Motivation

My main goal for this post is to simply provdie a helpful supplement to other more detailed build guides.
Many of the build guides I followed while building my dacytl manuform skipped relevant information, information critical to the function of the keyboard. My guess is that these guides assumed prior knowledge.

Ergonomic Dactyl Kalih Box Navy Jades Build

Features:
Hotswappable
Key Layout: QWERTY, maybe DVORAK
QMK Configurable
Kalih Box Navy

Parts and Materials

Parts Specs Count Price URL
Keyboard Case 5x6 Standard with Kalih Hot Swap 1 order(2 pcs) $85.00 link
Diodes 1N4148 2368-1N4148-ND 100 pcs $4.24 link
Kalih Hot-Swappable Sockets holds switches in place for wiring 1 order (100 pcs) $14.50 link
M3 Threaded Inserts   1 order (100 pcs) $13.89 link
M3 Screws assortiment M3 Comptatible screws 1 order (304 pcs) $9.99 link
Wires Jumper Wires 120 pcs $6.98 link
Elite-C V4 USB-C Pro Micro 2 pcs $35.98 link
Key Switches NovelKeys x Kaihua Box Navy 70 pcs $29.40 link
TRRS Jack PJ-320A Jack - 3.5mm 2 pcs $1.00 link
TRRS Cable B07PJW6RQ7 - 5ft 1 order (2 pcs) $6.99 link
Reset Switch Reset Pushbutton Switch 2 pc $1.00 link
Keycaps Matcha ZDA PBT Keycap set 1 order(124 pcs) $32.90 link
PCB (Optional) Amoeba Single-Switch PCBs 3 order(90 pcs) $14.97 link
Rubber Feet Sticky rubber feets 1 order (100 pcs) $3.99 link
Gel wrist rests (Optional) Silicone Gel Mouse Pad 1 order (2 pcs) $15.00 link
Wrist rests (Optional) 3D printed wirst rests 1 order (2 pcs) $14.00 link

Total Cost excluding PCB not used in this build: $274.86 (Not including shipping and taxes)

Notes on Materials

  • The switches you decide to use will can change your total cost drastically.
  • The key switches is where you want to ball out and pimp your keybaord.
  • Research carefully and select the key switches you want. Switches.mx has great information on different switches. For example, this is the info they have on the Kalih BOX Navy.
  • Make sure to listen to key switches sound tests and look at the force-graphs to see the actuation points. This is especially important if you play games and want faster key presses.
  • If you end up going with alps switches make sure to get the proper keycaps.
  • If you want to save some money buy most of parts and materials on aliexpress but the downside of purchasing the parts on aliexpress is the shipping time, usually over 30 days or longer.

Tools

Tools Use Case URL
Glue Gun Glue things in place. link
Rosin Core solder Used for soldering. link
Small fan Stop fumes from going into your body. link
Soldering Station Soldering the metal contacts. link
Soldering Pencil Alternative tool for fine soldering. link
Heat Insulation Mat Used to organize tools and materials and prevent destruction of your table. link
Helping hands Extra hands are nice to have. link
MX Switch opener If you want to lube your switches. link
Keycap remover Remove Keycaps safely and efficiently. link
Tweezers Great tool for tiny manuevers. link
wire cutter Cut wires. link
wire stripper Strip wires. link

Notes on Tools

  • I would advice going to a maker studio to build the keyboard as they will have many of the tools I have listed above but if you going to build more things in the future I would recommend investing in some of these tools.

  • Do not cheap out on the tools if you decide to build at home because you will end up wasting your time which will make your build process painful and future projects a misery.

  • For the soldering tool I would recommend the hakko station I linked above or better yet a Soldering pencil because of the somewhat small soldering pointpoints; a fine tip for the gun or pencil helps dramatically.

  • Personally, I purchased a Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station and used my desoldering pump I purchased for my ECE class and the keyboard build was somewhat easy overall.

Build Guide Informations & Tips

Intial 3D Printout

Inital 3D Printout

Wiring

  • Follow Nick Green’s Build log to build the keybaord. I like said in my intial motivation for this post. I wanted to create a supplement and point out caveats of the build process.
    • His wiring diagram was propably the most important guide for my build. See the image below.
    • wiring diagram

  • Follow aaronmak’s build guide to see how the kalih hotswap sockets are setup.

