Ben Gruver’s lalboard is inspired by one of the most unconventional commercial keyboards of all time: the magnetic/optical two-piece DataHand.

We’ve seen a number of interesting and unique Teensy-based keyboards over the years, such as one that only has two keys, or one that uses individual floppy disks to input each letter. The lalboard is among the more unique keyboards that we’ve seen.

A long-time user of the original DataHand, Ben sought to create an affordable replacement in response to the rising cost of second-hand units. While the layout, functionality, and use of magnets for key return force and optointerrupters to sense position are all directly inspired by the DataHand, the primary goal of the project was to ensure that it could be reproduced using a standard FFF 3d printer. The project improves on the adjustability of the original, with each key cluster gaining six degrees of freedom. The handrests were moulded using plasticine clay, and then scanned using photogrammetry software. Each half of the keyboard uses its own Teensy 2.0 running a modified version of Ben’s original teensyhand firmware, and connected via I2C so that only one USB connection is required for the attached PC. Find the BOM, instructions, and more on the project’s GitHub repo.