The Lagrange keyboard

The Lagrange is a configurable, split, handwired keyboard, designed for ergonomics. This is meant in the sense that as many keys as possible should be accessible with the minimum possible effort, although some less reachable keys are also incorporated in the design as they can still be useful. Features that attempt to improve ergonomics include concave main sections, convex thumb sections, a tenting stand, palm keys and specially designed keycap shapes. To get a better idea of what all this looks like, see the 3D model of the final assembly and the photos of my build in the doc/ directory.

The Lagrange is of course inspired by the designs that preceded it, most notably the Dactyl and the Dactyl-ManuForm. Differences with these designs and additional contributions to the art include:

• A new thumb section layout, based on the spherical workspace of the thumb (and with the added bonus of a cross-shaped set of keys, useful for "directional" functions).
• Palm keys, meant to be pressed with the edge of the palm, without needing to leave the home row.
• An integrated, configurable tenting stand.
• Non-standard keycap designs for thumb and palm keys.
• Code features aiding exploration of different configurations, such as "interference test builds", allowing design validation prior to printing and "partial test builds", allowing quick prints of arbitrary subsections of the keyboard. (These features can be instrumental to ergonomics optimization, as they allow both deeper exploration of possible configurations and minimizing the key distances within a given configuration, while still avoiding interference between switches, keycaps and the case.)

A further goal of the design was to comprise parts, both mechanical and electrical, that fit together and that can be easily assembled to result in something that can withstand the wear and tear of daily use.

Building a Lagrange

If you want to build your own Lagrange, you can find detailed instructions in BUILD.md.

License

Copyright © 2020 Dimitris Papavasiliou

This program (which includes everything except the things/, kicad/ and doc/ directories, is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3. The controller PCB design residing in kicad/, is distributed under the GNU General Public License Version 3. Finally, the generated models residing in things/, as well as the material in doc/, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.