Dragonfruit by protieusz - my first trackball build
Dragonfruit by protieusz - my first trackball build
Been daily driving low-profile Gateron switches for a while but wanted to give MX another shot. Mostly so I can use my nice keycaps again. I didn't buy this filament specifically for this build but I think it works really nicely.
Switches are Ergo Clears, lubed and filmed with (IIRC) 45g springs. They were previously on an Ergodox and barely got any use as I switched to smaller boards shortly after modding them and wasn't comfortable with desoldering yet, so I'm happy to have finally found a new home for them.
Caps are MT3 Godspeed, case is Overture Matte PLA (light blue and white), printed on the Sovol SV06 Plus.
It reminds me of a Stanley Mouse graphic used for a lot of Grateful Dead art
How long did it take you to get used to that layout?
Colemak-DH? I switched using the Tarmak series of layouts, which change a few keys at a time from QWERTY until you eventually get to Colemak(-DH). Took about 5 weeks to do the gradual switch, then a couple months before I got speed back up to around where I was with QWERTY. But with that method I stayed at a good enough WPM the whole time to not lose any productivity at work.
How do you find the trackball in the middle? I've been trying something similar by putting one between my split but I find it to be a pain. Maybe it's better integrated?
I've only been using it for a day so I'm still figuring that out. Something about it feels a bit 'off' compared to my Elecom Deft Pro but I'm not sure if that's a hardware or software issue - could just be a smaller ball is harder to get the same accuracy, could be the cheap BTUs I'm using. I'll probably try printing a different trackball holder that uses static bearings to see if I prefer that.
I made a split, even posted it here on c/emk, but at this point I am just too old, yes, too old to begin the training. I had no motivation to actually learn to type on the thing, but rather just wanted to make more keyboards.
This is the first one I've seen that made me (briefly) reconsider. Nice work!
I like it! Although I would prefer 3x6.
There are some similar boards with 3x6 layouts - ffkb and vulpes majora, both by fingerpunch, support 3x6 with a center trackball. I do miss the extra keys a bit with 3x5 layouts - when I eventually design my own board I think I'm going to do a 40 key layout.
I’ve looked at those but the 6th column stagger is a bit much for me with those.
I am terrified yet intrigued by this absolute monster
Great quality on that 3D printed base! Did you model it yourself?
No, I just printed the case files from the GitHub repo.
I was about to mention them - those keycaps are indeed peak functional design for me, just superb.