Quick how to I wrote to get fully backlit secondary key symbols for the Logitech G-815 and G-915.

[NadeMagnet69]

Not sure if this should go here or in mods but anyways, I came across this mod a couple months back and wanted to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did. I couldn't be happier with the results.

 

[Jurrunio]

deleted...?

[NadeMagnet69]

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

deleted...?

Yeah that's what they're saying over at tomshardware. It works when I click it. If reddit deletes your post can you still reach it? I don't post on reddit much. Screw it I'll just copy and paste it here.

[NadeMagnet69]

The lack of backlit secondary key symbols always bothered me and quite a few other people. Especially considering that they're the current flagship keyboards and for 200 and 250 bucks they most certainly should have been lit like so many other Logitech keyboards are. It was almost a deal breaker for me in buying my G-815 since I'm a night owl. lol You'd think a giant 43 inch Acer CG7 monitor all of 2 feet in front of it would be enough to light the secondary symbols. But it only does if I put the keyboards legs in and lay it fully flat. I hate typing like that.

Credit to the redditor np3jk for giving me the idea. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/eh1ie5/g915_with_upgraded_keycaps/

I wondered why Logitech hadn't made as big of a deal about their GL switches as they did their Romer-G switches. Now I see it's probably because they are just modified Kaihl low profile choc switches. So that means you're not stuck with just this set. https://kprepublic.com/products/kailh-low-profile-keycap-set-for-kailh-low-profile-swtich-abs-doubleshot-ultra-thin-keycap-for-low-profile-white-brown-red?_pos=1&_sid=84a043ccd&_ss=r

You can also find a lot of keycaps cheap on aliexpress that will work like this mod. Even clear ones if that floats your boat. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32979973961.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000060.2.69076cfdrvEAmr&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.169870.0&scm_id=1007.13339.169870.0&scm-url=1007.13339.169870.0&pvid=e8c23bea-0d1f-405f-ba79-ad7c8769209a&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller,scm-url:1007.13339.169870.0,pvid:e8c23bea-0d1f-405f-ba79-ad7c8769209a,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%2356_668%23808%233772%23628_668%23888%233325%2312_668%232846%238110%23356_668%232717%237561%23302_668%231000022185%231000066059%230_668%233468%2315614%23554

Which answers the question of why Logitech doesn't sell replacement keycaps. There's no money in it unless you don't care about pissing off customers like some ebay seller can.

 

Just finished mine and I'm really happy with how it turned out so I thought I 'd write up a simple how to and elaborate a bit on np3jk's post. Starting off with the pros and cons of this simple mod for all the TLDR types.

Pros.

Backlit secondary symbols.

HyperX style of pudding keycaps. As much as they can be anyways while being low profile caps. Makes lighting modes look far better in my opinion.

PRICE and yes that deserves capital letters. For only 15 bucks shipped you get the whole set. Most of which will fit. As opposed to having to buy from ebay where it costs between 5-8 bucks PER KEYCAP. I think it was around 50-60 bucks for the whole set. I couldn't confirm that since the listing is sold out for the entire key set. That being said they are actual Logitech G-815 and 915 keycaps.

Relatively easy to do the mod.

Keys are textured.

Cons.

Tedious.

Can't do the entire keyboard without heavy modding.

Need the right tools to do it right and easy.

Having to wait for them to be shipped from China.

Number pad secondary symbols are not printed.

 

The Kaihl keycaps are thinner and flatter than the Logitechs.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

They're also textured making them feel better and more robust to me than the stock keys.

Spoiler

 

 

To start off with I recommend getting an actual key puller. Specifically this style. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HPC88HM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Instead of the ring type or any other type that only grabs in 2 places. You could of course just use your fingers but you'll be much likelier to break a peg. But if you manage to break a peg using the one in the link lol you must be ham fisted. That one will grab at 4 corners and makes for a worry free disassembly.

