IKEA Bekant ESP32 MQTT Controller

Complete replacement controller for the IKEA Bekant height-adjustable desk with ESP32, MQTT and Home Assistant integration.

Features

• Home Assistant Auto Discovery
• MQTT Control
• Physical buttons: Up, Down, Memory 1, Memory 2
• Virtual controls: Up, Down, Stop, Memory 1-4, Recalibrate, Restart, Child Lock, Min/Max Height

Buttons Behavior

• UP/DOWN: Hold to move desk. Release to stop
• UP+DOWN: Hold both for 10 seconds to trigger recalibration (drives desk to bottom and resets)
• Memory:
  • Short press (< 5 seconds) recall stored height
  • Long press (≥ 5 seconds) store current height
• Physical override: Buttons can interrupt MQTT/HA commands for safety reasons
• Child Lock: While enabled, all buttons are disabled. MQTT/HA control is still active

Configuration

Change the following variables in bekant-mqtt32.ino before flashing your ESP:

const char* ssid = "YOUR_WIFI_SSID";
const char* password = "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD";
const char* mqtt_server = "YOUR_MQTT_SERVER_IP";
const int mqtt_port = 1883;
const char* mqtt_client_id = "bekant_desk";

MQTT Topics

Click to expand

State Topics

• bekant/height - Raw encoder position (integer)
• bekant/height_cm - Current height in centimeters (float, 1 decimal)
• bekant/height_percent - Height as percentage (0-100, integer)
• bekant/status - Desk status: stopped, opening, closing
• bekant/availability - Device availability: online or offline
• bekant/wifi_rssi - WiFi signal strength in dBm (integer)
• bekant/min_height_cm - Minimum height limit in cm (integer)
• bekant/max_height_cm - Maximum height limit in cm (integer)
• bekant/child_lock - Child lock state: ON or OFF
• bekant/memory1_height_cm - Memory 1 stored height in cm (float)
• bekant/memory2_height_cm - Memory 2 stored height in cm (float)
• bekant/memory3_height_cm - Memory 3 stored height in cm (float)
• bekant/memory4_height_cm - Memory 4 stored height in cm (float)
• bekant/log - Debug/log messages (string)

Command Topics

• bekant/command - Main command topic. Accepts:

  • up - Move desk up
  • down - Move desk down
  • stop - Stop desk movement
  • reset - Recalibrate desk (drive to bottom and reset)
  • height-cm XXX - Move to specific height in cm
  • height-percent XX - Move to percentage (0-100)
  • height XXXX - Move to raw encoder position

• bekant/set_min_height - Set minimum height limit (integer, cm)

• bekant/set_max_height - Set maximum height limit (integer, cm)

• bekant/set_child_lock - Enable/disable child lock: ON or OFF

• bekant/set_memory1_height - Set Memory 1 height (float, cm)

• bekant/set_memory2_height - Set Memory 2 height (float, cm)

• bekant/set_memory3_height - Set Memory 3 height (float, cm)

• bekant/set_memory4_height - Set Memory 4 height (float, cm)

• bekant/memory1_recall - Recall Memory 1 position (send PRESS)

• bekant/memory2_recall - Recall Memory 2 position (send PRESS)

• bekant/memory3_recall - Recall Memory 3 position (send PRESS)

• bekant/memory4_recall - Recall Memory 4 position (send PRESS)

• bekant/restart - Restart ESP32 (send RESTART)

