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Who has time to wait for minutes per day to push a button? Let’s automate the motion of an electric IKEA desk with an Arduino Nano!

I have an electric IKEA Bekant sit/stand desk. It’s designed so that you need to hold down the up and down buttons for the desk to move. The desk takes about twelve seconds to move from a comfortable sitting position to a standing position, and vice versa, for me. I certainly don’t have time to wait for minutes… MINUTES I TELL YOU… per day to push a button.

I made a simple automater using an Arduino Nano, some N-channel mosfets, several momentary switches, and the original desk control PCB cannibalized from a spare control panel I had shipped to me.

While I could have used an actual schematic, I’m hoping the included Fritzing diagram will help ease the circuit layout process for anyone re-creating this project.

All screws, washers, nuts, and standoffs are M2

All wire is 22awg solid-core

—- Parts I used —-

1x IKEA BEKANT desk
1x Arduino Nano clones
1x Power jacks
2x MOSFETs
4x Buttons
4x Button caps
Protoboards
1x Female headers
Screws
4x Standoffs
Wire
6x 220 Ohm resistors
1x Power source with a 5.5mm x 2.1mm jack (Any 7-12V wall wart should do since Nanos can tolerate that range. You don’t need much current as the circuit is only running logic. I used a 9V, 1A supply… way overkill on the amps, but it’s what I had on hand.)”

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