3leaf right

Leaf Fold

Leaf Fold is a 6x3+4keys column-staggered split portable folding keyboard using Ultra Low Profile (ULP) switches.

[Image blocked: Leaf Fold Pic]

Warning

This board is under active development and is not ready for builds yet. In particular, some of the models, the bill of materials, etc are not up to date.

Introduction and Background

After building my first keyboard, a Lily58, I started following r/ErgoMechKeyboards, r/olkb, and r/MechanicalKeyboards. It was then that I came across the mikefive, a 5mm tall keyboard utilizing Kailh PG1316S keyswitches.

I had always been more interested in low profile keyboards than clacky mechanical keyboards with a lot of key travel, so the mikefive inspired me. I was not ready (and may never be) to reduce down to 5 columns like the mikefive, but I had been intending to learn to design a PCB for some time now.

I felt that the design of the mikefive could easily be altered to be even more portable by either being fully split or by a folding design. After many iterations, I designed and ultimately built the Leaf Fold. This repository is designed to provide the designs for it to allow others to build their own.

The initial version I shared on reddit had a couple of issues I wasn't happy with sharing:

• The board design prevented bluetooth connections from working
• The PG1316S switches did not provide a good experience
• The nice!view screen did not really add anything and was too easy to break when building this keyboard

Since then I have been working on my own switches and this board utilizes those.

Using this repository

This repository contains:

• Models for the keyboard's case in STEP format with engineering drawings
• KiCAD project for the PCB

A bill of materials for constructing the keyboard is also available

Build Guide

A build guide is in the works.

TODO

• Ensure new ULP switches work
• Build it & test it
• Create a build guide
• Update the BoM (build it into this repo so it is versioned)