deskthority

I’m looking to add a solenoid to a model M ‘Battleship’ keyboard. Can this be done with the xwhatsit controller and accompanying solenoid driver? Apologies in advance if I’ve worded this incorrectly.

No, an xwhatsit is only designed for capacitive sensing boards.

To use a solenoid for a model M you have to create a custom controller, assign a pin on the controller to fire the solenoid and use a transistor or relay to connect the solenoid.

Thank you. Any idea where to find such a custom controller?

That's actually not quite true. An xwhatsit for model F will work fine but you might run into limitations with the 16x8 matrix. You'll also have to desolder the edge connectors from the old controller and solder them to the xwhatsit using wires etc.

AS far another type of controller, I'm not personally aware of one. The ones I know of convert Model Ms to bluetooth, but don't add solenoids.