💻🎉 Meet my newest #MechanicalKeyboard: the #Keyball61! 🎉💻

This has been, without a doubt, one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever taken on. Unlike my previous keyboards, which were hot-swappable and mostly plug-and-play, this masterpiece required me to learn how to solder—a completely new skill! 🛠️✨

From diodes to hot-swap sockets, microcontrollers, OLED screens, TRRS connectors, and even the mount for the trackball, I had to solder every single component. 🧠🔥

It was a steep learning curve, and I’m not ashamed to admit I sacrificed a few diodes along the way (those things are tiny!). But by the end, my soldering skills had improved massively, and I couldn’t be prouder of the result. 💪

What makes the Keyball61 so cool?
✨ It’s super compact and portable —I can throw it in a carry case and take it anywhere, from my home office to work. Plus having the trackball built in means it's your mouse too!

✨ You can program two different layouts, one for each side. Plug the USB-C cable into the left side, and it’s one layout. Plug it into the right side, and it switches to a 2nd layout. How cool is that?! 🤯 I didn't even know that when I bought the parts.

This tiny, mighty keyboard is about to replace my regular setup, and I couldn’t be more excited to see how it holds up. It’s a productivity tool and a conversation starter all in one.

Big shoutout to the keyboard community forums for the guidance and tutorials along the way. If you’re thinking of building your own, my advice is: just dive in and give it a go—you might surprise yourself!

Now I'm down to 3x5+2.5 keys per side with my custom #keymap on my beloved #keyball61  

https://github.com/fooker/keyball/blob/ballplay/qmk_firmware/keyboards/keyball/keyball61/keymaps/fooker/keymap.c