Secondly you're going to need a rotary tool like a dremel. I suppose you can sand by hand. You don't have to take much off. But it'll then be ten zillion times more tedious and you need to sand the posts to a 90 degree right angle to their base so they can sit flat and can't rock side to side.

You don't want to use aggressive bits like these.

Spoiler

Use something like this one.

 

Spoiler

A digital caliper makes things go much smoother.

 

Spoiler

As you can see you barely have to do any sanding.

 

Spoiler

You don't have to make it as exact as the stock key measurement. You can be off a bit and it'll still fit. I started by laying the cap upside down and going vertically down the inside of each post. Then turned the cap on its side and used the flat end of the bit to square off the rounded part that is left behind. As well as sand off the little plus symbol in the middle.

 

Spoiler

Once you make your first, test the fit. It shouldn't be able to rock side to side and will sit flat if sanded right. If it fits good lock down the caliper and then you don't even have to turn it on again. Just keep it there to check each key. You want to sand as little as possible. If you do it right the keycaps will be held on with tension since their outside pegs don't have the tab that the stock ones do. If you sand too much you might need to use a drop of something like rubber cement or something else that stays flexible. It's not that hard too glue them. I used a safety pin to draw out a tiny dab. But if you're not careful you can put too much and let it get into the switch. lol Ask me how I know... That's the good thing about rubber cement though. The same properties that made it fun to roll up and make fake boogers in gradeschool, made it easy to get out of the switch. I didn't actually have to glue any. I just did it anyways since I already had bought the glue in preparation for the mod.

One down ten zillion to go.

Spoiler

You won't be able to do the whole keyboard. Most can be modded to fit if you're creative. But they won't fit well. Especially ones with the extra tabs like these or ones with the thick plus symbol under the longer ones.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

So I decided not to mod those so the stock ones will still look symmetrical up the sides since some of the bottom row Kailh caps are wider than stock and won't fit unless you cut them down to size which would look bad.

Like I said it's tedious. lol Reminded me of when I was back in high school metal shop and tried to make a chainmail shirt. Gave up after only making a 10x20 inch rectangle. I can see why np3jk only did his secondary symbol keys. But if you can stick with it, the two types of keys actually compliment each other well in my opinion. The stock keys sort of frame the pudding type. I'm happy with how it turned out and it makes the white and blue left to right wave animation mode I made look way better. My dinosaur of a phone doesn't do them justice.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

I hope this encourages anyone who wants to be able to have a fully lit keyboard to give this a shot. I highly recommend it. Even if you screw up you're not going to be out a lot of money.

Edited December 5, 2020 by SansVarnic
Corrected formatting.

[Jurrunio]

Ok so you essentially just changed the keycaps to have the symbols right next to the number so they can both be illuminated by the LED?

[NadeMagnet69]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Ok so you essentially just changed the keycaps to have the symbols right next to the number so they can both be illuminated by the LED?

Yes but the Kailh keycaps are double shot and are backlit capable. None of the aftermarket logitech keycaps like on ebay are see through for the secondary symbols. Even if I could move the symbol, light still wouldn't make it through. They're just printed on.

[SansVarnic]

@NadeMagnet69 I have corrected your formatting, please be mindful of your formatting when you copy/paste in the future.

[NadeMagnet69]

On 12/5/2020 at 8:38 AM, SansVarnic said:

@NadeMagnet69 I have corrected your formatting, please be mindful of your formatting when you copy/paste in the future.

My bad, sorry. It wasn't my intention to post here originally. I just wanted to get it posted again in case I couldn't find it on reddit. I don't know how removed posts works over there and wasn't sure how long I'd have access. Didn't want to write all that again.

[xXLXx]

Hey NadeMagnet69. This is a really great post. Although I just tried it now with one of my stock Kailh keycaps. I filed it down manually it actually got it but it's easily removed with no effort. Do yours stay when pressed in ? 

