this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025

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273

I 3d printed a custom sized keyboard using open source software and hardware designs. (infosec.pub)

submitted 10 months ago by naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

65 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/45765963

The design is based on the excellent Dactyl keyboard, generated with https://ryanis.cool/cosmos/ and it runs the excellent qmk firmware. It is handwired:

and I have also made a palm support using inkscape and openscad

All printed on a reprap prusa i3 derivative.

This helps me use my computer with less pain, so I want to call out all the wonderful projects and people who contribute to them which made it possible.

Total cost? $60 aud, amortised filament ~15 bucks worth maybe? and a lot of my time haha.

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[–] synapse3252@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I will always upvote split ergo (column staggered) keyboards. Nice stuff, looks much much cleaner than the one i made and threw out 😂

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago

I have improvements I will make on my portable keyboard for lappy, but I'm never going back.

They're a lot more comfortable.

[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Okay, Star Platinum.

[–] Rooty@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Man, 3d printing is punk as fuck, I love when people post bespoke shit.

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[–] Blaze@piefed.social 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Very cool! Can I crosspost to !mechanical_keyboards@programming.dev ?

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nobody needs permission to post a link to something somewhere. What horror happened to you?

[–] Blaze@piefed.social 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I've seen it happen before, such as here: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/45667427?scrollToComments=true

Thanks anyway, I'll post right away

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

There are always lunatics, you'd go mad trying to please everyone. It's one thing to not promote harassment. But if you put something into the stormwater drain of the information superhighway it's flowing everywhere with the rest or the shit.

You'd get further cursing the rain for falling on you.

[–] 01189998819991197253 1 points 10 months ago

Holy cow! I didn't know about that community, thank you!

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I love those keycaps 😍

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 10 months ago

https://www.printables.com/model/396950-xda-keycap-set

[–] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago (8 children)

AFAIK you shouldn't need wrist rests, dactyl should allow you to rest on table nicely!

(I have a Scylla)

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[–] Fillicia@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Purple dactyl represents

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Super neat. What are those knobs for?

What kind of switches did you choose?

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Knobs are for knobby things. QMK is extremely configurable. Sometimes they are volume, sometimes seeking, sometimes mouse x and y, sometimes scroll wheel, sometimes keyboard arrows, mostly decorative.

MX browns. I am distinctly not obsessed with keyboards. I just like being able to use computers in postures that don't hurt.

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

sometimes mouse x and y

The anti-trackball.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago

I have a trackball, but for pixel perfect placement etc. The knobs help me draw badly with more precision.

[–] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What did you program your knobs to do? All of the above?

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

indeed. Layers like an onion or an ogre.

[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Respect for your tism.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Looks so good. One day I will build a Dactyl as well, one day.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Pretty easy with that cosmos thing I linked. you can literally drag and drop buttons and shit. Pretty neat!

The most time consuming part was cleaning up the keycap prints as that involved removing support material and a brim for each. Soldering was around 4 hours work.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Very cool!

Honest question, does using a keyboard like this make you forget how to use a standard one?

I know op did it for the pain, so it's a moot point. But if I did it just because it's cool, and to avoid injury in the future, would I mess up my normal keyboard abilities?

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I also switched to colemakdh with a series of layers and qmk tricks. My typing is quite slow so far, around 30 wpm, I was never an amazing typist but I haven't noticed difficulty with standard qwerty layouts.

It's not like you get confused between a harp and a guitar, or a spoon and a knife.

[–] lando55@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I see you've played knifey spoony before

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

for me, switching to dvorak about 10 years ago has made me absolutely useless at typing qwerty… i get used to it after 5min, but much slower than i used to be and wow is it paiiiiiin (both literally in my wrists - the reason i switched, and figuratively in that i feel like im fighting the keyboard for every word)

… or perhaps you mean the differences in physical layout

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

I haven't noticed difficulty. Maybe because the layout is so different, maybe I will with time, or maybe I'm just ~~better than you~~ lucky :p

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As someone who runs an ergodox ez with a custom key layout and who goes in to work from time to time using normal QWERTY keyboards (both English and German configuration), you do not lose anything. It's incredibly easy to switch between every config you have.

I also think most people would appreciate a split keyboard setup because it's so much better for posture and health and comfortability. Would highly recommend.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh now this is different than I've heard, some others have had issues switching back and forth. So maybe I will give it a try, once I've got qwerty up to a decent speed and I feel comfortable with it.

Right now it's a problem because if I'm in a hurry, I'm tempted to type the old way, or a broken mixture of the two that messes with what I've learned. Not good. Gotta slow down and do it right, bah..

Thanks for the recommendations, I'm gonna put a 3d printed split board on my list of things I'll definitely get to some day and totally won't get pushed off the back of the furthest back burner lol

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lol. For context, it took me maybe two weeks to get back up to full speed on a new typing layout. When I moved to Germany they moved some keys around on standard qwerty and it took me a couple of days.

If you're already touch typing I think most changes are easy to adapt to and don't overwrite previous muscle memory. Your brain is powerful, believe it is and it will work.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

That's good to know, thanks! I'm still just learning to touch type. I spent a few decades typing fast enough but always looking at the keys. This year I've started learning touch typing, I'm only a half dozen hours in, so still pretty new.

But when I get good I'll take this into consideration! Thanks!

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I use Colemak on phone and Qwerty on desktop, and never think about it.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Interesting 🤔 why? Just curious

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tried other layouts because it's easy with an on-screen phone keyboard, just an oftion in the app menu, and Colemak felt the most intuitive to use. I didn't have to get used to it, it felt natural from the start.

It's not as easy to switch with a physical keyboard, with so many games having movement and other functions tied to specific keys that assume a qwerty layout, so I kept using what I was used to in that circumstance. I don't even think about it.

One of these days, I'll probably buy/set up a physical Colemak keyboard, and see how that is with games.

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[–] henfredemars 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Way cool. That looks really professional, too.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Thank you, if I have produced anything decent it is entirely owed to those who went before and were selfless enough to leave directions.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 3 points 10 months ago

What the hell is this madness?

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I moved to Germany and had to sell my 3d printer for the move, but when I pick up a new one finalizing a custom dactyl keyboard will be one of my first projects. I use an ergodox ez right now (they're amazing do check them out if you want a pre built solution), but I want as many thumb keys as I can possibly handle so I want to upgrade to a custom solution.

This is really cool to see, thanks for sharing!

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Can I have one?

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