Megadesk
tindie.com
tindie.com
This seems a bit silly, but I have a whole configuration that I use for coding that is different to the config that I use for (say) gaming - different monitor settings, change in lighting, open/closed window shades etc. I'd like to adjust desk height similarly (I have two keyboards and mice, one positioned below the other one on a pull-out keyboard tray).
So, any ideas on where to start automating this particular kind of desk? The controller is a sealed unit and my google-fu is lacking when it comes to finding the protocol used to communicate with the desk itself.
EDIT: Found this: https://github.com/sarahkw/deskctrl/blob/master/schematics/r... not sure if my desk is a JRV1 or not yet but will find out.
How's the lateral stability in a Jarvis? I want to be able to mount a gaming wheel with very strong force feedback to my desk, and the Jarvis's lack of a cross bar makes me doubt it's as strong as an UpLift V2 desk which I'm also considering.
In my opinion, the Jarvis is the best one (for its price range) and I've been thrilled with it.
I was content with my Jarvis until I received the Uplift. Stability comparisons are night and day: Uplift (with crossbar) has vastly superior stability at standing heights. The Jarvis has noticeable sway just using a keyboard and mouse, while the Uplift remains stable even when pounding on music gear. Both are stable at sitting heights. I found accessories (such as cable management) to be better with Uplift as well. It is enough of a difference that I am considering replacing the Jarvis with another Uplift desk in the future.
To Jarvis’ defense, I am comparing their 3 year old product to their competitors’ product I bought 1 month ago, and the overall desk experience with Jarvis is still good enough that I’m in no rush to replace it. I will be only buying standing desks with crossbars from now on, though.
Do you think it's worth the extra money for the 4-legged Uplift? Would it be more stable than a C-frame or T-frame?
Did you also get Uplift's CPU holder? I'm unsure of the ability of it to fit over the crossbar of the commercial frames.
No CPU holder, but I got the retractable keyboard tray. At the lowest height (under 24”), it collides with the crossbar when fully pushed back. This never impacts me because it is well below the lowest height setting I use for sitting and can’t imagine it being an issue for anyone else. If the CPU holder collides with the crossbar, though, it’d probably happen at an unacceptable height. I would check the dimensions of everything before purchase.
For my purposes, I have an an additional desktop machine I simply keep on the floor by the desk.
I own that one (extended version) and in the "sitting" position (I assume that's how you would use the wheel) I can make it wobble front to back by a few millimeters if i really lean onto it, but side-to-side i can move it barely a millimeter or two even when yanking it rather hard. It feels really solid in that direction. In the standing position, it does move more.
The permanent cable management will obviously be fine, but "I just need to charge my phone from that outlet in the corner for a few hours, I'll definitely remember to unplug it before I raise the desk" is the kind of thinking that inevitably leads to shattered screens.
It can be controlled via Bluetooth with an app on your mobile. It is a much better option in comparison to Bekant in my opinion. The tabletop on IDÅSEN is much thicker too, making monitor mounts safer to install. If you are on the market for a standup desk with good value, pay $100 more and buy IDÅSEN instead of the Berkant desk mentioned in the Tindie campaign.
However, for myself (and I suspect others), I don't need yet another app to do something. I want to push a button and be finished in 1 second for something like a desk. Cognitive load on this should be zero.
On Android the free (as in money) NRF Connect application lets you browse the services/characteristics, tells you which ones are read/write/notify, and snoop+send data. I also had to use the 'Bluetooth Snoop Log' setting in Developer Options and open the log in Wireshark to sniff some of the packets that the app sent. The log contains timestamps so you can wait 10 seconds between operations to make it really easy to identify what does what. All you need in Wireshark is a filter like 'btatt.uuid128 == ff...:ff' to filter to just the characteristic you want to sniff.
Given the prices it gets at, why not just go for a non-ikea desk e.g. a basic Jarvis is actually cheaper than that.
Especially usually most standup desks are wobbly at their maximum height, while IDÅSEN doesn't even shake a bit.
Not exactly cost effective, but it was a fun way to learn about relays.
I really like this with the hal sensors and that display. Nicely done :-)
The only real complaint that I have is how difficult it was to swap the original board for this one. But changing boards was probably not high on the IKEA priority list.
Maybe I should start selling some of the PCBs I made.
