Hi folks, I’ve been working on this keyboard pretty much since January of this year, and I’ve finally got it to the point that I can call it done! If you’d like to build one, all files are available here.

This is an MX-based keyboard, 36 keys with integrated trackball. The github page has a bunch more details. I also have a choc version in dev using the same style that’s based off the Trinidox.

Let me know what you think!

  • r_wraith@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Oh man, what are you doing to me? I have almost everything together to build a Charybis and have procrastinated the hell out of that project and now I need to have new stuff printed and restart my whole procrastination routine?
    No seriously, this is one extremely fine and finished looking keyboard.
    Can the pi PICO accommodate two trackball halves?
    Do you have a picture or video of you typing on it?
    I am very interested how far you have to move your hand to reach the trackball.

    • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      haha sorry! Decisions are tough…I say build both :-)

      I’m not quite sure what you mean by two trackball halves…do you mean a trackball on both the left and right? Totally possible if that’s what you mean since each side has a uC…but I think I’m not quite catching your question.

      I’ll get some pics of hand on home row and hand on trackball. I aim for it to be equivalent to a “row shift”, meaning when using the trackball, the fingers rest comfortably on the top row which then become the mouse buttons. This works well if you use HJKL for VIM style arrow keys since it can all be on the same nav layer: home row for arrows, top row for mouse buttons. Take a peek at the Trinidox page I linked to…it has pictures of home row and trackball use and should be very similar to the flow-MX36.

      Thanks for your interest! Keep me posted…would love to see another build in the wild!

      • r_wraith@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        You were correct, I would like to have one two trackballs, one per halve.
        The pics would still be great, but your method of moving the whole hand up one row sounds, without ever having tried a contoured keyboard with integrated trackball, as the best placement solution I have seen so far.

        • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Ok, ya should totally be possible to have 2 trackballs. You made me think I should provide details about the trackball placement philosophy on the github page… I’ve been neck deep in this design for so long, I’ve forgotten many of the design features that makes it unique. Touch base of you make one! Would be awesome to see a double trackball version :-)

          • r_wraith@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Perfectly understandable. :)
            You say that it is possible to use Amoeba-PCBs in the Flow-MX36. Have you wired yours using them? I wonder if there is enough space, especially in the thumb cluster and innermost columns. If I ever stop procrastinating and try to build it, I would like to use Amoeba Kings with it.

            • Drudge@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              I built it using amoeba royales. It’s certainly tight. I modeled the amoebas plus components and had a cutter to create the necessary space, so that part was pretty easy. The tightest key is the bottom row on the left most column (for the right side case with trackball). It fits but needs a little jiggling.