Examples

# Move desk up
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/command -m "up"

# Stop desk
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/command -m "stop"

# Move to 100cm height
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/command -m "height-cm 100"

# Move to 50% height
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/command -m "height-percent 50"

# Recall Memory 1 position
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/memory1_recall -m "PRESS"

# Set Memory 1 to 90cm
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/set_memory1_height -m "90"

# Enable child lock
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/set_child_lock -m "ON"

# Set min height to 70cm
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/set_min_height -m "70"

# Recalibrate desk
mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.0.100 -t bekant/command -m "reset"

Hardware

Required Components

• 1x MCP2003B LIN Transceiver (electronic-mag.ro / image)
• 1x SOP8 to DIP8 PCB (aliexpress.com / image)
• 1x ESP32 D1 Mini (aliexpress.com / image)
• 1x Buck Converter 29V to 12V (LM2596HVS) (aliexpress.com / image)
• 1x Buck Converter 12V to 5V (aliexpress.com / image)
• 1x Resistor 1kΩ 0.25W (aliexpress.com)
• 3x Resistor 2.2kΩ 0.25W (aliexpress.com)
• 1x PCB 70x50 (aliexpress.com)
• 4x 5m 24AWG wires (red, yellow, green, black) (aliexpress.com)
• 1x Box 80x50x26 (aliexpress.com / image)

Optional Components (for physical buttons)

• 4x Momentary Buttons (aliexpress.com / image)
• 4x 100nF ceramic capacitors (aliexpress.com / image)
• 1x Box 80x50x26 (aliexpress.com / image)

Notes

• Physical buttons are optional. The controller can be used entirely through MQTT or Home Assistant.
• I initially tried this TJA1020 based transciever but didn't manage to make it work so I went with the known to work MCP2003B.
• Buck converters don't have to be exactly the ones that I used, I just used what I already had.

Button Interference

I had pretty bad interference while reading the buttons because I used 50cm 24AWG wires between the controller box and the buttons box. That's why I implemented debouncing and added 100nF capacitors. There's one cap for each button. I soldered each leg of the cap to each leg of the button.

I used overkill 250V film caps because that's what I had laying around but the 50V ceramic ones are more common and cheap to buy.

If you go with a single box for both parts then you're probably not going to need capacitors. I went with two boxes in order to keep sensitive electronics far from children and liquids.

Schematic

Here's my highly skilled professional grade schematic

Home Assistant

Click to show YAML

type: grid
cards:
  - type: heading
    heading: Desk
    heading_style: title
  - type: custom:mushroom-cover-card
    entity: cover.bekant_desk_bekant_desk
    name: Desk
    show_buttons_control: true
    show_position_control: false
    layout: horizontal
    tap_action:
      action: more-info
  - square: false
    type: grid
    columns: 4
    cards:
      - type: custom:mushroom-entity-card
        entity: button.bekant_desk_memory_3_recall
        icon: mdi:numeric-3
        primary_info: name
        secondary_info: none
        fill_container: true
        tap_action:
          action: perform-action
          perform_action: button.press
          target:
            entity_id: button.bekant_desk_memory_3_recall
        name: Min
        layout: vertical
        icon_type: none
      - type: custom:mushroom-entity-card
        entity: button.bekant_desk_memory_1_recall
        icon: mdi:numeric-1
        primary_info: name
        fill_container: true
        tap_action:
          action: perform-action
          perform_action: button.press
          target:
            entity_id: button.bekant_desk_memory_1_recall
        icon_type: none
        secondary_info: none
        layout: vertical
        name: Sit
      - type: custom:mushroom-entity-card
        entity: button.bekant_desk_memory_2_recall
        icon: mdi:numeric-2
        primary_info: name
        secondary_info: none
        fill_container: true
        tap_action:
          action: perform-action
          perform_action: button.press
          target:
            entity_id: button.bekant_desk_memory_2_recall
        name: Stand
        layout: vertical
        icon_type: none
      - type: custom:mushroom-entity-card
        entity: button.bekant_desk_memory_4_recall
        icon: mdi:numeric-4
        primary_info: name
        secondary_info: none
        fill_container: true
        tap_action:
          action: perform-action
          perform_action: button.press
          target:
            entity_id: button.bekant_desk_memory_4_recall
        name: Max
        layout: vertical
        icon_type: none

Click to show entities

Hardware Images

Click to show more

References

• trainman419/bekant
• gcormier/megadesk
• satrik/esp8266-bekant
• robin7331/IKEA-Hackant

Disclaimer

This project is provided as is. You'll need hardware and software knowledge in order to build this. Even so, you might damage your desk if you're not careful.

License

Do whatever as long as you don't break the licenses of the ones I inspired from.