Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Trackswitch Manuform
Rishikesh Vaishnav's Trackswitch Manuform introduces a mouse-level shift mechanism.
Published February 2, 2023
Rishikesh Vaishnav aka rish-987 has published his Trackswitch Manuform, introducing a clickable trackball which can activate the mouse layer.
According to the author, this keyboard is an attempt to make a best-of-both-worlds combination between the modular design of dereknheiley's Compactyl and the trackball-enabled design of noahprince22's tracktyl manuform.
While the left side of the keyboard features a thumb cluster with five keys, the right side incorporates a trackball mount with a mechanism (consisting of a switch mounted underneath the trackball) that allows the trackball itself to act as a "switch" that can be pressed down to both enable mouse movement and activate the mouse button layer.
This means that you don't have to press any buttons to enter the mouse layer before using the trackball – the action of pressing down the trackball (and thus activating the trackswitch) shifts into the mouse layer. I refer to this collective assembly as the "trackswitch" – Rish.
Both the trackswitch and trackball sensor have fully parameterized mounts with mounting mechanisms that allow their distance from the trackball to be micro-adjustable. The case mounts for the Arduino Micro and Pro Micro devboards are fully parameterized as well.
Resources
Published on Thu 2nd Feb 2023. Featured in KBD #113 (source).
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