idasen-controller

Wrapper exposing simple API to control IKEA Idasen desk.

The main idea was to create something as simple as possible to serve as nice entry point for some other projects. Therefore you won't find here any timer functions or local storage for settings etc.

If you want some more advanced stuff you can check my other project - very under development. It aims at creating simple REST Api to send commands to desk.

Installation

Use the package manager npm

npm install idasen-controller

or yarn

yarn add idasen-controller

Usage

Once you import idasenController you will find deskManager within.

import idasenController from 'idasen-controller';
 
const { deskManager } = idasenController;
 
const devices = await deskManager.scanAsync();
const deskDevice = devices.find((device) => device.name.includes('Desk');
 
await deskManager.connectAsync(deskDevice.address);
await deskManager.desk.moveToAsync(80);
await deskManager.desk.moveToAsync(75);
 
await deskManager.disconnectAsync(deskManager.desk);

API

Scanning

Scanning returns an array of discovered devices in simplified form containing

{
  name: string,
  uuid: string,
  address: string,
}

const devices = deskManager.scanAsync();

Connecting

Once we have dicovered devices we need to find the one that represents our Desk. Usually it will have 'Desk' in name.

const deskDevice = devices.find((device) => device.name.includes('Desk')
 
await deskManager.connectAsync(deskDevice.address);

Once connected we can start communication with desk and send move commands as well as request for current height.

Moving

Moving one step up/down

await deskManager.desk.moveUpAsync();

await deskManager.desk.moveDownAsync();

Moving to particular height

The function accepts regular decimal value in centimeters and will move until particular height is reached or stop command is executed.

await deskManager.desk.moveToAsync(100);

Stop moving

await deskManager.desk.stopAsync();

Get height

Return current height in centimeters

const currentHeight = await deskManager.desk.getCurrentHeightAsync();

Disconnect

Ow and remember to disconnect ;)

await deskManager.disconnectAsync();

EXPERIMENTAL Custom preflight duration

As described below in implementation details there is a preflight request send before sending actual request to move desk. This request takes some time to be processed by the desk and won't accept move request till then. By default I set it to wait for 200ms but your case may differ so you can increase (or decrease) this duration.

const customPreflightDuration = 500 // 0.5 second
 
await deskManager.desk.setCustomPreflight(customPreflightDuration);

Compatibility

This solution was developed and tested on Mac Mini 2018 running macOS Catalina (10.15.6).

Implementation

In comparison with some other implementations out there this one uses different bluetooth Characteristic to communicate with Desk. The characteristic that most solutions use is 99FA0002-338A-1024-8A49-009C0215F78A which, once written to, moves desk up (code 4700) or down (code 4600). Let's call it "step" Characteristic. The one mostly used in this project is 99FA0031-338A-1024-8A49-009C0215F78A which, once written with correct value, moves desk one step towards that value. Let's call it "precise" Characteristic.

Value needs to be provided as stringified absolute height in milimeters converted to hexadecimal with bit pairs reversed.

For example to move desk to 127 cm - which is max height in my case The relative decimal input value would be 6500 which is maximum height of the desk After converting to hexadecimal we would get 1964 After reversing bit pairs we would get 6419 which is the value expected by the Characteristic.

The main benefit is that it gives more precise control over the desk as it sends command to move desk to particular position. As with other Characteristic here we also need to send command continiously in order to keep desk moving. Single write moves desk for about 1 second or shorter if we are very close. For example if we want the desk to move to 75cm but we are already at 74.5 it will move for less than a second to just reach 75cm.

Unfortunately there is one "gotcha" as the desk won't accept any command send to "precise" Characteristic unless we first write to "step" Characteristic. We can write basically anything as desk handles incorrect input pretty well. Therefore I implemented so called preflight request which sends code consisting of 0000.

TODO

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

License

MIT

Special thanks to anetczuk for pointing me in correct direction allowing this project to become usable.

Projects I peeked while working:

• LinakDeskApp
• idasen-control
• idasen-controller
• idasen-desk-controller