Keyboard Builders' Digest / Tips & Tricks
Void switch OpenSCAD files
Riskable published his magnetic switches' OpenSCAD and KiCAD footprint files.
Published January 18, 2022
Riskable and his magnetic void switch project needs no introduction. The Riskeyboard70 was one of the very first projects (#2!) featured on kbd.news, followed by many crazy side-projects.
For a quick recap on how these switches work see this short video:
Or Chyrosran22's teardown:
After months of testing, the OpenSCAD and STL files, as well as the KiCAD footprints are now available for download.
Knowing the keycap playground, the author's parametric keycap designer/experimenting tool, we could have expected some switches to come in a similar parametric fashion.
Indeed, these "parametric 3D printable magnetic separation contactless key switches" (and stabilizers) are available in this GitHub repo as both OpenSCAD and STL files. For the KiCAD files see the void_switch_kicad repo.
By default, each switch needs three 4x2mm magnets (most cheap N35 magnets are actually 4x1.7mm which is fine). However, the switches are configurable so if you want to make a switch that uses 3x2mm magnets you can do that "with a bit of work changing settings around".
For reference, there's two magnets in the switch itself (one in the sheath and one in the stem) and the levitator needs its own magnet.
For those who find the parametric approach intimidating, there are prerendered (4mm travel) void switch files in .stl and .3mf format available for the most common 4x1.7mm and 4x2mm magnets.
This should make for an all-around decent set of parameters for doing quick tests and demos (to see how the switch feels). For your own keyboard make sure you try out many different MAGNET_VOID values and also try changing the STEM_TOLERANCE value to see how you like tighter-fitting or looser-fitting switches.
Published on Tue 18th Jan 2022. Featured in KBD #62 (source).
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