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Help needed with my first build!

Hey guys, looking for advice on my first build. I'm looking forward to building a Dactyl Manuform but I've run into some hiccups that I seek your advice on. I apologize in advance if my English is a bit wonky.

  1. Wireless? I thought about going wireless and ordering a pair of nice!nano controllers. I assume it will be a bit easier to assemble (less components) and I can switch between devices easily, but I've heard it's a bit harder to troubleshoot. Is this a good idea or should I go wired for a first build? How do I go about connecting the battery and which batteries should I look into?

  2. How to solder? Most of the Dactyl tutorials and guides I've come across assume some level of soldering experience and skip over some steps - I have none whatsoever but I'm a very willing self-learner. What are some good resources to learn how to do this? I'm talking basic stuff including things like where all the components go and which connect to which.

  3. Compatible switches? I've looked into tactile switches and loved the sound (or lack of) Gazzew Boba U4 Black Silent. Would these be compatible and a good alternative to standard cherry mx switches?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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  • Wireless? I thought about going wireless and ordering a pair of nice!nano controllers. I assume it will be a bit easier to assemble (less components) and I can switch between devices easily, but I’ve heard it’s a bit harder to troubleshoot. Is this a good idea or should I go wired for a first build? How do I go about connecting the battery and which batteries should I look into?

    I don't think it's meaningfully easier to build a wireless board, since you have to deal with batteries and (preferably) power switches. It's also more expensive to get two nice!nanos and batteries (although there are some other wireless controllers available now, some of which are probably cheaper).

    ZMK, the firmware used for most wireless builds, is pretty different in its workflow from QMK. It's great, but there's not as much documentation and it is indeed harder to troubleshoot as the error messages on builds are less informative.

    Re: how to connect batteries, it depends, but if you're doing a fully handwired build, you you can just wire the battery directly to the controller. A power switch between the controller and the battery will help a ton if you ever need to transport the board, since there's no soft lockout in ZMK.

    Re: sourcing a battery, there's a type of very small lipo battery that is often sold together with the nice!nano by vendors. Those work fine if you don't need any power-hungry features like lighting or a screen. You can get bigger equivalents of those batteries in a huge range of sizes as well, if you want. You can source them from lots of places.

    Compatible switches? I’ve looked into tactile switches and loved the sound (or lack of) Gazzew Boba U4 Black Silent. Would these be compatible and a good alternative to standard cherry mx switches?

    Shouldn't be a compatibility issue, any MX switch should work. One thing to watch out for though would be, for 3d printed builds, using switches that were out of spec in terms of housing size. Some switches are a little bigger or smaller than others.