Had been talking to xWhatsit about the possibility of using his capsense controllers on regular switches like ALPS, MX, space invaders, or anything with physical contacts other than just IBM capacitative boards like IBM model F's. He mentioned that they should be usable with physical switches and maintain NKRO with diodes used for each key.
Sure, there are other keyboard controllers out there that have similar functionality, but I haven't found any that are anywhere near as simple to program as the xWhatsit given that the configuration utility is completely visual and runs on all major operating systems including Mac, Windows, and Linux. Configuration consists of pressing a key, it is visualized on a matrix, and you can choose from the dropdown menu what you want to assign the key to.
The idea behind this post is to get the word out that a lot of older keyboards with unique layouts with bad or obsolete controllers could be restored to function, have NKRO, and all of xWhatsit's awesome features that were previously known to be usable only on capsense boards.
Finally got around to building a concept board to test out the theory using an Apple M0110 and it WORKS PERFECTLY, NKRO and all:
Basically followed the guide here as far as wiring goes, but substituted the teensy for the xWhatsit:
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/the-apple-m0110-today-t1067.html...important part is that the diodes go in with the black/silver band marked end of each diode wired towards the ROWs, not the columns, which is exactly the same as the guide above has it pictured.
I use the Model F variant of the controller which supports up to 128 keys (16 columns and 8 rows). This can be used on full size keyboard that would have more than 16 columns, you'd just need to extend the columns to cover the extra keys, up to one each per intersecting row. Will eventually get around to making a full size board if anyone is interested in seeing how that would look, or might be easier to make a drawing of how that would look.
If anyone is interested in trying this, I have xWhatsit Model F controllers available for $35 shipped to the USA. PM me if interested.