Hello, all. Lots of stuff going on here.
These pictures aren't full builds, obviously. Rather, they're trial prints of some standard dactyl manuform models I plan to offer. They'll be available as kits and for full builds at a solidly lower price point than our fully custom builds. I want to make manuforms with a nice selection of bells and whistles more generally affordable.
So, I'd like to gauge the thoughts of folks on here and see what features as standard make the most sense.
That's a 6x7 in the main image, but I'm also planning a 3x6:
And a 5x6:
My current plan is that they include by default:
A. One trackball with regular pointer and dragscroll modes. Can choose left side or right side.
B. One rotary encoder above the trackball set as volume control and mute on base layer and page up/page down on other layers.
C. One OLED screen on the non-trackball side displaying current keymap layer, active mod keys, mouse mode, and words-per-minute.
D. Pi Pico or other rp2040 controllers.
E. USB-C cabling all around.
F. QMK firmware with Vial support for editing the keymaps, layers, and other features on the fly.
As a base set of features, how do those sound to folks?
Outstanding bits I'm still debating:
A. Are there other sizes missing here that you'd all rather see? 3x5? 4x6? 6x6?
B. Hot swap support always or hand-wired switches? If hard-wired, what selection of switches and keycaps would you like to see? I know that's an insane question as the options are endless. The point here is lower cost, though, not high end. I want to offer whole-package builds, ready to plug in and start typing, and forgoing hot swap would save on overall cost and build time.
C. Wireless? ZMK firmware is coming on strong and I'm doing quite a few wireless builds these days. It would add to price considerably, though.
D. Any other features? Other firmwares? Other controllers or hardware?
Would love to hear any and all thoughts.
And, of course, here's the plug for the store:
There's still slots to get a full build at 10% off! Just use discount code WYLD_BUNCH at checkout.
https://wylderbuilds.com/shop/p/dactyl-manuform-build
Also, I have DOZENS of old stock prints. Test prints. Prints with the wrong features or sizing. And, of course, prints with slight failures or cosmetic issues. Since dactyl manuforms are such a departure for most people, I'm offering these halves at five bucks a pop (plus shipping) so anyone curious can actually throw switches on and get their hands on one to see how it feels. It'll be a random side and size, just specify if you want left or right ($5 each) or both ($9). If you get both, just know they're unlikely to match if we don't have a matching pair.
Hand Sizing Prints https://wylderbuilds.com/shop/p/hand-size-print
Cheers, thanks for another great year, and keep typing like a God!
Andy @ Wylderbuilds
