So I set out to make a low profile budget keyboard for my mom. She needed it to be quiet as (think apple’s magic keyboard quiet) and low profile so she can use it for work in her office. So no biggie I thought - then saw this on a sale at a vendor and immediately I thought - huh - 35 euros for a top plate aluminium keyboard, with hot swappable switches and another set of keycaps PLUS 7 more accent keycaps and it is a 75% and has Mac support and tri mode connectivity? Well what can go wrong?

Yes - everything went wrong. The keyboard itself was fighting me on every step like it owed me money… This is not a board you mod, this is a damn rite of passage. So here is everything I learned so far and hopefully it helps you when you decide to mod low profile keyboards. 

First off - the keycaps are double-shot ABS, which isn’t bad, but eh - they are thin. Like 1,2/1,3 mm thin.

Second - the switches - Redragon says they are proprietary switches but in my observation are Outemu LP clones (and bad ones at that). 

Those switches that redragon uses are incredibly chalky, brittle and cheap. Don’t waste your time trying to lube them. 

Third - the switch tolerance is smaaaaaaaallll and i mean small… so much so that when trying to pull the switches from the PCB it gave me calluses. 😅 From my experience shimmy too much you pull open the switches, pull straight up and you break either the stem or a top housing. Be very careful when pulling them out. Make sure the puller is gripping the extraction pins firmly. This step was insanely frustrating.

Fourth - when opening the board to put foam under the pcb make sure it is around 3 to 4mm thick because it will strain the pcb and there is a possibility that it pushes the trimode connectors out of line. It happened to me and i had to remove the top plate so i can align them again. 

Fifth - the switches that fit this board are Outemu low profile switches. In my case I used Outemu (GTMX) low profile pink switches. You can find those on AliExpress. They are like 17 euros for a pack of 110 switches. They come really lightly lubed so you will have to lube them. However they are much better quality than the standard redragon switches and have a better shine through than them. For lubing I used some Glorious G-lube, because i had only this available to me, but you can swap it for a Krytox 205g0 .

Sixth - I added some poron top plate switch padding to alleviate some of the pressure on the pcb. The Outemu switches were really easy to install and remove with this. It also helps that their pins and housings have better tolerances and better plastic.

Seventh - if a switch gets broken while you are trying to remove it - don’t panic- just finish with the other switches, then open the board carefully and push on the central pin from the bottom side. And I mean CAREFULLY! 

And that’s about it. I will list all the details on what you need for this particular job if you ever decide to make a similar build.

As for the end result the keyboard sounds like a membrane office keyboard (with the stock keycaps) and feels like a mechanical keyboard. I hope you found this interesting to read :)

Modding a Redragon K652