Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard

Note: This is an archived page. The original article was created in 2005, but I no longer used the keyboard, since it lost a battle with a glass of diet coke. It was a very good keyboard, and I look forward to having a new Logitech gaming keyboard soon!

The G15 Gaming Keyboard is a nice keyboard from Logitech, who have made some excellent keyboards. This one is no exception. The keyboard has everything a modern keyboard should; USB connection, USB hub, standard keyboard layout and multimedia keys... What is also has is 18 "G" keys (programmable macro keys), and especially an LCD screen built into the keyboard to display stats on your game. The advert shows a quake-like game screen; 15 rockets, 100 cells and so-on. Just a little more space to display information or anything else you might need. Oh, and it is backlit too, which is the primary reason why I bought it. The G15 is a large keyboard, there is nothing small about it. 18 "G" keys are on the left, and a numeric keypad on the right. The LCD screen is in the centre on the top, which can be folded down if needed, hiding the multimedia keys. For more information, the Logitech web site has more information

First impressions

This keyboard was bought for my desktop computer in mind, but since I only have the laptop here, why not try. The keyboard has a USB connector, and also an internal USB hub with 2 ports. For the time being, nothing is plugged in. When the computer starts up, the keyboard is in "standard" mode; the LCD screen is off, but the keyboard reacts well enough to enter the BIOS and do anything you could expect from a keyboard. Once the kernel starts up, an unknown module is inserted and the LCD fires up, displaying a Logitech logo. The G keys are inactive, but the backlight control works fine. Gnome seemed to pick up the multimedia keys nice and quick. We now have a standard keyboard with a fun little Logitech logo and a few useless keys, but that's a temporary tradeoff for a cool blue back-lit effect.

Download the program

After Googling around a little, I stumbled upon Philip Lawatsch's website. He has developed a quick application that talks to the device via the USB library. He has done practically everything you need in order to use the LCD screen. As for the G keys, they are all there; just fire up Gnome and setup the shortcuts. Download the application, and build it. Don't forget the USB header files. A simple "make" is all that was needed on my machine. g15lcd works by using a fifo file. Create it first by running "mknod /var/tmp/logitech-lcd p". After that, you can run g15lcd, specifying the fifo file. In my case, an error came up because I didn't have a kernel with uinput; under Debian, modconf and insert the module to get it up and running.

Hello, world!

There is a tradition. The first time that anything manages to communicate with the outsid world, it has to be through the "Hello, world!" phrase. Your first C program was probably like this. Mine was. And my first test with the G15 LCD was too. g15lcd handles any text input using the fifo file. Text can be sent in one of three sizes; small, medium and large. Just send the text string "Tx "text 1" "text 2" " to the fifo, where x is S, M or L. To Hello, World the LCD screen, type in echo "TL "Hello, world"" > /var/tmp/logitech-lcd.

Graphics

The LCD screen isn't actually a text processor; the g15lcd actually takes a text input and creates a graphics image with the selected font. In theory, you can send any image you want to the LCD screen, so long as it is monochrome. g15lcd can send graphics directly to the LCD, so long as you transform it into a text string. The input is simple; send "P" followed by 6880 1's and 0's. This corresponds to the number of pixels on the screen; 160x43. I don't know of any application that will transform jpegs or xpms into a text string... If anyone knows of anything, let me know! After a couple of "Hello, world!"s on the screen, I thought it was about time for a Tux. I created a really small Tux (hey, this was pencil and paper stuff, be nice!). Download it here. Just send this file to the fifo file and a penguin should come up.