This is the part 2 of my experimentations with the Moonlander ⤤ keyboard and 3D print to improve it when traveling.

Find the part 1 here: Improving the Moonlander keyboard with 3d print.

On part 1, I presented a set of blank pieces to fill the voids left by the feet and the palm rests, and a set of brackets to connect both halves of the keyboard together with different spacers to have different angles and lengths.

It was great because it reduces a lot the weight of the keyboard.

But I’d wanted to go a step further. In the different configurations I shared, there’s still two things that could be improved:

• the usage of the Apple Magic Trackpad
• the tilting of the keyboard

The cool thing is both can be solved at the same time!

The Apple Magic Trackpad

What’s the issue with the Trackpad?

Using the pieces designed in the previous part, I succeed to have a nice setup in two versions, one with the trackpad on the right side (my usual setup), and one with the trackpad between both halves of the keyboard.

Those two versions work great. But it means to travel with the trackpad. How could I avoid this?

I need to use the trackpad from the laptop!

Usually I don’t use it because if I put the keyboard in front, the movement to access the trackpad is not very comfortable. And if I put the laptop on the side, it’s not better. I tried those solutions during a recent trip, but it was not very good.

Tilting the keyboard

Yes, back to tilting. Previous solutions I designed are all fine, but they are all flat. And yes, I must admit that I’m really used to tilting my keyboard. How to do that without the platform, with in mind the question of the trackpad?

My first thought was to use the laptop and the brackets I already designed. If I’m making a spacer a bit longer, with some angle, I can let the keyboard stay on the edge of my laptop, and the spacer will connect both hands. It wasn’t good enough. Too much wobbling, and not very comfortable. And I don’t want to scratch the laptop. But the idea seemed great.

So I was thinking, maybe I can reuse the bolts from the platform to attach something below the keyboard. But they weren’t at the right position to design something good enough.

But the key is still to put some kind of angled brackets below the two halves. So if I can’t use the bolts and connect the new angled brackets, how to do that?

And here come the idea: I already have the notch blanks! I just have to connect the angled brackets to them. In fact it’s more like I integrated the notch blanks in the design of the brackets.

Then I designed a spacer, with some angle so it connects the two halves correctly.

As always, if the final version looks great, it took me quite some iterations. To design the angled bracket, but also to find a way to correctly print the spacer.

Final Result

The angle I picked is not from nowhere, it’s an angle that is very close to the one I’m using with the platform (18 degrees). The experience feels very similar, even if the two halves are a little more separated than with my usual setup.

But it has a lot of great advantages:

• the two halves sit on top of the laptop keyboard: the space it takes on a desk is reduced at the minimum, that is very nice when working from various places
• the laptop’s trackpad is easily accessible. It’s smaller than my external one, but it’s still very good experience.
• the Touch ID button of the keyboard is also easily accessible, which is a nice bonus.
• the keyboard is tilted like at home. so the typing experience is great.
• with the two angled brackets and the spacer, the whole setup is very stable, no wobbling at all.
• everything is light and easy to put in place and to remove when needed.

One of the downside is the two angled brackets can’t fit in the carrying case. That’s not a big deal as they are super light and can fit in my backpack, but still.

And here is the final result. I’m really happy about it!

I think I’ll travel with this one and still the small 10 degrees spacer, just to have two setups (and the 10 degrees spacer is so small so not a problem to carry).

It should help me to have a perfect setup everywhere, very low horizontal footprint as it sits on top of the laptop, but a very good typing experience. And that was the goal.

I’m not sure there will have a new iteration after that, but as always, who knows :-)

All the pieces are available on Makerworld: Moonlander tilted brackets ⤤

You'll also need the brackets attached to the keyboard's halves from here: Moonlander brackets ⤤