Custom G Key Software?

Captain Matt · February 9, 2022

Hey there,

Non-programmer pondering a question...

I just got a Corsair K95 OLD VERSION keyboard. Support told me it will not work 100% properly with Windows 10. It's only supported up to Windows 8.1

Hardware Nexus released a video showing the impact of Corsair iCue on a system. It's not horrible, but I hate the idea of extra background programs running, especially when the prior edition of this keyboard (K90) had a beautiful super lightweight piece of software... (Funny enough that works 100% on Windows 10).

So it got me thinking...

I only use the macro keys to launch programs and type the occasional string of text quickly.

Is there a program out there already that will let me program the G-Keys as normal computer inputs?

For example, extra mouse buttons are encoded as "Mouse 4" and "Mouse 5" etc.

What about G-keys?

There are already other programs that exist out there to control RGB lighting (I just use static colors and a few individual key lights)...

But what about G-Keys?

How hard would it be create a program to/Does something already exist:

Program the G keys
Run in the background and be super light weight and reliable
IDEALLY, but not required, push those macros to be saved onto the keyboard?

The K95 has onboard storage, but the iCue software cannot send hardware storage to it on Windows 10. Which is super dumb.

GoodBytes · February 10, 2022

8 hours ago, Captain Matt said:

Hey there,

Non-programmer pondering a question...

I just got a Corsair K95 OLD VERSION keyboard. Support told me it will not work 100% properly with Windows 10. It's only supported up to Windows 8.1

Hardware Nexus released a video showing the impact of Corsair iCue on a system. It's not horrible, but I hate the idea of extra background programs running, especially when the prior edition of this keyboard (K90) had a beautiful super lightweight piece of software... (Funny enough that works 100% on Windows 10).

So it got me thinking...

I only use the macro keys to launch programs and type the occasional string of text quickly.

Is there a program out there already that will let me program the G-Keys as normal computer inputs?

For example, extra mouse buttons are encoded as "Mouse 4" and "Mouse 5" etc.

What about G-keys?

There are already other programs that exist out there to control RGB lighting (I just use static colors and a few individual key lights)...

But what about G-Keys?

How hard would it be create a program to/Does something already exist:

Program the G keys

Run in the background and be super light weight and reliable

IDEALLY, but not required, push those macros to be saved onto the keyboard?

The K95 has onboard storage, but the iCue software cannot send hardware storage to it on Windows 10. Which is super dumb.

I don't know how Corsair keyboard works. But in the case of Logitech, they use their extension to the HID standard, which they call HID++ 2.0.

This is how they are making their keyboards (and mouse) that work without drivers on any OS, as it uses that, but for anything special, it goes through HID++ 2.0

The better news is that Logitech did provide a documentation of the draft of HID++ 2.0 which can be a good starting point for a developer who wants to make their alternative to Logitech own software:

https://lekensteyn.nl/files/logitech/logitech_hidpp_2.0_specification_draft_2012-06-04.pdf

But, this is a draft, not final, and who knows if things chance since 2012. Probably need communication intercepting tools to monitor the communication to get things working without guesses and luck.

All in all, it is a lot of work, and I have not seen anyone attempt this. I suspect the same for Corsair. It probably can be done, but too much effort for little to no reward (doesn't look fancy on a resume for someone who doesn't know, unless they really want to work at Logitech or Corsair)

Captain Matt · February 10, 2022

9 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I don't know how Corsair keyboard works. But in the case of Logitech, they use their extension to the HID standard, which they call HID++ 2.0.

This is how they are making their keyboards (and mouse) that work without drivers on any OS, as it uses that, but for anything special, it goes through HID++ 2.0

The better news is that Logitech did provide a documentation of the draft of HID++ 2.0 which can be a good starting point for a developer who wants to make their alternative to Logitech own software:

https://lekensteyn.nl/files/logitech/logitech_hidpp_2.0_specification_draft_2012-06-04.pdf

But, this is a draft, not final, and who knows if things chance since 2012. Probably need communication intercepting tools to monitor the communication to get things working without guesses and luck.

All in all, it is a lot of work, and I have not seen anyone attempt this. I suspect the same for Corsair. It probably can be done, but too much effort for little to no reward (doesn't look fancy on a resume for someone who doesn't know, unless they really want to work at Logitech or Corsair)