Skip to content

Retrofit Preonic Ergonomic Keycaps

Advertising
Advertising
?
Creation quality: 5.0/5 (1 vote)
Evaluation of members on the printability, utility, level of detail, etc.

  • 7.5k views
  • 15 likes
  • 117 downloads

License
3D design format
STL Folder details Close
  • sa_ergo-all_in_one_fdm.stl
  • sa_ergo-upside_down.stl
  • sa_ergo.stl
  • sa_ergo_text.stl

Learn more about the formats

Publication date 2020-03-31 at 22:53
?
Published to Thingiverse on: 2020-02-23 at 03:39
Design number 126370

3D printer file info

3D model description

Update

Slowly adding better versions of the STL files as they render. each of these is modified from the original version to be a little less aggressively curved and much shorter:

  1. sa_ergo-all_in_one_fdm.stl: uses stem supports that extend throughout the print, making it sturdier while printing and less prone to failure. slice between keys to make separate chunks if you have a small bed.
  2. sa_ergo-upside_down.stl: has all keys sitting on their dish; prints the stems much more consistently, but not the keytops. You can use the quality sliders in prusa slicer to get a better surface. Rounding errors mean not all keycaps are flush with the bed, but you'll need to print with support anyways.

Couple people asked for the stl so I thought I'd share. These are "ergonomic" retrofit keycaps for a Preonic.

Ergonomic keyboards like the kinesis advantage, dactyl, etc. have "key wells" - semi-circular indentations filled with keyswitches - and column offsets in order to minimize finger travel. In order to wire these keywells up, the Kinesis relies on flexible PCBs while the dactyl is just hand-wired. I created these fully sculpted keycaps with columnular staggering to approximate the feeling of one of these ergonomic keyboards on a flat-PCB keyboard.

The set may be difficult to print all in one go and the sculpting is aggressive to say the least. If you're looking to print these I recommend you check out the script that generated these files and tweak it to your liking: https://github.com/rsheldiii/KeyV2/blob/master/examples/sa_ergo.scad you'll need to download the entire repository but then you can open just this file in OpenSCAD. I'd recommend less stagger and a larger full sculpt radius, as well as decreasing the height of the keycaps as much as you can before the lowest keys start losing their stems. I also recommend adding on stem support, or using the upside_down() helper to print the whole set upside down. The letters are included, but you'll need to adjust their z height for multimaterial printing, as I was just using them in a render.

Advertising


Issue with this design? Report a problem.

Would you like to support Cults?

You like Cults and you want to help us continue the adventure independently? Please note that we are a small team of 3 people, therefore it is very simple to support us to maintain the activity and create future developments. Here are 4 solutions accessible to all:

  • ADVERTISING: Disable your banner blocker (AdBlock, …) and click on our banner ads.

  • AFFILIATION: Make your purchases online by clicking on our affiliate links here Amazon.

  • DONATE: If you want, you can make a donation via Ko-Fi πŸ’œ.

  • WORD OF MOUTH: Invite your friends to come, discover the platform and the magnificent 3D files shared by the community!


Sharing and downloading on Cults3D guarantees that designs remain in makers community hands! And not in the hands of the 3D printing or software giants who own the competing platforms and exploit the designs for their own commercial interests.

Cults3D is an independent, self-financed site that is not accountable to any investor or brand. Almost all of the site's revenues are paid back to the platform's makers. The content published on the site serves only the interests of its authors and not those of 3D printer brands who also wish to control the 3D modeling market.

100% secure payment by credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
View all payment options.