Dvoraking a Logitech G15/G110/G19

Update 2010-04-05: These instructions also work for the Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard, as the keys and their sockets appear to be identical. It may also work for the Logitech G19 Keyboard, as it appears to be a G110 without a screen.

So, I’ve had my Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard for a while. However, one annoying thing about it (like other Logitech keyboards), it has the annoying feature of a different socket for the F and J keys, probably intended as hints for if you take all the keys off for cleaning. Unlike my previous Logitech wireless keyboard which had the socket rotated 90 degrees, the G15 has a small plastic key/guide which means you have to insert the F, U, J and H keys upside-down if you want to use the Dvorak keyboard layout instead of QWERTY (because you can only seem to order Dvorak keyboards online, at great expense).

This is a diagram of the G15’s key sockets, looking straight down. The one on the left is a normal key, while the one on the right is for a F or J key. I didn’t use a photo here because my keyboard is so horribly dirty and a close-up shot of the socket makes me ashamed...

You can easily scrape off the key/gude with a flat-head screwdriver. You just have to lever the screwdriver up and down a little bit and that key scrapes right off, allowing you to put in keys from either type of socket. Only a small amount of plastic needs to come off, and you don’t have to push very hard.

The end result is a G15 without any upside-down keys. There’s no disadvantage to doing this to your keyboard, and it’ll continue to work even if you switch your keyboard back to QWERTY again.