[Windows Gadget] Logitech Wireless Mouse Battery Monitoring

[Triscopic]

I am happy to release a "DIY package" for making your very own Wireless Mouse Battery monitoring gadget. This gadget will make the battery details available to LCDHost (although you will need to restart LCDHost after intalling the gadget)

25% battery left, time to recharge.

In an ideal world I would build an installer to do all the work for you, but I don't have time, and I doubt I will have it any time soon, so the choice was (a) release as a DIY package or (b) not release. The downside to this is that although I have tried to write instructions that are easy to follow, if I have failed and you can't get it to work, I won't be offering much support.

Things to note:

• Make sure you read the readme.
• This is a Windows Gadget. That means it is only designed to work on Windows Vista and Windows 7. there are work arounds for getting gadgets to work under XP, but I have no idea if they work or not. ( http://tinyurl.com/66l2vbv ).
• Make sure you read the readme.
• No, I can't make it work for any version of Windows other than Vista or 7. Ask Microsoft to make gadgets work under XP. Let me know when you get a response*
• Don't forget to read the readme.txt file in the download
• No, this cannot be done without using a Windows gadget. Yahoo widgets can't be dismantled like the Windows gadgets can and Logitech haven't made any API available to 3rd party developers, so all I can do is patch Logitech's pre-existing Windows gadget. Ask Logitech to expose a proper API. Let me know when you get a response**
• Once the patched gadget is installed, restart LCDHost and the monitoring objects will appear under 3rdParty/Monitoring/Logitech.
• You must read the readme, as it includes full instructions.***

*You won't get one. Don't bother.
**Ditto. Also I already tried this.
***Did I mention you need to read the readme file?

I wish I could make something "cleverer" than this and easier to install, but sadly, I can't. Also please don't patch the gadget and publish it, as it's logitech's copyrighted material and doing so could be problematic. Hence the whole "download direct from logitech and patch" thing.

P.S. Thanks to Ender for being a willing test victim guinea pig beta tester.

[Triscopic]

(reserved)

[Ender91]

Cool you finally released it... Fyi, it's working great for me...

[Numrollen]

Hmm i did the Installation step for step but it always show me 100%. I have a G700, the Silent Monior is running, i inserted the LogitechText. What i can do wrong? :-/

[Ender91]

Try to reload your layout (sometime the plugin doesn't get the data from the gadget).
And try the mouse level (Approx. %) and tell me if it works...

[Numrollen]

Ah sorry. It works but only in 1/4 steps. It jumped from 100% to 75%..  Now only a good TS3 plugin for my G19 is missing ThX a lot for this really gread plugin set.

[Ender91]

Yep it's normal that you've got only 4 levels... It depends on the mouse used... On my Performance MX I've got 4 too, but on my MX Revolution, I've 19....

[Triscopic]

* Triscopic arrives late to the party

Yes LCDHost needs to be restarted after installing the gadget. Glad it's working now.

The monitoring is limited to what the mouse reports, and it reports levels not a true percentage. If you run the logitech gadget it shows green (full), yellow (less full) or red (nearly empty) only, nothing finer - in fact for you it'll only show full or nearly empty as although the G700 (which is what I have too) has four levels Logitech's own gadget merges levels 4 & 3 and calls them both "full" and merges 2 & 1 and calls them "nearly empty". That annoyed me as my mouse just suddenly went from being "full" to "nearly empty" without any warning.

Anyway, I've tried to expose more info, but I'm still limited to the mouse's levels - I just make all available (i.e. for you, all four) instead of mixing them up into a smaller number of levels as per the original gadget.

Shame that the G700 has only four levels, but I guess it corresponds to the LED battery states (3 green, 2 green, 1 green, 1 red)

[Numrollen]

no problem. Still would be perfekt if the windows gadget wont be needed Where can i get the battery icon?

[Triscopic]

...would be perfekt if the windows gadget wont be needed...

Couldn't agree more, but as Logi don't provide any API for the mouse, this is as close as it gets. Even this shouldn't be possible; we're just lucky their original gadget is so easily modified.

Ender can prob provide you with a set. I'm using the battery images from within the gadget, shrunk down & recoloured but I'm not able to share them publicly as they're Logi's property.

[Ender91]

There already are two sets in the Suave layout.... And more are coming...

[cgrinds]

Just some feedback, it didn't work for me.  I only get 'N/A' in the logitechtext for my G700. Tried repackaging the gadget again (few times) and still had no luck.  I was using the 64bit version from the URL in the instructions on Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit SP1.

Also, I closed/uninstalled the gadget (no _DeviceManagerServer.exe was running after that) and then restarted LCDHost and the Logitech section remains under 3rdParty >> Monitoring.

[Triscopic]

hmm.

Can you check:

• Make sure you haven't got the mouse charging. The G700 cannot report it's state when the cable is connected.
• Does the default Logitech gadget work? It'll be gray or purple when unable to read the battery data but should otherwise be red/yellow/green depending on the battery level.
• Open regedit and navigate to the following registry key:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CodeLeap\LogitechMonitoring
  Here you should see four values. What are they?

[jjmqt]

Any chance you can incorporate this for the "Logitech G930 Wireless Headset" or perhaps create a new gadget?

I can't find any battery monitor for this that works with LCDHost, Windows Sidebar Gadgets, or the Logitech G19 plug-ins.

[Triscopic]

Any chance you can incorporate this for the "Logitech G930 Wireless Headset" or perhaps create a new gadget?

I can't find any battery monitor for this that works with LCDHost, Windows Sidebar Gadgets, or the Logitech G19 plug-ins.

No.

Sorry, but Logitech don't publish any APIs for reading battery levels from their hardware. I found a windows gadget for Logitech mice which Logi built and put on their website and hacked that to get it to make the battery states it was using available. If Logi ever produce a windows gadget that shows headset battery levels on the desktop I might be able to hack that to work with  LCDHost, but unless they do there's no chance. They simply don't provide 3rd party tools with any way to access battery levels.