Transforming My Beloved Mechanical Keyboard into an Electrocapacitive Marvel with This DIY Kit

For anyone serious about electrocapacitive keyboards, the Bauer Lite paired with a DynaCap kit is hard to beat.

If you’re looking for a premium EC keyboard without the DIY hassle, you could drop $3,600 on a high-end model. Alternatively, options like the Happy Hacking Keyboard or Realforce are available for under $300, featuring authentic Topre switches, Bluetooth connectivity, and decent remapping capabilities.

However, for around $250, plus a set of keycaps and a few hours of assembly, you can customize a Bauer Lite in countless color combinations. With DynaCap components, you can transform it into a fully remappable EC keyboard that mimics the feel of Topre while remaining compatible with a wide range of aftermarket keycaps. Sounds appealing, right?

DynaCap is a collection of third-party, Topre-compatible components from Clever Keebs, making it relatively straightforward and affordable to create new electrocapacitive keyboards, convert existing mechanical keyboards to EC, or modify a Topre board to accept standard keycaps. The complete DynaCap setup includes sliders, housings, stabilizers, domes, springs, silencing rings, and plate gaskets (only necessary for Topre conversions). With a compatible PCB and switch plate, you can easily convert any mechanical keyboard to work with MX keycaps.

Topre keyboards are renowned for their unique electrocapacitive switches, delivering an unparalleled tactile experience. Unfortunately, only a limited number of Topre keyboards are currently in production, available in just four layouts: full-size, TKL, a new nonstandard 75%, and the Happy Hacking Keyboard. Aside from a few decent Realforce gaming models, they don’t support the MX mount style that most keycap sets use, which is a significant drawback for some enthusiasts.

Swapping Topre sliders for MX ones isn’t straightforward. MX-compatible keycaps are designed for Cherry-MX-style housings, so using MX sliders on Topre housings can lead to compatibility issues. Both Ryan Norbauer and Clever have redesigned their switch housings to address this. Norbauer’s designs are so different that they don’t fit Topre switch plates, but that’s irrelevant since they are exclusive to Norbauer boards.

DynaCap parts, however, are sold individually and are compatible with Topre components. DynaCap sliders fit into Topre housings and vice versa, while DynaCap domes and springs can be used interchangeably with Topre boards. If you want to adapt a Topre board for MX keycaps, you only need the sliders, optional silencing rings, housing gaskets, and housings (unless converting a board with an integrated switch plate).

The real magic happens when you have the complete DynaCap setup. With a PCB and switch plate, you can convert a keyboard designed for MX switches into one that closely resembles a Topre board, and in some aspects, even surpasses it. DynaCap is collaborating with keyboard manufacturers to offer DynaPaks—kits that include all necessary parts for conversion—and several upcoming keyboard group buys will feature DynaCap options.

Designed by Clever Keebs and produced through an outlet, one of the first DynaPaks available is for the Bauer Lite keyboard. This is perfect for me, as I own a Bauer Lite and absolutely love it. It’s a 65% keyboard kit with a variety of translucent color options and a layout that combines the best features of the Happy Hacking Keyboard and my cherished Leopold FC660C: split backspace and arrow keys. Now, with DynaCap, it can also deliver the feel of those Topre keyboards.

If you don’t already have a Bauer Lite, you can configure one with a DynaCap plate and PCB starting at $135.99, depending on your choices, and then add the $121.50 60/65% DynaCap bundle for the remaining parts (make sure to select the 7u stabilizer wire option). If you already own a Bauer Lite, you can grab a full conversion kit with plate and PCB for just under $200, which is what I opted for.

Converting my Bauer Lite to DynaCap was straightforward, though a bit tedious. I unscrewed the four screws at the bottom of the housing, removed the top housing, disconnected the JST cable, and the entire plate, PCB, switch, and keycap assembly came out in one piece.

Then, it was just a matter of snapping the switch housings into the DynaCap plate, adding silencing rings to each slider, lubing the slider rails on each housing, using a thicker lubricant on the stabilizer wire housings and clips, dropping the sliders into the housings, placing the domes on the sliders, and preparing the springs. After that, I carefully placed the PCB over the assembly and secured it with screws to ensure even pressure. Finally, I reattached the top housing, connected the daughterboard cable, and replaced the screws. All that was left was to install some keycaps, connect the keyboard to my computer, open the configuration software, calibrate each switch, apply my preferred key map, and adjust the RGB underlighting.

Easy peasy.

If you’ve never built a keyboard before, you might wonder: Why go through all this? It’s a valid question. It does require more effort than my usual mechanical keyboard builds, where I typically just lube the stabilizers. But the extra work isn’t much more than what I’d do for a mechanical switch.

Here’s the thing: I’ve been using mechanical keyboards since 2009 and have had a Topre electrocapacitive keyboard since 2017. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find switches that replicate the Topre feel for my mechanical boards, even purchasing a third-party controller for my Topre board to make it remappable like a mechanical one.

DynaCap isn’t a direct replacement for Topre. The medium-weight DynaCap domes in my Bauer Lite feel slightly lighter than the 45g Topre domes in a new HHKB review unit and significantly lighter than the eight-year-old domes in my Leopold board. I can’t compare it to the $3,600 Seneca since I no longer have that unit. But I don’t need DynaCap to be Topre; I already have a Topre board for that.

DynaCap brings the satisfying feel of cup rubber to my favorite non-Topre keyboard, which is exactly what I was looking for.