Here are the keycaps I've filled down, left side is the one I filed while the right is the one unfiled





This is how it looks when I push it down equally but it could be easily topled to the left or right 

[NadeMagnet69]

4 hours ago, xXLXx said:

Hey NadeMagnet69. This is a really great post. Although I just tried it now with one of my stock Kailh keycaps. I filed it down manually it actually got it but it's easily removed with no effort. Do yours stay when pressed in ? 

Here are the keycaps I've filled down, left side is the one I filed while the right is the one unfiled





This is how it looks when I push it down equally but it could be easily topled to the left or right 

I've since had to pull a couple and sand a bit more off them, but once done right there should be no problem with them staying on. But I also sanded down the plus symbol in the middle, yours is still there. You want it to sit as flat as possible so sand that off and it won't be able to easily rock off one side or the other. And you want the posts sanded to as close to a 90 degree right angle as you can manage with where the plus symbol is, which will also help it stay flat and stuck on. It really helped that the bit I was using has a flat end so it was able to take the plus off really easily and square up the posts as much as I could.

[xXLXx]

Ahh I see will have to try that then. Thanks mate

[neoxauron]

Decided to give it a try. I tried to fully mod the shift, ctrl and spacebar. My experiment went very wrong lmao. I tried cutting the OEM key and pasting it behind the pbt keycap on the CTRL and as you can see the height is totally strange. I tried doing it to the SHIFT also and if you sand even a little uneven the key will be crooked.

 

Then I tried krazy glue on the tabs completely cut out on the SPACE key but I accidentally got krazy glue on the shift key and removed it with acetone (big mistake as you can see). If the isolated tabs are even a little uneven in height the stabilized key will be squishy. My space key is now totally squishy lol. Anyway I bought new OEM keys knowing my experiment would have a high chance of failing. 

 

[NadeMagnet69]

 

2 hours ago, neoxauron said:

Decided to give it a try. I tried to fully mod the shift, ctrl and spacebar. My experiment went very wrong lmao. I tried cutting the OEM key and pasting it behind the pbt keycap on the CTRL and as you can see the height is totally strange. I tried doing it to the SHIFT also and if you sand even a little uneven the key will be crooked.

 

Then I tried krazy glue on the tabs completely cut out on the SPACE key but I accidentally got krazy glue on the shift key and removed it with acetone (big mistake as you can see). If the isolated tabs are even a little uneven in height the stabilized key will be squishy. My space key is now totally squishy lol. Anyway I bought new OEM keys knowing my experiment would have a high chance of failing. 

 

I knew those keys would take extensive modding so I left well enough alone. Kudos on the attempt though. How are you liking Ghub? I'm hating it. Major step backwards compared to LGS. Only had mine since November and I've already had to reinstall it 3 times and I've had to use my settings.json backup another 3 times. The first reinstall cost me a complex lighting animation I spent hours making. lol I was sooo pissed. If you haven't read to do this you should backup your settings.json file so that doesn't happen to you. It has the profiles, animations you've made or DL, macros, and what have you. You'll find it in C:. Users. Whatever you've named the PC. Appdata. Local. LGHUB. I wish I had known to do that before hand. It's such a buggy software and all Logitech ever does with updates is just add new devices. It can't even install or update reliably. lol Ghub problems deserves its own subreddit. Sigh. Oh well the hardware is sure nice. Still my favorite keyboard and I've been using PC since the 80s and DOS.

[alie45]

The lack of backlit secondary key symbols always bothered me and quite a few other people. Especially considering that they're the current flagship keyboards and for 200 and 250 bucks they most certainly should have been lit like so many other Logitech keyboards are also give technical informations like https://windowliveupdates.com. It was almost a deal breaker for me in buying my G-815 since I'm a night owl. lol You'd think a giant 43 inch Acer CG7 monitor all of 2 feet in front of it would be enough to light the secondary symbols. But it only does if I put the keyboards legs in and lay it fully flat. I hate typing like that. 

