new keyboard: the btrfly
Posted Apr 16, 2021, 12:24 AM UTC
19819
I just finished hand-designing a steno-specific dactyl, and have plans for a huge dactyl manuform for home use only (it’ll probably be loud), but I think I might check this out as a more portable split option.
I’m going to take switches off one of my boards, so I’ll have like 50 switches that don’t have a specific use right now. Maybe I’ll build one of these.
8
ooo, a steno dactyl? do you have a repo for it?
Let me know if you end up building one, and if you have any questions about it!
2
I don’t yet, I was waiting to finish the build first. I didn’t leave a lot of extra space to wire it up and put the components in, so I’m going to make sure all of that is good to go first.
1
How is it reaching the 2nd row of thumb keys?
3
I rest the tips of my thumbs on the top row, and roll the bottom joint of my thumbs down to hit the bottom, kind of like you would use buttons on a game pad. Works really well, and limits the amount of required movement.
3
Thanks. On my Ergodox I can only reach the bottom row effectively, and I use the top row for smashing mod key combos. Your way sounds much better.
1
I think part of that is the angle the thumb cluster sits at versus the rest of the keys, it lets your thumb rest in a nicer position.
2
Beautiful!
2
This is amazing, I have goldtouch and I liked it's angles, I also liked kissboard thumb clusters, this has both these things by chance.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/mlhx72/lowtechhighimpact_kindofsplit_kindofortho
1
There are now six known keyboards called "butterfly".
1
It's amusing to call a keyboard "Dactyl Manuform but with joined halves"
When The Dactyl Manuform is like the Manuform, but with split halves
3
We've gone full circle, or almost.
2
Indeed, we're there :-)
1
ah, but this is the "btrfly", the lack of letters makes it cool ;)
2
Once could also think of yours as "betterfly" anyway :D (influenced by btrfs of course...)
At any rate, exactly one of the keyboards in that link actually have anything close to butterfly in the name... and it's this one. Not to mention only the first three are actual keyboards, whereas the bottom part is only talking about a generic term of "butterfly keyboards" which contain butterfly-style switches.
1
We're coming closer and closer to the typing orb 😃
1
Does it use two pro micros
1
Any chance that there's an available sound test of this?
1
the btrfly is like the dactly-manuform-mini, but squished together at an angle and flattened.
I used a dactly-manuform-mini for a while, but found it annoying to travel with since it was both bulky and split. While this is still a bit bulky, it fits nicely in the ergotravel case I already have.
After using it for a bit over a week, it is my new favorite board for at home and away from my desk. As a bonus, it sits nicely over the keyboard on my laptop without pressing any keys.
more pictures here: https://github.com/SolidHal/btrfly-keyboard/tree/master/pictures
git repo: https://github.com/SolidHal/btrfly-keyboard