  • If you buy the cheaper, regular (non-hotswappable) case from Andrew on etsy.com which is what I recommend after completing my build. but you decide you want a hostwappable keybaord then I would highly recommend the Amoeba Single-Switch PCBs as the PCB enables hotswappablenes.

  • The only annoying part of the single pcbs from keebio is that 1 order has 30 pcs and you need 64 pieces of the PCB for the dactyl build so you end spending extra for the extra 4 PCBs.

  • FYI, I purchased the hotswappable case from Andrew on esty.com.

  • If you decide to use the PCB do not break them into individual parts before attaching the switches to the PCB, attach the switches first and then break them apart.
    See this reddit thread for more help on the amoeba PCB wiring setup with the dactyl manuform.

Compiling code for custom QMK keymaps

If you are on windows follow the windows tab on from the follwing link in order to setup your build environment. Setup QMK build Enivronment I used Setup QMK and QMK toolbox on Macos

Install Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install qmk

brew install qmk/qmk/qmk

Make sure to read the output from the installation of the qmk software installation. It will inform you if you need to install any additionaly dependencies neccessary for build and compiling your .hex file

Install a proper editor ;) 

brew install neovim

Use the text editor to edit the keymaps and compile to create the .hex file.

Flashing

Install qmk toolbox The annoying thing on windows is that every time you connect the pro mirco by usb the os thinks it is being “smart” by automatically installing drivers for the pro micro so you have to be physically fast clicking on flash in order to flash the hex file before windows recognizes the chip as a different device.

You do not have to install qmk toolbox if you don’t want as qmk supports flashing the hex file you generate from the command line. QMK toolbox is just easier and less error prone.

qmk compile -kb handwired/dactyl_manuform/6x6 -km custom;
qmk compile -kb handwired/dactyl_manuform/6x6 -km custom_right;

  • These two commands will create 2 hex files and place them in $QMK_HOME directory.

  • Use the QMK toolbox gui application to flash these hex files on the left and right pro micros.

  • If you don’t want to edit any code use QMK’s Online Configurator to create the hex files.

Personal QWERTY Keymap for Dactyl

Try loading the default hex as shown by the GUI, connect the left half to USB, with both halves connected together. Short the VCC and a GND port to put it in bootloader mode, and immediately hit flash in QMK Toolbox. Then, disconnect the left half and flash the right half the same way, with the same file. Then connect the left half again, and you should be getting letters when you type.

Final Setup

Final Setup with Gameball

misc advice

  • Enable EE_HANDS in the rules.mk in the directory for the left half.

  • Add a reset key known as RESET to a layer through the QMK firmware. This allows you to but the keyboard in flash mode using a key press on the actual keyboard.

  • Use the jumper wires I linked above as the wires you connect to the pro mircos and pcb or the hot swaps or directly to the key switches if you decide to not go for a hotswappable build.

  • If you decide to directly solder the switches make sure to get glue sticks the glue gun I linked above has plenty of glue included.

  • You will aslo want NKRO (N-Key Rollover) to prevent ghosting — letters missing from what you actually typed, or additional letters that you didn’t type. NKRO should be naturally possible if you add a diode to each key switch. You will also want to enable NKRO in the keyboard’s firmware by editing the rules.mk file in both of your custom folders.

  • A regular aux cable will not work because it is a trs cable and you need a trrs cable in order to transmit data signals between the two pro micros.

  • If you are building the dactyl manuform you have the option to use a RJ-9 female to female connection to connect the two halves. If I had to start over I would have gone with this approach because you don’t have to remember to always connect the two halves first before connecting to your computer.

Mistakes I made

Getting the case printed without the Kalih Hot swap holders and buying the amoeba PCBs which I ended up not using.
This would save some money. Also the plastic holders in the hotswap case 3D print by Andrew did not really hold the hot swaps in place well, they occasionally fell out.

QMK Firmware Repo
QMK Official Documentation
QMK Online Configurator
Nick Green’s Build log
David Balatero’s Flashing Guide and Keymap setup

Handwiring Guide
Resources Gist