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IKEA BEKANT Desk upgrade with touch screen controls

This is my hack of IKEA BEKANT Desk, giving it new touch screen controls and height memory.

IKEA item used:
ikea bekant

Photo: IKEA.com

The original controls for the sit/stand desk was extremely basic, with just two buttons — up and down.

up and down controls

I wanted to attempt to control the movement of the IKEA Bekant Desk sit/stand height with M5Stack Core2 using two Relay units and a ToF (time-of-flight sensor VL53L0x) unit.

ikea bekant touch screen controls

It worked really well.

I now control the up and down movements with a touch screen interface that can store up to 6 height values. Very useful if you have different users for the desk.

Let’s take a look at the demo.

The full instructions for the IKEA BEKANT touch-screen control hack is here. And the Paper E-ink Display version is here.

Why did you decide to hack the item?

Because there is no such thing on the market. And for fun! Many sit/stand desks in the market has up to 4 memory buttons, though probably not a LCD touch screen. The IKEA BEKANT control has neither, just Up and Down.

How long and how much did it cost?

4 hours and about $500 (IKEA desk is 90% of the cost)

What do you like most about the hack?

The cat on top of it (joking) 😉 Also be able to stand while teleworking (but without Corona Beer.)

What was the hardest part about this hack?

Open the ABS box, extract the circuit and connect each three lanes to test probe hooks. But no soldering was required.

What to pay special attention to?

Details of the user interface and functionality. Not kill the lanes of the two buttons backplane.

Looking back, would you have done it differently?

Start directly with M5paper as the M5Stack Core2 is too small and thick.

~ by Baco

The post IKEA BEKANT Desk upgrade with touch screen controls appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

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