Building Dactyl Cygnus

hi this is a keyboard that I've designed it's a minimalistic 36 key ergonomic split keyboard it has a concave column stacker key well and can be built with support for hot swapping the design is open source and you can find all the resources for building one on my kit Hub page I've designed the keyboard in Fusion 360 and have shared that file there as well in this video I'm going to go through the build process so so if you're interested let's get started the case is 3D printed and each side consists of four parts the top and bottom halves and two brackets for holding the controller I usually print with5 layer height and set the number of parameters to fall I also like using three supports with this model as they are a bit easier to remove there are a lot of controllers that you can use when building a keyboard and as they come in various sizes it can be a bit tricky to attach them to the case I also didn't want to limit what controller you could use so I designed the case with replaceable brackets for attaching the controller this way you don't have to modify and reprint a large part of the case if your controller doesn't fit right I've designed a few brackets already which support support for controllers like Pro micro the elite C and the rp240 as the parts are 3D printed you may want to do some postprocessing in order to get them to look nice I used a bit of sanding paper to remove some of the imperfections you should at least clean the mating surfaces so that the case closes properly the case Hales are held together with screws to get a reliable joint I use these threaded metal inserts you can use a soldering iron to install them just lower the temperature a bit if you can I think I set mine to about 300° C getting the insert straight is a bit tricky here I used a 4 mm drill bit to check that they are somewhat straight this doesn't have to be exact but check that none of the inserts are protruding and that the case closes [Music] properly the case is designed to use these single switch pcbs although you can also hand wire it if you want to ordering the pcps is really easy what you do is to download the Gerber files that are linked in the build guide then go to a PCB manufacturer website here I'm using jlc PCP and upload the Gerber file there the default settings should be fine you may want to change the color of the ports and I'm also getting the leadfree coating the leaded coating is fine so you can use that if you want or get the gold one then just go through the checkout process there's a lot of shipping options and you can get your boards in a few days if you like or save a few bucks with the slower option after submitting the order and paying the order is reviewed and put into production and after a few days or weeks you have a box full of boards for your keyboard I recommend that you use surface mount diodes as the other side of the board should stay flat they are tiny and can be a bit hard to install what I do is to add a tiny bit of solder to one of the bats then you should be able to just touch the connection with the tip of your iron and the component should stay in place you don't really need to use a lot of solder for the diodes in fact I think that they are easier to install when you don't have to deal with a huge blot of solder to install the sockets I wet the tip of the iron and then push solder to the Joint between the board and socket some people like to add the sorted to the patch beforehand I find that it makes it harder to get the socket to sit right as you can only melt the solder on one side of the socket at any given time if you want to use through whole diodes I recommend that you solder them from the component side and then cut the legs flush to pcbs come in these 5x5 sheets so you have to cut them to individual boards you also need to remove the tabs from the sides so that they fit in place the individual boards are attached to the case with screws so what I do is to insert a switch and use that as a guide to align and hold the board in place while I attach the screws I usually put two screws to each board but you can use all four if you want to the screws can be a bit tight as the holes are not threaded also try and not to over tighten them as you may strip the plastic [Music] now you should be able to pull the switch off and the board should sit nice and [Music] straight some of the places for the boards can be a bit obstructed but you should be able to get them in place the thumb cluster is also a bit cramped you just need to find the right angle to fit the boards and that is the boards installed next I'm going to start to wire the boards together to form the keyboard Matrix for this I use this solid copper wire that I've bent into shape using solid wire is helpful as it stays in place you can use the off cuts from the diet Le for this if you have them I form the columns by connecting the patch labeled coal together the thumb cluster is wired the same way I'm using insulated Magnet Wire for this but normal wire should work as well the rows are connected the same way as the columns the pcbs are [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I attach the reset button to the controller's reset pin and the [Music] ground the wires to the TRS socket get taged in place as well the socket is connected to the power ground and data pins on the controller check the wiring diagram on my GitHub page for detail next I'm going to wire the keyboard Matrix to the controller I decided to thread the wires for columns underneath the Matrix this way they are kept in place and you avoid the typical tangle of wires if you use thicker wire you may not be able to do this you can use something like hot glue to keep them in place or just twist the wires together as you move along the wires are hidden inside the case so the amount of wire management you do is up to you I solder the wires to the other sockets pads on the PCB as they are directly connected to the columns it doesn't really matter at which point you attach the wires to although some people like to solder them to the end of each chain and this is the wiring for the columns I left the wires quite long as they are thin and don't take that much space inside the case after cutting the wires I connected The Columns to the controller the way I have wired this keyboard is the same as in the corn keyboard the benefit of this is that you can use a pre-built firmware meant for the corn and as it is quite a popular keyboard many of the configurators supported out of the box the hand wirring of the controller is also quite easy as the rows and columns are connected to different sides of the controller and are on adjacent pins I twist the wires together to make them a bit easier to manage next I'm connecting the wires to the rows they just get sorted to the same holes as used in the wiring Matrix I'm not going to do that much of wire management for these they are at the edge of the keyboard and pretty much stay in place as is I just twist the wires together and that's about it now connecting the rows to the controller is done the same way as with the columns again I'm following the corn wiring it could be helpful if you have something to hold the wires while you attach them but after getting the first one in they pretty much stay in place and here is the controller wired up it's not the prettiest job but it does work now it's time to put it all together and assemble the keyboard first I attach the reset button and the TRS socket the button is held in place with friction and it's just pushed in place to install the socket you need to first cut off this knob prom it then just push the socket in place and make sure it's all the way in finally the controller is secured with the two brackets the fit may be a bit tight after soring the wire wires but you can just triam off a bit of the plastic the socket is held in place with the smaller screw then you can close the case halves just make sure that the wires don't get pinched and that the case feels solid then you can close the case with the longer screws and add some nonsleep feet and that's it we're done at least for this half the other side is just a mirror image of this so you can use the mirror tool in your slicing software to create the parts for the other half okay so I've made a few variations of the design as a lot of people have asked for a six column variant of the keyboard so here it is and also both of the layouts have a version where the pinky columns are uniform so if you're not using your ring finger as much as I am you may find it a better fit there is also a version of the bottom half that has a place for switch instead of the socket so if you're interested in building a wireless key keyboard you may find that useful but anyway that is about it for this video but since this is a sort of a keyboard video it might be appropriate to have some typing tests if you're interested in the sound profile of the board so I'll leave you to watch them if you want but anyway see you next time

Channel: Juha Kauppinen

Views: 7,704

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Id: h_ex-oMVOrI

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2024