First working prototype

I finally managed to get the full, first working prototype. I am typing with it right now. Here is the picture:

left

And a video walkthrough of the current state:

First typing impressions

I’ve been using it for a couple of days, and here are my current impressions:

The escape key definitely needs a stepped keycap. I accidentally pressed Esc too many times already. I am, however, getting used to it quite quickly.
The costar stabilisers are very unpleasant. They make a very metallic high-pitched noise and the feedback on the key is quite unpleasant. They also tend to stick on rare occasions. I’ll have to go with Cherry next time.
I am not feeling a lot of difference on the 2.75 spacebars, but I definitely use more the right side. This is strange because in the kinesis I tend to use both of them equally. At least so I think. I’ll check tomorrow.
The short Shifts are not a good idea. They feel very unnatural and I think I’ll have to revert to a traditional shift, losing two additional keys I really wanted to have. The Kinesis also has a short shift on the right side, but it’s padded left, not right, and has a shoulder.
Next time I’ll use DSA profile. The reason is that DCS profiles are way less reusable, considering that you have to honor both the length and the shape.
The support screws are too close to the Enter key and the Esc key. I’ll have to move them.

Next steps

Due to COVID, I lacked access to the makespace for many, many months. This has put a damp on my enthusiasm and, most importantly, I had no access to the fundamental tools I needed to keep the project going. I spent some time thinking about the current state of the project, and I decided to start from scratch. I learned a lot from the prototype but now it’s time to treasure the experience and start again with a more sensible design.