I’m working on a 3d print design for the Ironsworn tabletop RPG and wanted something relevant-but-not-infringing to decorate it with. Here’s a logo-like image, and repeating tile.
They’re stored in a vector format, and licensed under Creative Commons 4.0.
1d62d10 with tile by Billiam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
I’ve added an Etsy store with some of the 3d printed things I designed.
The files to print your own for any of them are still available here: PrusaPrinters, but this should help make some of them available for some people.
Store link: QuiteKeen Etsy Shop
After several years of stagnation, I’ve released JotDown: a markdown editing suite on Itch.io
While there’s certainly no shortage of markdown editors available, I wanted something more specific. Namely, a better way to organize markdown files.
Markdown files can be grouped together by category, directory, or tag, and that metadata is stored in an standard and portable way: as YAML at the beginning of the file, for example:
---
title: My Document Title
category: School
tags:
- notes
- todo
---
## My Heading
Lots of notes go here
I use JotDown for organizing and planning projects, campaign notes and ideas for tabletop games, and journaling for longer term projects.
Maybe it’ll be useful for somebody else as well.
It also supports all or most of the usual markdown editor features, but also includes:
However, I haven’t spent any money on it yet, and that means that neither the Windows build, nor the (untested) Mac build have been code-signed. That means that your operating system is likely to either show you a warning when running this application, or may prevent you from running it entirely.
If there’s enough interest to warrant the cost, I’ll get one or both of those signed in the future.
Some time after it was discontinued, my Logitech G13 stopped working and I decided to design a replacement, which I’ve named Sherbet.
Final results first:
Printable files and assembly notes: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/5072-sherbet-gaming-keypad
Like the G13, I wanted an analog thumb joystick, but also wanted to incorporate some ergonomic improvements from other keyboard designs, such as the Dactyl keyboard, Dactyl Manuform, Kinesis Advantage, and the Ergodox. Namely, column-staggered keys, height offsets, column curvature, and a more comfortable overall tilt.
I chose low-profile keyboard switches (linear Kailh Choc switches from NovelKeys) to reduce the overall required height, in part because my desk sits higher than a comfortable typing height, with a large tray below. I have about four inches of available space between the tray and the underside of the desk top for both the keyboard and my hand. If that space isn’t an issue, I’d strongly recommend a more compatible switch, as the keycap variety available for these ones are extremely limited. I’d also recommend starting with the Dactyl or Dactyl-Manuform above, since designing this took way more time and effort than I could have guessed.
I started by modeling the keys themselves based on Kailh’s specs for the switches before I’d received them, then tried to find a comfortable column curve, and printed some tests, then printed a few more to test column offsets. Here’s what I ended up with.
After deciding on a layout, I started by designing out the switch sockets that will make up the main support plate.
I tried a few different tenting angles, and settled on about 20 degrees. Again, this is partially to allow for clearance above the keyboard. I would have liked a steeper angle for comfort, but this is still an improvement over the (flat) G13, and my current ergonomic keyboard. The tent angle was originally parameter-driven in Fusion 360, allowing it to be changed while the rest of the design adjusted correctly around it. As the design became more complex, this parameter stopped really being configurable without breaking other features.
Next, I started on what would be the wrist rest. I wanted a comfortable rest well suited to my hand, and planned to make it molded and contoured. I built this in Sculpey very loosely, then used a photogrammetry package called Meshroom (and a bunch of photographs) to generate a 3d model, and scaled it up to match the original.
Next, I basically traced the main contours of the model to smooth it out and define the footprint I wanted
While this process was fun, and the result was comfortable, I found that the contours got in the way when my hand moved around while typing, so later designs are all plain and flat. Oh well.
I started working on the overall case next, which proved to be the most challenging part. I’ve still pretty new to CAD, and haven’t done anything this complex before. Trying to find ways to describe compound curves, and the way that two surfaces should meet was really challenging, and took the longest of any part of this project (so far).
I also found some better rendering environments and the renders improved a bit as well.
I printed out just the thumb area to test comfort and positioning. It’s fine as-is, but the joystick module is just too bulky to be able to position where it really needs to be ergonomically.
I picked up a (much smaller) third-party Switch joycon controller instead, which can sit much closer to the keys with room for wiring. This connects with a (much less convenient) 5-wire 0.5mm pitch flexible flat cable. I picked up a 6 pin ffc breakout board from Amazon, but they can be found much cheaper on eBay or AliExpress.
When the shell was done, I added supports for the electronic componenents that will live inside. For the joystick, I needed to make small cover plate that will screw into the side of the case, because I wouldn’t be able to reach the normal screw mounts for it. For the Teensy microcontroller, I just made a friction fit holder, and screw mounts for that. I added some ziptie spots, and larger 4mm holes to allow the wrist rest to fasten on.
