Newbie looking to build a keyboard - need help!

[wintfps]

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm asking this in the right place but I'll give it a shot. I'm very much a newbie to this scene, and am looking to build a quite unique custom keyboard for gaming purposes. My whole goal is to use the IJKL keys for movement rather than WASD. My reasoning is that it allows for 3 extra buttons for my thumb (Alt, Menu, Ctrl), rather than just the space bar, and it opens up a lot of room for my mouse to move since I can slide the keyboard over to the left. The only issue I run into, however, is that I can no longer use the comfy left shif key for my pinky. So I'm looking to build a unique keyboard with a shift key in the same position relative to IJKL like it normally is for WASD. So basically smack dab in the middle of the keyboard. I've played around with the case and plate builder and all of that looks great. But I'm still not sure what else I need to do. How would I go about acquiring a PCB that fits my needs? Any and all help is appreciated!

Thanks!

[Leslieann]

You don't need a PCB, you can hand wire a keyboard quite easily, it's a bit tedious but not difficult.

If you have access to a 3d printer you can also print a design the way you want and even build in hot swap sockets you hand wire. Giving you in effect a plastic PCB, it's what I did on my 65% (see my signature which also has 3d printing tips) and what my new board I'm working on will be done.

If you have access to a 3d printer, for what you will spend getting your PCB alone, you can build an entire keyboard, or 3. If you do go this route check the usual places for 3d print patterns, Thingiverse, Cults, Prusa and you can toss working, existing designs into CAD or Tinkercad (suuuuuper easy to learn) and start printing it.

[suicidal_orange]

I'm struggling to understand - is the problem that shift is bigger than B?  If so could you map B and V to the same key using a USB to USB convertor and be happy?  Or maybe unmap one of those keys and use a 2u DSA keycap that fits over the two switches to avoid pressing both (not sure how anything would react to having two keys sending the same code)