Hey guys. I was busy thinking and I thought, is it possible to have a membrane keyboard with mechanical WASD keys? Maybe specifically for a gamer? What do you guys think?
Why on earth would you ever want to do that?
There are of course switches that use various degrees of "mechanical" over membrane, such as (as mentioned) the IBM Model M, the Acer switch, Oriental Tech spring over membrane, and Cherry MY. I assume though that you specifically want discrete keyswitch modules.
The weirdest thing I ever saw was the Commodore 64 shift lock:
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It's a latching action switch, with a little PCB used for the stationary switch contact, that projects from the switch downwards, and then they've soldered that onto the PCB. (One day I should clean up the switch and post detailed photos of it; I guess it predated the proper Mitsumi keyboard switch modules.)
Here's how Fujitsu had in-key LEDs on a pure membrane keyboard (FKB4700):
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The LEDs legs are fitted with conductive pads that make contact with the membrane.
There are no end of weird ideas in production keyboards, some good, some bad.
The big gotcha with having "mechanical" WASD keys is that normal typing would feel odd, as you'd have certain keys that don't respond the same as all the others. I think I've seen mechanical keyboards with different switches under WASD, which just seems silly to me.
If you wanted to secure keyswitch modules into an otherwise membrane keyboard, you certainly could (just cut a hole in the membrane backing plate and put a PCB there) but it would be a very strange thing to do.
