This is a fork of Dactyl Manuform keyboard, which in-turn is a fork of the Dactyl Keyboard

For many people, Dactyl's thumb cluster sits too high. The Dactyl Manuform fixed this issue by using a thumb cluster that is lower on the z axis, and also curves downwards. Unfortunately, the Manuform thumb cluster ends up too far away from the home row, requiring stretching of the thumb to reach the thumb keys.

In normal keyboards, the thumbs rest on the space bar. The tip of the thumb is actually 1.5 to 2 rows below the home row, between key B and the space bar. Comparing with the original dactyl, the manuform variant's thumbs keys are much further away, mostly more than 2 rows below the home row.

• A pivoting thumb cluster.
• Adjustable tenting.
• No more hollowing sound caused by the big case.
• Greater flexibility to key placement. We don't need to worry about installation clearance.
• 3d printing of these cases takes less plastic, reducing waste.
• When customizing the design, each part can be experimented on separately, leading to faster prototyping and less waste.

In this repo, we try to bring the thumb keys back closer to the thumb resting position -- 1.5 to 2 rows below home row, at the same time keep the thumb cluster low and curves downwards, reducing stress on the thumb. During this process we created two versions:

dactyl-closed.clj

This file describe a fulled enclosed case just like the Dactyl Manuform. We managed to bring thumb keys much closer to the home row. Unfortunately, not quite close as we want, due to clearance issue between the thumb cluster and the finger keys plate. We have to leave enough installation clearance for installing and soldering key switches below the plate. This forced us to leave gaps bewteen the thumb cluster and the finger keys.

dactyl-open.clj

This file describe an open frame and multi-part design. This design not only allows us to bring the thumb keys closer to the home row, it offers other benefits:

• A pivoting and adjustable thumb cluster.
• Adjustable tenting.
• No more hollowing sound caused by the big case.
• 3d printing of these cases takes less plastic, and less time.
• When customize the design, each part can be experimented on seperatedly, leading to faster prototyping.

Setting up the Clojure environment

• Install the Clojure runtime
• Install the Leiningen project manager
• Install OpenSCAD

Generating the design

• cd into the root of the project
• Run lein repl
• Load the file (load-file "src/dactyl_pivot/dactyl.clj")
• This will generate or regenerate the things/*.scad files
• Use OpenSCAD to open a .scad file.
• Make changes to design, repeat load-file, OpenSCAD will watch for changes and rerender.
• When done, use OpenSCAD to export STL files

Tips

• Some other ways to evaluate the clojure design file
• Example designing with clojure

Copyright © 2015 Matthew Adereth

The source code for generating the models (everything excluding the things/ and resources/ directories is distributed under the GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3. The generated models and PCB designs are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Version 4.0.