There's money on providing easy to use hardware.
But it's pretty clear many are buying the pre-assembled kit. Hand soldering SMD components is pretty tedious.
I think I've sold about 6 kits total in more than a year since the last time it frontpage'd HN. It just wasn't worth keeping track of them and then effectively being a middle man for digikey. A lot of people want plug and play.
I would say that knowing how to design boards makes me MORE willing to buy other people's boards. Coming from a more mechanical background, I don't look forward to the tedium of reviewing and modifying all the footprints of "standard" sized SMD parts.
I like making music effects for friends, and branching out to things related to motor control, LEDs, sensors, etc. I prefer to have them pick and placed for me. Since an injury a few years ago, I battle vertigo when doing extended fine detail work.
I would be interested in seeing some of the designs, you've always been an interesting person to read from here on HN. Tindie makes that easy.
> I would be interested in seeing some of the designs, you've always been an interesting person to read from here on HN. Tindie makes that easy.
Thanks for the tip and the compliment! My latest design is a flight controller I made for a remote controlled paper airplane, it's nothing fancy but has some good caveat solutions that might be worth posting.
I'll look into Tindie and possibly upload there, thanks again!
I ended up with "cervicogenic dizziness." I was forced onto team standing desk a couple years back. And I'm only 40. SMH...
Anyways, I think my 6 year old would love to play with paper airplanes that also could be flown remotely.
The controller works fine, but I still need to do some work on the aerodynamics of the body to make it fly well. I'll post the controller so you can try your own aircraft designs, though.
EDIT: I've also recently started live-streaming my design sessions (of whatever I happen to be designing at the time) here: https://www.youtube.com/c/StavrosKorokithakis
Yes, yes, yes and yes.
This comment came at the perfect time since it's something I've been thinking about all morning and it even relates to PCB's :-)
I think I'm the same way. I have bare boards here (PCB designed and came back from fab), a stencil, paste and trays of parts. AND a customer and a damn healthy profit margin.
So why haven't I assembled, tested and shipped the boards I should have almost a week ago? Well, that's the question and I think your answer crystallized it perfectly for me. The fun part of solving the problem and coming up with a solution is done. Actually building and testing these things is BORING and I have to force myself to do it even though I know shipping just two boards will cover this month's car payment.
I was thrilled and excited to ship the first ones: precision analog electronics, a four-quadrant multiplying DAC and a domain I enjoy working in (machine control). But now that we're up to Revision 4, I am so effing bored with it.
I would really recommend grabbing an Arduino and just making stuff, I think you'll love it and it's really not hard. They've done a great job making it beginner-friendly.
b) Speaking of reasonable time, it'd probably take even you more than $50 in time, material and parts (mostly time) to make this. This doesn't look like the kind of PCB that you'd hand-solder either, bringing us to...
c) Making 1000 of something tends to be cheaper per item than making 1 of something, and I'll gladly take an option that's not only cheaper than anything I could make myself, but also ready to use.
You definitely should share your PCBs by producing them at scale if you're willing to do that.
I usually share my designs, the ones I've uploaded have links to the manufacturer where you can order them, though I haven't really done assembly on any, yet. I might, if any design has people interested, though.
I try to do batches of 25 at once, as any more and I want to smash something. I have an SMT stencil for all the SMT parts, and then put them in the oven.
The pin header is through-hole (will be stronger then SMT header) so it's done by hand.
Then going over everything with a loupe to look for solder paste that hasn't flowed or other issues, programming each one, and then verifying the functionality of each one on my own desk (see the video of the testing process).
All in all, quite a bit of my time, and not yet factored in is the entire logistics (storefront, shipping, customer support)
Unfortunately as it's a small operation, I also can't afford to buy these parts in what would be considered a big quantity - so I'm still paying fairly high costs. The jellybean capacitors and resistors I can order in real bulk (500), but the IC's and voltage regulators are name brand from DigiKey.
- First of all, a PCB that I design and make myself would cost me way more than $50, counting my time
- $50 is nothing for a person with a fulltime job
- I have a family and busy life. Would love to make my own, but just don't have the time for all of that.
