Outsmarting the Desk V2

Declaring the issue
How will I approach it?
The steps
An output is needed

Declaring the issue

About a year ago I joined the ‘standing desk’ community by investing in a IKEA IDÅSEN desk powered by a Linak BLE adapter. A part of me wanted to reverse all the strain bolted onto my back from sitting through at least 8 hours a day.

The desk controls are minimal, but it bothered me from the start that I had to hold the button until the desk reached the desired height. The desire of a fully automated desk was not fulfilled.

How will I approach it?

Well, the desk controller uses Low Energy Bluetooth (BLE), which is a handy protocol which in itself defines services needed to operate the underlying functionalities. But this was not needed. The wheel was already built and we are certainly not going to reinvent it.

We need a few things…

The steps

First we need to find out the MAC address of our desk controller. We’ll use the BLE Scanner Android app to find out the address.

Bluetooth Low Energy Scanner

Add a HA support for IKEA Linak (Idasen) by following the installation in the GitHub repository.
Install the HACS Lovelace plugin called LinakDesk Card
Add a new ESPHome device configuration and add this to the end of the yaml file

ESPHome configuration

yaml


esphome:
  name: ikea-desk

esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  framework:
    type: arduino

logger:

api:
  encryption:
    key: "your_api_key"

ota:
  password: "your_ota_password"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

  # Optional static IP
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: x.x.x.x
    gateway: x.x.x.x
    subnet: 255.255.255.0

  ap:
    ssid: "Ikea-Desk Fallback Hotspot"
    password: "your fallback hotspot password"

captive_portal:

external_components:
  - source: github://j5lien/esphome-idasen-desk-controller@v3.0.0

globals:
  - id: ble_client_connected
    type: bool
    initial_value: "false"

esp32_ble_tracker:

ble_client:
  # Replace with the desk bluetooth mac address
  - mac_address: "11:22:33:44:55:66"
    id: idasen_desk
    on_connect:
      then:
        - lambda: |-
            id(ble_client_connected) = true;
        - delay: 5s
        - lambda: |-
            id(desk_height).update();
            id(desk_speed).update();
    on_disconnect:
      then:
        - lambda: |-
            id(ble_client_connected) = false;

idasen_desk_controller:
  ble_client_id: idasen_desk
  only_up_down_command: false

cover:
  - platform: idasen_desk_controller
    name: "Desk"

sensor:
  # Desk Height Sensor
  - platform: ble_client
    type: characteristic
    ble_client_id: idasen_desk
    id: desk_height
    name: "Desk Height"
    service_uuid: "99fa0020-338a-1024-8a49-009c0215f78a"
    characteristic_uuid: "99fa0021-338a-1024-8a49-009c0215f78a"
    icon: "mdi:arrow-up-down"
    unit_of_measurement: "cm"
    accuracy_decimals: 1
    update_interval: never
    notify: true
    lambda: |-
      uint16_t raw_height = ((uint16_t)x[1] << 8) | x[0];
      unsigned short height_mm = raw_height / 10;

      return (float) height_mm / 10;

  # Desk Speed Sensor
  - platform: ble_client
    type: characteristic
    ble_client_id: idasen_desk
    id: desk_speed
    name: "Desk Speed"
    service_uuid: "99fa0020-338a-1024-8a49-009c0215f78a"
    characteristic_uuid: "99fa0021-338a-1024-8a49-009c0215f78a"
    icon: "mdi:speedometer"
    unit_of_measurement: "cm/min" # I'm not sure this unit is correct
    accuracy_decimals: 0
    update_interval: never
    notify: true
    lambda: |-
      uint16_t raw_speed = ((uint16_t)x[3] << 8) | x[2];
      return raw_speed / 100;

binary_sensor:
  # Desk Bluetooth Connection Status
  - platform: template
    name: "Desk Connection"
    id: desk_connection
    lambda: "return id(ble_client_connected);"

  # Desk Moving Status
  - platform: template
    name: "Desk Moving"
    id: desk_moving
    lambda: "return id(desk_speed).state > 0;"

That’s it. Our card is now available in the Lovelace GUI. We need to add the card and paste the raw yaml configuration provided below. Be sure to change the desk heights to your needs.

Lovelace card configuration

yaml


type: "custom:linak-desk-card"
desk: cover.desk
height_sensor: sensor.desk_height
moving_sensor: binary_sensor.desk_moving
connection_sensor: binary_sensor.desk_connection
min_height: 60
max_height: 126
presets:
  - label: Stay
    target: 120
  - label: Sit
    target: 76

An output is needed

The IKEA IDÅSEN (Linak) desk is now a bit smarter. You no longer have to hold the height buttons. Just press a button and let the smart home system do its magic.

Homeasisstant Lovel1ace Card