[DragonInWhite]

Hey, I know im reviving an old thread, but just wanted to share what I done and thank you for the guide. Attached is a sort-of before and after. I pretty much followed the instructions. It took me about 5-6 hours to complete. Was so tempted to just stop midway but I powered on. Looks awesome now. Too bad the other keys did not fit. I managed to fit the + and enter on the number pad by widening the cherry-stem like stabilizer thing. For backspace and numpad 

0, I completely removed them. As per instructions, I used a dremel to remove the internal cross and made the stems narrower. I also removed the T bits (the bits that are like the cross in the center, but left and right)  to the left and right as well. I'm not sure if that did anything, but I felt that it helped with keeping the keys flat. 

Since I removed the stabilizes on backspace and numpad 0, they get toppled easily. They are, however, function and look like they fit. Just need to press in the center. usage of those two keys so far has not been a problem, but I only got this done 1 hour ago. If I find that I dun like it, I might change backspace and \ back to the original. I'll likely keep 0, cause I don't use that much.

All in all, was a pretty tiring, but fun day. Wish I could do more to the other keys so that I can have the entire keyboard in pudding style. Typing on this so far felt a little different. Might just be an illusion, but it feels like the travel had shortened, which made no sense to me since I done nothing to the switches. The texture is a definite improvement over the original. Looking at this post now, I think I missed out Tab. Maybe I'll go back to it later. 

[Cyan101]

Would love custom keycaps for my 815 but these kailh ones honestly seem worse, I dislike the texture from OPs pic and if they are also thinner/smaller and stuff, not sure it'll be worth it for me. Shame really, any recommendations on good keyboards like the logitech series that are open to modded keycaps? Or just basically anything thats cherry mx?

[NadeMagnet69]

15 hours ago, Cyan101 said:

Would love custom keycaps for my 815 but these kailh ones honestly seem worse, I dislike the texture from OPs pic and if they are also thinner/smaller and stuff, not sure it'll be worth it for me. Shame really, any recommendations on good keyboards like the logitech series that are open to modded keycaps? Or just basically anything thats cherry mx?

Texture wise they are a tad rougher when new which I did like more at first but now they feel as smooth as stock keycaps already which doesn't bother me either. The only ones I can still feel rougher are ones I never use like scrollock, printscreen, etc. But it's only ROUGHER mind you. It's not rough. They're weren't all that rough to begin with. In my original pic it's just catching the light and makes them look rougher then they actually are. This is them today. I tried to catch them in a better light with the stock space bar this time. And I really don't do all that much typing for them to have worn down much. I mostly just game with it. IDK on your other questions, sorry. 

 

[Pankeko]

Okay, i found this thread explaining how to do this process and i feel like I've found maybe easier ways of doing this

At first i tried doing like up above, but i felt like the key wasn't really properly secured, since i don't own a dremel i decided to use nail pliers, to carve out the inside of the post, so they would kinda clip and hold the key in, turned out pretty nice

The height of the new keys is pretty similar but not the same, they sit a bit lower than the stock keys.


after the keys were done, i also noticed some of the letters that have a shape in the middle like O, P, R, A, D, B had a small black spot so i carved out with a soldering iron the lil plastic part and they shine better now, in hindsight, i should've used the soldering iron to make the grooves between the posts oh well, now my fingers hurt

Just wish they'd double shot the originals and make the symbols backlit to begin with

[soulm8]

Thanks for great post

 

I'm having a specific issue where my D keycap both posts got broken. Got it out from switch and wonder is there a way to fix it? Any diy idea? Ordered kalih pudding and gonna do same like this but for first help want to try any kind of fix. Thanks 

[Pankeko]

Okay, so after long searching for other key caps, because i never really liked the pudding look, i decided to redo the process, with previous knowledge, maybe make it more consistent or easy..

So, removing these key caps without breaking them, that was the first challenge, you need to pull it completely leveled if you tilt to any of the sides it might not break, but will add stress to the plastic which will eventually break
I used a little clamp thingy to pull them, but i think a 4way clamp would work even better
 

 

For the big ones i felt like this worked better

Even with all the care, you can see at the tip how it stresses the plastic, so be very careful!!



