deskthority

For saving costs, the DIY approach is always an option... Here's mine.

Anyway, survey filled! I'm baffled as to why mechs with TrackPoints aren't more popular.

I drew the T40 schematic, feel free to post it anywhere you want - however, I shamelessly ripped the photo of the board on it from some other TrackPoint thread, either here on Deskthority or on geekhack. I don't remember which and can't speak for the photo author.

If it helps, I'm also in Europe and recently built my first board. I got the Cherry plate-mount stabs from SPRiT:
deskthority.net/group-buys-f50/mx-springs-via-proxy-shipping-geekhack-t8416.html

You can reduce the number of pins needed if you don't mind rewiring the matrix in a different way. E.g. for a 104-key you could use a matrix of 13x8=104, which uses only 13+8=21 controller pins. The closer to a square, the more keys you can have; e.g. a matrix of 10x11 allows 110 keys using the same...