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adereth
dactyl-keyboard
OpenSCAD2016–2025
adereth / dactyl-keyboard

dactyl-keyboard

Parameterized ergonomic keyboard

22Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.2KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Parameterized ergonomic keyboard

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 2:04:58 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year25 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-02-26 22:32:27 UTC to 2025-01-03 13:00:27 UTC.

02462016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments20162017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 0 submissions, 7 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 0 submissions, 5 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC707
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC505
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
The Dactyl Keyboard The Dactyl is a parameterized, split-hand, concave, columnar, ergonomic keyboard. There's a talk about the motivation and design of the Dactyl that helps provide context for this repo: Assembly Generating a Design Setting up the Clojure environment Install the Clojure runtime Install the Leiningen project manager Install OpenSCAD Generating the design Run lein repl Load the file (load-file "src/dactyl_keyboard/dactyl.clj") This will regenerate the things/*.scad files Use OpenSCAD to open a .scad file. Make changes to design, repeat load-file, OpenSCAD will watch for changes and rerender. When done, use OpenSCAD to export STL files Tips Some other ways to evaluate the clojure design file Example designing with clojure Printing Pregenerated STL files are available in the things/ directory. Wiring Masks for the flexible PCBs I used are available for the left and right side. A very rough guide for the brave is here - It will be improved over time (TODO)! License Copyright © 2015 Matthew Adereth The source code for generating the models (everything excluding the things/ and resources/ directories is distributed under the GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3. The generated models and PCB designs are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Version 4.0.
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

2 sources
Ergonomics was a large factor in building my own ErgoDox, my shoulders were killing me due to the keyboard being too short to be supported by the rests on my chair. Choosing to build your own keyboard is it's own little rabbit hole to go down, but it's worth it and you have a truly personalised device at the end. Some soldering and research is required but places such as r/mechanicalkeyboards and geekhack exist along with many many tutorials. As far as curved keywell that comes down to your choice of key profile. I'm using XDA which a flat profile, while a SA profile has a decent curve to it. The choice of board does come into play but most kits are flat as to avoid 3d printing and whatnot[1]. For the feel of the key itself there are a ton [2] of options, from extremely smooth and light linear switches to heavy clacking tactile switches,
Read the rest
most being compatible so mixing and matching is possible. PCBs come in all sorts such as tiny 70% sizes, split, stenographic and some freakazoid monsters [3]. Even FOSS firmwares such as QMK are common and hackable! There are are too many options to enumerate! I just wanted a split keyboard that was small, light on my fingers and wouldn't wake the girlfriend up. I took some time and built a ErgoDox with Gateron clears, XDA blank keycaps and a programming focused layout. For less then 150CAD, it was worth it for it being entirely my own. [1] https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard [2] https://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:List_of_all_keyboard_s... [3] https://keeb.io/products/bfo-9000-keyboard-customizable-full...
In Interview with Eiiti Wada, Creator of the Happy Hacking Keyboard
> a Kinesis Advantage keyboard There are a lot of nice alternatives to this, too. If you are happy spending >$300 on a keyboard, https://shop.keyboard.io/ is definitely worth looking into. If you are feeling more frugal, there are all kinds of options. Anything "ortholinear" is an improvement. We don't need typewriter-staggered layouts. Anything that puts modifier keys near the thumbs instead of palms is also helpful. Here are some great open-source designs: https://olkb.com/planck https://www.ergodox.io/ https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard
In Stopping the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career (2016)

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