With all that done, nooow onto the mod

With testing on some of the spare keys, I've figure out that first you wanna remove the + in the middle and at the sides of the posts

After that you can take a soldering iron with a fine tip, and perhaps bent at 90 degree angle carve out the base a little like this

 

I also suggest with a nail filer make so the inner part of the posts is flat, it has little bumps, so just smooth those out, like 3 passes of the file can do that

Next what i did is fix up the mold marks that happen when they do letters like O P D A etc.. for that i used the soldering iron with the bent fine tip again


After all that is done, since i didn't like the pudding i decided to paint the sides of the key caps, i choose black nail polish that is pretty thick, so only needed to do 1 coat, and trust me, this was the most time consuming part of this project. i thought about using permanent marker, however the oil based one i got would still stain my fingers


I think they turned out pretty good, but it could be better honestly



anyways, after that the mod was pretty much done, however, i still had the original keys to put back into place, and as you all know,  they rattle, so i decided to do something about it, and its a 0.33mm thick piece of paper with 6.92mm length and 4.18mm tall placed like this


You can use a bit of that liquid glue used in cellphone repair to attach the screen between the paper and the key cap juuust to make sure it wont go anywhere, but i advise just a tiny lil bit, because it can seep onto they switch and then its just a nightmare to get it out (yes it happened to me)

After that's all said and done, i also decided to put a little piece of plastic over the keys, i think scotch tape will do but i used laminated plastic for protecting drawing and whatnot and only on the big keys like space, shift, ctrl, alt, etc

And heres the final result:





My phone camera doesn't do it justice, but it looks pretty good!

A few side notes: Perhaps a matte nail polish would be a better candidate for painting, it doesn't shine up much, but does a little, not that distracting tho.

i also tried hot glue to keep the key caps on but that didn't seem to be very effective

Other things I found:
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256804358724095.html?gatewayAdapt=bra2glo4itemAdapt
 

This set of key caps, they look good but are twice the price aaannd don't seem like they're double shot

I also found these adapters, if anyone is willing to try them out, i wonder if they increase the key too much or cause more wobble.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802398800685.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.27.1cbc571cFehp56&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.281175.0&scm_id=1007.40050.281175.0&scm-url=1007.40050.281175.0&pvid=7af8cc1a-9e03-4a8e-bca8-a83cc5b73063&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40050.281175.0%2Cpvid%3A7af8cc1a-9e03-4a8e-bca8-a83cc5b73063%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238111%231996&pdp_npi=3%40dis!BRL!115.47!58.89!!!!!%40210312d516805968624187748ed6e1!12000021271891577!rec!BR!2008784134&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt


Also, if you have any problems with your G815, i highly suggest contacting logi through the phone, they seem to actually do their job through there.

 

[Fefe_du_973]

I know this thread is quite old but I would like to know if there is "plug and play" pudding style keycaps for the G915 because I don't have the appropriate tools and skills to do such a mod. Moreover the k-republic keycaps are sold out ):

[Marcus Aseth]

Thank you for this thread, it has been a wake-up call for me to say "Ok, fuck logitech and fuck gaming keyboards"
The future is modular - by default!

[MostyRandom]

On 5/14/2023 at 2:33 PM, Pankeko said:

Okay, so after long searching for other key caps, because i never really liked the pudding look, i decided to redo the process, with previous knowledge, maybe make it more consistent or easy..

So, removing these key caps without breaking them, that was the first challenge, you need to pull it completely leveled if you tilt to any of the sides it might not break, but will add stress to the plastic which will eventually break
I used a little clamp thingy to pull them, but i think a 4way clamp would work even better
 

 

For the big ones i felt like this worked better

Even with all the care, you can see at the tip how it stresses the plastic, so be very careful!!



