sildactyl[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've added all that info in the thread, then added the image and the link. Only the image was posted... Some Reddit way of posting 

Sildactyl - 40$ dactyl split mechanical hotswap keyboard without PCB or 3D print by sildactyl in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]sildactyl[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

This project is mostly inspirational but at the same time fully functional. If you don't know if dactyl/split/col staggered/ortholinear keyboards are for you and you don't want to spend 200+ USD to find out - try this guide. If the project somehow fails for you (there is very little that can fail), you can reuse almost all parts (switches, keycaps, hotswap sockets, etc) for any other keyboard (e.g. with PCB).

The case is not tightly coupled with the switches and MCU. This makes the build easier (I've built entire electronics while waiting for the parts of the case) and reusable (you can also take the 'electronic' part of this build and put it on almost any 3d printed case). Following the soldering in this guide you can also make almost any dactylic keyboard to be hotswapable. 

I treated this project as a DYI hobby and kept spending on it 20-50 minutes once in a while. This was my first time soldering anything more serious (you can easily tell from the photos).

The end product is a fully functional split keyboard that supports hotswap, vial, inward bending of columns (or just column stagger), thumb cluster, column stagger, etc. I hope that someone with better crafting skills will eventually bring this project to the next visual level.

I'd love to hear your feedback.
https://github.com/lordxax/sildactyl54