Open-Source Controller for the IKEA Bekant Standing Desk

Well, on the one hand, it is great to have a replacement for the original controller. At a previous employer I had a Bekant with the stock controller, and those darn things are dreadfully unreliable. We had enough of those desks to get good reliability statistics... and the statistics are awful. So an open source replacement is great.

That said: Who the heck needs a motorized desk????? When it came to spending my own money, I got an IKEA Skarsta... essentially the same desk but with a hand crank, for half the price. Yes, you can buy two sit/stand hand-crank desks with a reliable mechanism for the cost of one motorized desk with a P.O.S. controller. Or you can do what I did, use the money saved to buy the most gigantic monitor I could find, which improves my productivity much more than the difference between a motorized versus hand crank desk mechanism.

EDIT to add:

In fact, I am pretty sure you can buy just the Skarsta hand crank mechanism. The next time I do a desk for myself, I will probably buy the leg mechanism and cut a custom-shape table top from some 3/4" cabinet ply.

Re: Open-Source Controller for the IKEA Bekant Standing Desk

#10

Post by WrtCdEvrydy » Mon, Jan 28, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

SEJeff wrote: post #2

This has received the infamous HN hug of death. Any chance anyone has a working archive link?

Give it a good 1-2 hours and bookmark it in the meanwhile.