With all that done, nooow onto the mod

With testing on some of the spare keys, I've figure out that first you wanna remove the + in the middle and at the sides of the posts

After that you can take a soldering iron with a fine tip, and perhaps bent at 90 degree angle carve out the base a little like this

 

I also suggest with a nail filer make so the inner part of the posts is flat, it has little bumps, so just smooth those out, like 3 passes of the file can do that

Next what i did is fix up the mold marks that happen when they do letters like O P D A etc.. for that i used the soldering iron with the bent fine tip again


After all that is done, since i didn't like the pudding i decided to paint the sides of the key caps, i choose black nail polish that is pretty thick, so only needed to do 1 coat, and trust me, this was the most time consuming part of this project. i thought about using permanent marker, however the oil based one i got would still stain my fingers


I think they turned out pretty good, but it could be better honestly



anyways, after that the mod was pretty much done, however, i still had the original keys to put back into place, and as you all know,  they rattle, so i decided to do something about it, and its a 0.33mm thick piece of paper with 6.92mm length and 4.18mm tall placed like this


You can use a bit of that liquid glue used in cellphone repair to attach the screen between the paper and the key cap juuust to make sure it wont go anywhere, but i advise just a tiny lil bit, because it can seep onto they switch and then its just a nightmare to get it out (yes it happened to me)

After that's all said and done, i also decided to put a little piece of plastic over the keys, i think scotch tape will do but i used laminated plastic for protecting drawing and whatnot and only on the big keys like space, shift, ctrl, alt, etc

And heres the final result:





My phone camera doesn't do it justice, but it looks pretty good!

A few side notes: Perhaps a matte nail polish would be a better candidate for painting, it doesn't shine up much, but does a little, not that distracting tho.

i also tried hot glue to keep the key caps on but that didn't seem to be very effective

Other things I found:
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256804358724095.html?gatewayAdapt=bra2glo4itemAdapt
 

This set of key caps, they look good but are twice the price aaannd don't seem like they're double shot

I also found these adapters, if anyone is willing to try them out, i wonder if they increase the key too much or cause more wobble.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802398800685.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.27.1cbc571cFehp56&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.281175.0&scm_id=1007.40050.281175.0&scm-url=1007.40050.281175.0&pvid=7af8cc1a-9e03-4a8e-bca8-a83cc5b73063&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40050.281175.0%2Cpvid%3A7af8cc1a-9e03-4a8e-bca8-a83cc5b73063%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238111%231996&pdp_npi=3%40dis!BRL!115.47!58.89!!!!!%40210312d516805968624187748ed6e1!12000021271891577!rec!BR!2008784134&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt


Also, if you have any problems with your G815, i highly suggest contacting logi through the phone, they seem to actually do their job through there.

 

Hi, I know this is kind of old, but I can't seem to find those caps anywhere. This is a new realm for me so am a little lost. Are you able to share a link to where I can buy them in the US or somewhere I should look. All I could find on aliexpress are blank and white caps.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

@MostyRandom 3D-printing is an option: https://www.printables.com/model/96563-compatible-logitech-gl-g815-g915-keycap

[NadeMagnet69]

22 hours ago, MostyRandom said:

Hi, I know this is kind of old, but I can't seem to find those caps anywhere. This is a new realm for me so am a little lost. Are you able to share a link to where I can buy them in the US or somewhere I should look. All I could find on alibaba are blank and white caps.

Yeah they are getting harder to find. I still found some here that look identical to the ones I got, but they're more expensive than the set I got when I wrote this post. https://controller.works/products/kailh-low-profile-pudding-keycap-set

Also found a set of white for the same price as what I got, though the black like at many places is sold out.  https://chosfox.com/collections/low-profile-keycaps/products/chosfox-kailh-choc-low-profile-keycaps-104keys?variant=41443243851970

 

There may be other places. What you want to google or your search engine of choice is "kailh low profile keycaps" or "kailh choc low profile keycaps."