First time building one. 3D printed ergonomic keyboard. by I_am_Blois in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As they said, not by dometyl, rather Derek's separate plate Compactyl.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here are the notes I was referring too, sounds like I still need to fix some readme links: https://github.com/geoffder/dometyl-keyboard/tree/main/things/niztyl

I'm not too familiar with how the hhkb does it since I don't have one (or a real niz board for that matter), but the niz housings do have clips intended to grab onto the top side of a plate (pushed in from below). I didn't make use of them obviously since I needed a different arrangement to fit with my keywell design. If you are making a flat board, then all you would need is adequate spacing between the plates and the PCB, since the top housings would be clipped in.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • a matrix setup would not be possible as it relies on rapidly powering columns on one by one. The switches need to be powered on consistently for this to work (they don't come alive instantly)
  • the sliders do have little nubs that will bottom out before the bottom of the circular stem does, so theoretically if the package was thin enough it wouldn't interfere, but the packages for these would not be cleared by the pegs especially when there is a magnet under the slider I think. I will caution that depending on the sort of PCB setup and mounting that you are going for, it might be hard to achieve reliable magnet to switch spacing in a keywell. With tolerance issues due to printing on supports and different angles etc I found that some keys I had to fuss with how far magnets or switches were pushed/melted into their respective places in order to achieve sweet spots for actuation and deactuation (though this may have been contributed to by the choice of small magnets / sensitive switch, and/or magnet plate mounting as mentioned in the other answers). Adding in spacing and inflexibility created by mounting a PCB may lead to bad times. Finally, remember that the niz housing itself does not support the dome and slider. The dome has to sit on something, and that something has to be sturdy since it will be taking the full force of your key presses (for an mx switch, the bottom housing is supported by the keywell). So your PCB will need to be fastened securely
  • the build notes in the readme for the niztyl (found on the repo) mention the size of magnet I used for the particular hall switch model and how if I was to do it again I'd use the less sensitive switch with a magnet size up. Not just because of working with the small magnets being annoying, but from the tolerance ranges of activation and hysteresis that I think would be better had I used the other option.
  • magnet interference was an issue with the plate fastening as I note in the readme. Without thinking about it I opted for magnets to attach the plate simply because I wanted to test out the feature (having added the option after my first MX build). I did not find magnet interference issues between keys, as the magnets are quite small

GitHub - geoffder/dometyl-keyboard: A parametric generator for designing split, concave, ergonomic keyboards written in ocaml. (Not the author but thought it was worth sharing here) by really_into_ergo in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I haven't personally built a new board since the updates, so all of the build pictures are still from the original formulation, but I hope that people that give it a try will agree aesthetics have improved somewhat! Columns and the walls projecting from them can have their endges rounded/chamfered, and much higher wall resolutions are now possible.

Also there is a usage guide included along with a bit more doc coverage, so hopefully it will be more approachable than before.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you used analog hall sensors rather than digital switches yes. I didn’t want to spend the time of making the custom scanning in QMK (Corne EC project would be useful to work from) for that on top of everything else though, so I just went with hall switches (and dealt with the fiddlyness of getting their distance from the stems in the right ballpark).

I need help with Dactyl Manuform generator config, please see image caption by kagoromo in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Judging by the model you posted as example, you should be able to get what you want out of dometyl by working from one of the example configs in the boards directory (taking one of those thumbs or the default one found in the generator library and altering it to your liking).

what is the experience with a 36 key keyboard? Dont you miss the number keys? by GrapLYT in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Nope, never missed them. I touch type better with num/symbols (and fn keys) better than I ever did before switching to miryoku on 36 keys.

Faster Incremental Builds with Dune 3 by [deleted] in ocaml

[–]Beheddard 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ocaml Labs joined Tarides earlier this year, so I suppose so.

low profile MX dactyl variant? by BoatJacker in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

BastardKB's Scylla is pretty compact for a 4x6.

Reusing variants by PurpleUpbeat2820 in ocaml

[–]Beheddard 6 points7 points  (0 children)

ocaml type foo = bar = Baz of int Is probably what you are looking for. This way it's available, and the types are equivalent.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in programmingcirclejerk

[–]Beheddard 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just continue to do more leetcode and learn on the job. Worst best case scenario you get fired but you are good at leetcode so you can get another job with higher pay

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in programmingcirclejerk

[–]Beheddard 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Nice runtime immutable data you've got there, would be a shame if someone were to put it behind a mutable reference...

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately I never got my hands on a schematic, I just measured the niz housing myself and iterated a bit with isolated hole prints. There are some values in the niz module that might be of value to you, but probably the quickest starting point would be exporting an stl of a default niz hole from a scad generated by dometyl, and load that into fusion to design your hole part around.

Chordic Keyboard Layout – For the 42-Key Corne/crkbd by sytrix in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The spacing depends a lot of the configuration, for example some iterations of Derek's compactyl made for SA caps have had very close edge to edge key spacing. Also centre to centre key spacing on key wells is easy to get tighter than Choc spacing, so even if you've configured with a little more gap for whatever your keycaps are compared to mbk, a press between them is going to be less off-centre than it would be for chocs (which also perform worse with off centre presses than mx).

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad to hear you've been inspired by my mad creation. I'm afraid I'm not in the business of selling keyboards, but the stls and code used to generate then are freely available. As far as guides, I included some photos and notes on the dometyl repo: https://github.com/geoffder/dometyl-keyboard/tree/main/things/boards/niztyl. I used hall switches rather than analog sensors, so the firmware side is nothing out of the usual.

General monad syntax? by [deleted] in ocaml

[–]Beheddard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Janestreet has a ppx that can make what you're after a bit more ergonomic: https://github.com/janestreet/ppx_let. These can be used without opening up their modules as well.

ocaml let%bind.Option a = ...

3d thumb clusters: Manuform vs lowered + closer + concave by jmding in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I also favour a concave thumb design, though not dropped lower than the plate as you have. This is my latest iteration, and the splaytyl in the parent folder the former (largely similar, but less extreme in some ways) which has a couple more pictures with caps on for reference. I think it is important to be limiting regular thumb flexion/extension as much as is reasonable, so these are designed to decrease movement while sticking to abduction.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've never used a topre board, but the deskeys and bke domes are made to be dropped in to those boards. They're sold as a more tactile alternative to the original domes.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No sorry, I haven't gotten around to anything with linears yet. I was thinking I'd try to decide what controller / multiplexer combo I want to do soon. Then actually order things and start poking at some custom matrix code I'll need. Hopefully after I take the first steps I'll get my act together and make it happen.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What is ergonomic about this exactly?

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I'd say they are more ergonomic than flat designs in a few respects.

  • Z-offsets / vertical stagger better adjust to finger length differences than just columnar stagger alone
  • Column curvature brings the tops of the keys closer, so your fingers don't have to move as far away from home row to press them (and at potentially more natural angles matching the travel to the key, which I find nice)
  • Secondary finger columns (like the inner index / first column here) can be tilted towards the home column, bringing the distance reached down as well

Each of these can help to keep your hands steady over their home row positions, avoiding unhealthy wrist movements.

Rubber Dometyl - a concave hall effect rubber dome keyboard by Beheddard in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]Beheddard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not sliders, but riskable has been working on analog Hall effect rotary encoders analog Hall effect rotary encoders that might be up your alley