I will admit, my reaction to the price was that its not cheap either, but i also really did want my ikea desk to have this functionality and its pretty easy to justify given how much use my desk at home gets now. The solution he's made is very solid, never let me down, and was easy enough to install (Although Ikea make it hard by plastic welding the box shut).
Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h6ja2epcja2cwd8/standing_desk.mp4
You can even kneel on the ground with this one, because it goes as low as 22.5" as per BIFMA G1-2013 requirements.
It seems to have the same up/down interface (panel and app) as the IDÅSEN from IKEA, which is interesting. Exactly this one: https://www.linak.com/products/controls/dpg-with-reminder/
edit: mixed up the price, removed my first sentence
IMO they should have some sort of sensor thing that detects a change in resistance or something.
I think having the tower insecurely affixed to a moving desk was asking for trouble
They were all so wobbly as to be unusable. Put some pressure on where the monitors or where you’re hands would be and everything shook.
Knowing how robust ikea is, I hard passed and got the stationary bekant. It still comes with legs that are quite adjustable (but only when you assemble it, I wouldn’t think it’s easy to set it with stuff on it)
So yes a word of caution I guess, that desk can be rather wobbly.
I didn’t go with the motorized bekant because I heard the electronics are not reliable at all and fails way too much needing warranty service. The less I go to ikea the better, and since their warranty is bring in (30kg desk)...
You can set it to any height you want, adjust the monitor shelf height, and it's so sturdy. For my home office I got two... one for work, and one for gaming.
They cost like $50 when you can find them on Craigslist.
No clue why Ikea stopped making this desk, it's better than anything they have made to date.
Sure you can adjust the height, but once you have your monitor, books and what not, it is a pain to make any adjustments.
It has been in "sitting" position for as long as I can remember.
It's a lot lower-tech than a fancy adjustable desk but it's also a lot cheaper and lower hassle.
I'd suggest UP DOWN M1 M2 M3 with the only non-trivial function being a long-press on an M button to store position. Simple!
Of course, you could build a new controller and housing with whatever input buttons you want, but the cost then would go up considerably.
I wasn't keen on the crank but I figured I could live with it. This is a nice and fun addition :)
It’s served me amazingly over the past few months WFH. Definitely worth a look.
My wife got one for herself and we were impressed enough that I got one as well a week later.
It’s been about 2 months and they are doing excellently.
Honestly, I was surprised by the weight and sturdiness for the cost (under $400).
4 memory positions and a very decent vertical range (it goes higher than I would find useful being 5’8” tall, although I wish it went slightly lower than its current lower limit).
It has 4 auto memory positions that is convenient since we occasionally swap desks, so it holds both our standing and sitting positions.
I honestly have no complaints.
I found the accessories a little annoying though. The swivel drawer accessory wanted me to drill a hole, which I was not comfortable doing in the desk at all. So I returned that. I can’t speak to how useful it would have been. The cable holding undercarriage is excellent to hide all the wires, etc, but it sits really close to the desk, so it’s a little difficult to maneuver stuff in there, especially since I’m using it to hold my spike guard and have all the plugs plug into it. But once I managed to get everything plugged in it looks great.
So my wife and I are huge fans so far. I’m not sure how good it will be a few years from now, but I have no reason to believe it won’t last and be excellent.
So much so I am considering buying their ergonomic chairs as well, once this whole pandemic situation clears up a bit.
https://smile.amazon.com/VIVO-Ergonomic-Adjustable-Controlle...
The vivo one has been far better in features and reliability. I had to replace the ikea one because it started only going down and not up.
I also have my desktop at ~49" off the ground, including castors and a 1.5" thick countertop, and I've read that no standing desk has 0 wobble at this close to maximum height.
The desk itself is great; sturdy, stable, and the size I prefer.
The one caveat; make _sure_ to keep your receipt. This desk has known issues with the power supply burning out. If you have your receipt, IKEA will honor their 7-year warranty and throw you as many new power supplies as you need.
Very happy with the Uplift legs. And stained butcher block looks pretty classy.
I noticed that the motorized version is significantly studier, where the standard version was quite wobbly.
Basically everything below the flat desk part.
Although I suggest you have a drill to make inserting the screws much faster.
The one I got isn't on sale anymore. Here's a more expensive dual motor one.
Here's the setup.
Ikea Desk + Vivo Stand + keyboard tray https://imgur.com/a/TlmKP1I