Split Keyboard joined by magnets?

Learning and discussion Custom keyboards
1

Hello!

I’ve been using a split keyboard for quite a while and I absolutely love it, BUT it would be really convenient sometimes if it were just one piece. It seems like it’d be a lot faster and easier to pack up and maybe I could just lay it on top of my laptop keyboard if I want to lounge on the couch or something.

Has anyone else ever built something with that in mind? I’ve seen other 3d print based builds using magnets, but I don’t know if it could be secure enough to be useful and feel good.

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I like this idea :thinking: I think it would be cool to try to implement it into an existing split first to see how feasible it is

3

There’s the Dygma, which has a similar mechanism: https://www.dygma.com/

As per their YouTube videos they tried magnets but it didn’t live up to what they wanted in terms of reliability.

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4

I think the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard has magnets.

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5

not sure if it counts, but the mistel barocco kind of does the same, since it connects into one board if you push the boards together! altho if you tried to pick it up by one end it would just separate/fall, so definitely not attached by magnets lol

6

The quefrency might be a good one to try this on.

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The hhkb looks like it has some sort of tube/socket situation, I’m not sure how to find magnets like that. Judging from this clip it looks pretty stable though.

I only found this clip so far about the dygma raise attachments, but they seem happy with the magnets. They look similar to the ones on the hhkb.

Stagger would probably keep it more stable, but I already have an “open sandwich” Levinson so I’ll give it a try on that one