I’m also using a micro USB breakout board for the main USB connector to avoid wear or damage to the microcontroller.
I think this whole design phase took about a month total. I won’t hazard a guess at the number of hours spent on it, but… “many”.
After so much time spent on design and testing, the final prints for this were relatively fast and uneventful.
I printed the case lid (also in white) without painting, and attached some adhesive cork to the bottom. I’ll be using m3 threaded heat set inserts to fix the cover to the base.
I tried a few color schemes in the modeling environment, and ended up with something like this. Color options are a bit limited, because the key caps only come in black and an off white I didn’t like for this.
To finish, I first sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to know down the layer lines and surface problems, and then sprayed with a filler primer.
After priming, I used Bondo glazing putty, sanded (220 and 600 grit), primer, then putty and sanding again.
I masked off a stripe using thin vinyl tape, and airbrushed with Testor’s airbrush pink.
After painting, I sprayed on 4 or 5 layers of gloss coat, then sanded a bunch of it back out with 1200 grit sandpaper to remove dust, fuzz, and bugs, then sprayed again.
Looks nice, but there’s a lot of orange peel, and speckling from oversprayed clear coat. I did a very light scuff sand with 1200 grit in the worst areas, then buffed with rubbing compound followed by polishing compound.
I added homing bumps by embedding 1.5mm ceramic bearings in the key caps. Shown in the picture is one hole, drilled slightly too large, and one a bit too small, with the bearing forced in (but no glue. Not sure whether the larger size would be better with glue, vs deforming the plastic somewhat to accomodate the bearing.
Once I’d run out of tasks to procrastinate with, I started on wiring, beginning with the key rows and columns.
I couldn’t find any thinner gauge wire locally, and the only solid core wire I had was 22awg, which was just too hard to bend around the column offsets in the case, and to fit into small spaces between the case walls and the switch pins. Instead, I used 28awg stranded wire from a roll of ribbon cable, stripped it in sections with self-adjusting wire strippers, and then made and tinned small loops in the stripped sections. Thinner, solid wire would have been faster and less cumbersome.
I designed the wrist rest to use two m4 screws, with heat-set inserts in the rest. These ended up slightly misaligned when I inserted them, so I can’t attach it yet. I’m planning to reprint the rest with a slot cut through the bottom to hold an m4 nut instead, which should be easier to align.
In practice, an attached rest, or a way to mount the keyboard firmly to the desk, is required. Even with the cork bottom, and adding extra weight, the keypad shifts during use when pushing/pulling on the joystick, parallel to the desk.
I redesigned and reprinted the wrist rest so that it uses two captive m4 nuts, instead of heat-set inserts, and that seems to work fine.
I had initially planned to use QMK as the keyboard firmware, using an as-yet unmerged pull request designed to add joystick support. However, newer ARM Teensy controllers (>=Teensy 3.2, Teensy LC) are not well supported by QMK. Though there are two example (single-key) keyboards which support ARM Teensys, only one is currently working. Additionally, the incoming patch does not yet support ARM controllers.
When and if that patch is merged, and ARM support is implemented, I’ll finish and release the QMK setup. In the mean time, I put together an Arduino sketch instead, starting from somebody else’s work here.
It has two modes, one with a standard QWERTY layout plus the joystick and a single joystick button, and the other where all of the keys are mapped to joystick buttons. This allows enough buttons to configure Steam’s controller configurator, allowing the controller to be used as an XInput device with broader game support.
I’ve been using Slic3r with my 3d printer, but wanted to be able to easily restore old configuration values, compare changes and so forth.
Slic3r helpfully stores it’s configuration in INI files in the %appdata% directory,
so the below batch script launches slic3r, and periodically git commits the configuration directory.
While the batch is running, launching the batch again will start a new instance of Slic3r and then exit.
echo off
set "slic3rpath=C:\path\to\Slic3r.exe"
set "configpath=%appdata%\Slic3r"
set "batchpath=%~dp0"
set "lockpath=%batchpath%slic3r.lock"
start "" "%slic3rpath%"
if exist "%lockpath%" (
exit /b 1
)
copy NUL "%lockpath%"
:loop
timeout /t 120 /nobreak
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq slic3r.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "slic3r.exe">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
git -C "%configpath%" commit -a -m "Scheduled update"
goto loop
)
DEL "%lockpath%"
I run this minimized (not completely hidden) by creating a shortcut to it, and setting the “Run” value to “Minimized” in the shortcut’s properties.