IKEA Bekant allows the user to raise and lower the table so you can sit or stand as you wish. I decided to hack my Bekant with an Arduino to turn it into the ultimate Ikea Smart Desk!
I recently acquired a motorized table-frame from IKEA for my current desk.
After returning the first D.O.A table-kit and getting it replaced with a working one, height adjustment worked up nicely and I had a good standing/sitting workstation.
Problem with the setup was that I forgot to use it. As a solution, I made a small widget that reminds me to stand up at set intervals. After a piece of software has been written, it’s easy to continue working on. This time by hacking the hardware!
Reverse engineering the table controls
I tried my best to poke the leads of the tables button-unit with a multi-meter guessing there is some two switches and probably few resistors.
I opened the unit and discovered it was actually made up of proper looking electronics. The easiest way to hack that kind of system would be to add relays parallel to the membrane-switches which virtually push the up or down button.
Custom wiring into the connector 
Hacked controller with Hot-Snot
I soldered three 0,25 mm copper wires to the connector that goes to the switch membrane, those thin wires to a 4 pin-cable generously donated by defective DX.com USB-cable and made a cheap-ass strain remover by tying the cable carefully to a knot.
Everything goes neatly into the controller’s original case, with the hopes that nobody will have to take it apart again.
Designing a relay-shield
The box that does the actual button-pushing consists of an Arduino Uno Development board, proto-shield, and two 5 V miniature relays. As an extra, I added some connectors I had laying around.
Relays are connected directly to the digital pins on the Arduino as these models require little current to operate. Connected in parallel with the relay coils are 1N4148 diodes to allow the safe dissipation of the coil’s magnetic field. Induction transients that occur when the relays are opened can be fatal to the Arduino if not taken care of.
Relay-shield for connecting Arduino to the table 
Controller taped to the bottom of the table
Simple is beautiful. Also works quite well!
Arduino with the relay shield was just tossed somewhere in the desk’s cable management system and forgotten to do it’s magic quietly.
Developing the firmware for Arduino
I did not want to use a lot of time to get the system working so I slapped the code together quickly in Flowcode 6.
In Flowcode you make component definitions, what is connected where and then draw a flow-chart. Flowcode generates the C-code and HEX-files, it even programs the Arduino for you.
Main function, initialize and do nothing. 
Input handling, RX-receive interrupt 
Function to lift the table to the standing height 
Function to lower the table until limitswitch is reached
In the images above is all the code to get the system working. There are no fancy time-outs or safety limits, just the bare-bones to get the system working. Further development is needed here!
User Interface
There is no program, so I made one. Called UpButt’n and its used to control the table. It contains a timer to notify the user to switch position now and then. Sitting and standing times can be changed easily with sliders.
When the timer counts down to zero, the program will play a sound and show a little message-balloon in the bottom right corner of the screen. There is setting where you can select which COM-port your Arduino is connected to and simple up and down buttons that control the table.
Timer settings 
Controller settings, serial port and how long to push UP-button.
Down-button makes the table go down until the magnetic sensor senses the height setting magnet. Up button makes the table go up 18 seconds from the last position (probably the sitting position) to set the table to optimum standing-height for me. The program was written in Visual Basic with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Project files available below.
Sitting position of the table is set by moving a magnet on an Allen key that has been glued to the leg of the table.
Arduino stops pushing the down-button when the reed-switch meets up with a magnet
Conclusion
Control system works, promotes healthy laziness and costs less than a pizza to make.
The one-click solution makes it more comfortable to change between standing and sitting modes when you don’t need to push some hard-to-push buttons for a long time and adjusting back and forth whether this height is good now.
Quick and dirty, simple, fun and useful. Perfect project for a weekend.
Verdict
- Standing workstation is great for the back, easier to move around the office.
- Option to sit down makes the workstation more comfortable.
- Reminder and a single click interface take the hassle out of changing position.
Documentation
UpButt’n & SmartDesk, written and designed by Henri Rantanen, are licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 comments
How, how did you opened it without breaking the case? Seems it was closed on a very powerful clue!
I believe the top lid of the table remote was held be just plastic clips, so prying with a flat head screwdriver did the trick. They might have changed the design tho, its been years
Have you considered using a timer and a calibration option for positioning instead of a magnetic sensor? Essentially, you could measure the total height over time (cm/s) by moving from the top to the bottom position. This would allow you to track all motor movements, regardless of whether they are manually or software-triggered, to calculate a virtual position. I ask because I prefer a sensor-free solution that combines manual and software control. If you’ve considered this, there might be a good reason I’m not seeing for not using “virtual positioning”?
I have indeed thought about using a timer-based approach for positioning, but found some inconsistencies. Downward and upward movements take different times, and timing can vary a lot based on the load on the table. The magnetic sensor also acts as an end-stop. I’ve since transitioned to an ultrasonic sensor for height measurements from the floor, offering more accuracy.