When we started designing the Dygma Defy a few years ago, most ergonomic keyboards were flat and used standard mechanical switches.
Since then, the popularity of keyboards with low-profile switches and key wells has increased.
This raises important questions: Did we make a mistake in our design choices? And, most importantly, could we transform the Dygma Defy into a low-profile keyboard with a key well?
Why the Defy isn’t Low Profile or has Key well
Let’s start with the elephant in the room—why didn’t we take the Defy that way in the first place?
First, there are a few reasons why we decided that our keyboards wouldn't have low-profile switches:
They have shorter travel distances, which makes bottoming out more likely (pressing the switch all the way down, which you want to avoid).
There are fewer switch options, meaning less flexibility for customization.
There are also several standards: Kailh Choc V1 and V2, Gateron LP V1 and V2, and Cherry MX LP, each with its own footprint, height, pin distribution, and keycap stem, which makes finding custom switches and keycaps confusing.
Regarding not having a key well, there were three main reasons:
You can’t produce hot-swappable PCBs for key wells—those curved surfaces don't work well with rigid sockets.
Thumb keys become harder to press because your thumb naturally rests higher.
Keyboards with key wells tend to be taller, which may force awkward posture unless you adjust your setup. (Think T-Rex arms).
That said, the community highly praises keyboards like the Voyager and Glove80. So, in the spirit of experimentation, we decided to try transforming the Defy into a low-profile keyboard with a key well.
A Low-Profile Dygma Defy
Let's start with the "easier" task: making a low-profile Dygma Defy.
For that, we'll need low-profile keycaps; we have used the Tai Hao Thins, although others are available, such as the XVX Horizon or the Nuphy COAST Twilight.
Then we'll need low-profile switches, which get tricky.
As mentioned before, low-profile switches have a different footprint, height, and pin distribution than MX switches, so they won't fit in the sockets that the Defy has.
For this experiment, we're going to need very special switches. These switches have the bottom half of a regular switch (so they fit on our PCB) and a shorter top half, so they are lower and have a shorter travel distance than regular switches.
Only two switches meet those criteria: the Gazzew LP and the Tecsee Pudding Medium.
We're going to use the Tecsee Medium.
If you're looking for that feeling of a lower height and shorter travel distance, this could do the trick.
The height of the switch plus the keycap is 0.9 mm, which is 0.4mm less than our regular switch and keycap.
These switches' total travel distance is 2.5mm, and the activation point is 1.3mm, even shorter than low-profile switches (3mm and 1.5mm, respectively).
However, there are a couple of things to consider:
Low-profile keycaps have a uniform profile, meaning all rows are the same height. Reaching the top row might be more difficult than sculpted keycaps like the Cherry profile keycaps that come with the Defy.
If you don't change the switches on the thumbkeys, they will feel too high. If you change them, you might hit the bottom row when you press the top row, so you might want to remove the bottom row of the thumb cluster.
Of course, to make the Defy truly low-profile, we'd need to make the body much thinner and get rid of the palm rest, but that would be like designing a completely new keyboard, which is beyond the scope of this article 😅
A Defy with a Key well
Since we can't "bend" the keyboard, we'll have to get creative.
One way to do this is to use a keycap profile specifically designed for this purpose: the DES, short for Distorted Ellipsoidal Saddle.
This keycap profile is the brainchild of Pseudoku, who carefully designed it to meet two criteria:
A robust pressable top surface allows a broader area and angles to strike the key without distraction and instead assists switch actuation.
A smooth self-guiding transition between rows, consistent with a finger's typing motions and flexion.
To achieve 1, the top of the keycap is not spherical or cylindrical but saddle-shaped, hence the profile's name.
To achieve 2, the keys on each row are adjusted in height and angle to account for the natural movement of the fingers while typing.
We highly recommend reading the article by Pseudoku, which explains every decision made in detail. You can also 3D print them yourself to create your own DES keycaps.
We got our set from 3Dkeycap.com, which kindly sent them in translucent resin and a set of Dygma Defy thumbkeys in the same material. Thank you!
We really love the feel of this keycap profile. It "hugs" your finger while still allowing it to move easily up and down.
The only small drawback we found is that the keys for B and N in the bottom row might interfere with your thumb, so I changed those keycaps for row 3, and the problem was solved.
You can notice that they are different from the others.
With these keycaps, you might want to try the Dygma Defy with reverse tilting, which will account for the new curve of the keycaps. Five degrees will probably be more than enough.
We are not 100% convinced of the material, though. It looks great, with the LEDs shining softly through it, but the texture is a weird combination of dusty and oily, and some of the saddle edges can feel too sharp.
Fortunately, you can print this on any material you like. I really like Nylon -it looks like the keycaps are made of stone- but remember that those are not shine-through.
Regardless of that, what's important is that you can easily use this profile to recreate a key well without any of its drawbacks. Of course, it's not as "deep" as a standard key well, but it's a great compromise.
A Low-Profile Dygma Defy with a Key Well
For that, we'll need the Tecsee Medium switches, the Tai-Hao Thin keycaps or any low-profile keycap with an MX stem, and these special tilters, which we also got from 3D keycap, but you can also 3D print yourself.
This solution provides a much more similar feeling to the Glove80, thanks to the low-profile uniform keycaps and switches with short travel distances.
It has a couple of drawbacks, though:
One, with the tilters, the keycaps wobble a bit, especially the larger ones.
And with some keycaps being so far from the LEDs (especially, again, the top row), the light that shines through is minimal.
Finally, since you're pressing the key at an angle to the switch's axle, you'll need a bit more force to activate it.
Again, this is only really noticeable in the top row.
With this new keywell, we recommend adjusting the Dygma Defy to reverse tilting at 10 degrees, which will make it feel very similar to the Glove80.
This is a simple solution to get a key well on your Dygma Defy without much investment.
Bonus: Transform the Defy into an Azeron Cyborg
And if a key well is not enough for you, you can even transform your Dygma Defy into an Azeron Cyborg.
You "only" need to print and assemble this amazing system of levers that Not That NDA has designed and kindly shared. It looks so cool!
You can find the 3D Print files here!
And that's it!
Which one is your favorite Dygma Defy flavor: regular, low-profile, key well, or a combination of both?
