So you have the cirque glide point trackpads, pimoroni trackball, a nornal trackball and a thumbstick as pointes devices.

All work with qmk and I think there are branches on zmk with some of the above at different stages.

That is if you want to go ergo / custom. Look or ffkb, bastard keyboards and similar sellers for something less custom and pre built.

Depending on where you are, there is also the ploppy trackballs and mice which are open sourced... but thise are devices on their own.

Are you using now a full size keyboard?

I tried a redox to begin with and lt was too steep as a learning curve. I was already touch typing and with the keys in weird places + no longer be able to use my cheats feom the row stagger was horrible.

You can get some benefits from switching to a 65% with split space bar to learn how to use layers and so while keeping most of your muscle memory.

Then start investigating what people use layers for and add a couple to your 65%.

Finally, once you have mastered that, you can start reducing the number of keys and thunk of switching to a small keyboard.

Either 42 or 36 keys is what most people end up with (think corne, sweep, etc)

I did full QWERTY> nibble > choctopus44, and now thinking of something smaller with integrated pointing device

Whatever way you go, I would suggest that you spend a day a week typing on your laptop to retain muscle memory. Part of it is for sure the layout and key combinations, but I found keys very different in feel to both chocs and mx with the super low travel. So that is another thing you need to keep.>

I am on choc sunsets and for tacticale are much better than choc browns (too heavy), and silent enough for office use

Haven't tried linears though ans would bw interesting in hearing opinions, specially on the lifht wnd (20 and 35 grams)

After having a hard time trying to hand solder a fpc connector and just giving up, I would suggest a more regular pin header sort of thing, maybe with two rows? (the ones with 2.54.mm pitch), or something through hole at least.

Otherwise, you are forcing people to either pay for assembly to jlc / pcbway and the sort or fork more money on tips, flux, braid, etc. Fpc is not handsolder friendly. That is, if you are aiming at the diy community.

While probably not a problem for a shop, it makes it more expensive for a few units and complicates (while probably only a bit) the ordering process.

Just my opinion after a bad soldering day.

edit: Note that I love the idea, would help to expand keyboards a great deal and can build the community.

thanks, i had only found Jerboa so far and could not log in... The above should definitely be a sticky post. Now using connect for lemmy, which feels much better than the web!!

This. I built the redox and you do need those resistors, but only on one side if I do not remember wrong

When I started using home row mods I also experienced issues with shortcuts requiring ctrl (copy, paste, cut, dave, select all, close window, new tab, erc)

The solution I found was to map Ctrl in multiple positions only on the left hand so I do not need any contortions

Is this your own design? Are you going to share it somewhere?