Remote control your Exeta motorized desk (in my case an ergoPRO 2019 Edition) over the network using esphome.
This works with an Arduino board reading the central control box signals and simulating button presses on the controller.
For information on how to integrate this without esphome using platformio, look into the
legacy_platformio directory. This was my implementation before switching to esphome and is not
actively maintained. It's only there as a reference.
This code was written for the control panel CT01-CH and attaches directly to this. I'm not sure, if or how this should be adapted to work with other Exeta desks/controllers or different brands of motorized desks.
It was also developed to be installed on a WEMOS D1 Mini. Compatibility with other boards is untested.
DISCLAIMER: Do this at your own risk and keep in mind that your are probably voiding your warranty. Me or my instructions are not responsible for possible damages. I just want to share my knowledge after modding my own desk.
Screw open your control unit (mine is a touch controlled one) and take out the PCB. Be careful to not accidentally cut a wire
Connect your cables from the D1 Mini to the controller PCB by soldering them according to the schematic. Do not desolder anything.
Copy the esphome/desk.yaml into your homeassistant /config/esphome directory. The
configuration uses the keys wifi_ssid and wifi_password, so make sure to add them to your secrets.yaml.
Install the code via esphome in your Homeassistant instance and import the device.
By default, the external component gets included from GitHub, so you don't need any more files. If you want to save the
component definition locally and/or modify it, you have to also download esphome/components/
and put it into your esphome directory. The use the local external_components source instead of the github one in your
desk.yaml.
Control your desk using the entities created by your esphome integration for the new device.
Controlling the height via the cover and number is not very precise, because it essentially emulates holding the
up/down buttons until the display shows the desired height. But because the desk doesn't just stop dead, it cannot move
to the exact height. I tried to mitigate this a bit by stopping early, but because of varying move speed this still
only lands approximately at the target position.
Also, the STOP button of the cover really only works, if the desk moves by controlling it via the cover or number input. When pressing one of the position memory keys the only way to stop the desk is by pressing on one of those again. The actual controller does not 8000 have a dedicated STOP button, so there is nothing that could be pressed, but only to release while emulating a press on Up/Down.
There may be edge cases, where pressing buttons while the desk is performing another task might result in unexpected behaviour or altering what the controls do because of unexpected output state. I tried to mitigate this as much as possible by resetting all output channels before performing a new action. But I cannot guarantee mashing buttons or rapidly firing entity actions won't ever break something.
I use these automations to force me to stand up every so often.
# automations.yml
# ...
- id: '1666937325981'
alias: '[Desk] auto change height'
description: Switches the desk between sitting and standing every 30 minutes when the desk automation is enabled
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- sensor.desk_height
for:
hours: 0
minutes: 30
seconds: 0
id: height_change
- platform: state
entity_id:
- automation.desk_auto_change_height
id: automation_changed
for:
hours: 0
minutes: 30
seconds: 0
condition:
- condition: or
conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: height_change
- condition: and
conditions:
- condition: trigger
id: automation_changed
- condition: template
value_template:
'{{ ((as_timestamp(now())-as_timestamp(states.sensor.desk_height.last_updated)) / 60) > 30 }}'
enabled: true
action:
- if:
- condition: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.desk_height
above: 80
then:
- service: script.desk_move_down
data: {}
else:
- service: script.desk_move_up
data: {}
mode: single
- id: '1666937511205'
alias: '[Desk] toggle automation from pc state'
description: Turn on desk automation when PC is turned on and vice versa
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- device_tracker.pc
to:
condition: []
action:
- if:
- condition: state
entity_id: device_tracker.pc
state: home
then:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data: {}
target:
entity_id: automation.desk_auto_change_height
else:
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
data: {}
target:
entity_id: automation.desk_auto_change_height
mode: single
# ...The last automation uses an entity device_tracker.pc which tracks, if my PC is on (connected to the network) or not.
Replace this with your own device tracker or delete the automation if you don't want to use this.
I use this card in my dashboard, to manually control the desk and automations, as well as viewing its state and history.
This card uses the vertical-stack-in-card, secondaryinfo-entity-row, timer-bar-card and mini-graph-card custom components.
# card.yaml
type: custom:vertical-stack-in-card
cards:
- type: entities
show_header_toggle: false
entities:
- entity: button.desk_mode_1
name: Button 1
icon: mdi:numeric-1-box
- entity: button.desk_mode_2
name: Button 2
icon: mdi:numeric-2-box
- entity: button.desk_mode_3
name: Button 3
icon: mdi:numeric-3-box
- entity: cover.desk
- entity: number.desk_height
name: Height
icon: mdi:arrow-expand-vertical
- entity: lock.desk_input
name: Touch Lock
- entity: automation.desk_auto_change_height
name: Auto change height
- type: conditional
conditions:
- condition: state
entity: automation.desk_auto_change_height
state: 'on'
row:
type: custom:timer-bar-card
entity: timer.next_desk_height_change
name: Next height change
- entity: automation.desk_toggle_automation_from_pc_state
name: Toggle auto-height with PC
state_color: true
- type: custom:mini-graph-card
entities:
- entity: sensor.desk_height
name: Height
- entity: automation.desk_auto_change_height
name: Auto-Height
y_axis: secondary
show_line: false
show_points: false
show_state: false
- entity: device_tracker.pc
y_axis: secondary
show_line: false
show_points: false
show_state: false
points_per_hour: 60
hour24: true
name: Height
height: 120
line_width: 2
lower_bound: 62
upper_bound: 128
state_map:
- value: not_home
label: 'Off'
- value: 'off'
label: 'Off'
- value: home
label: 'On'
- value: 'on'
label: 'On'Schematics can be found in doc/schematics/.
I also took a few photos of my own controller and the connected D1 Mini. Unfortunately I had the great
idea to secure my soldered wires with hot glue, so it is really hard to see whats soldered where. Also, I wired the RX
(Pin 4) to D5 instead of D6 on my own controller without realising it when creating the diagrams. But it's only
important, the Pin on the ESP is set as rx_pin in desk.yaml.
I numbered the wires using my own method (nothing, the manufacturer intended or is using in a similar way). Starting from the power pins, I simply counted from right to left. I'm using this numbering system in this documentation as well as the code.
The controller sends signals (HIGH) over the wires 5 to 8 on button press according to the following mapping:
| Button | Active Pins | HIGH Outputs |
|---|---|---|
| M | 8 | D4 |
| 1 | 5 | D1 |
| 2 | 6 + 7 | D2 + D3 |
| 3 | 5 + 7 | D1 + D3 |
| Up | 6 | D2 |
| Down | 7 | D3 |
These pins are connected to the D1 Mini as OUTPUT. By setting them to HIGH, the board simulates a button press on
the controller.
Additionally, it receives SoftwareSerial (UART?) packages from the central control box via Pin 4 (SoftwareSerial RX)
with a baud rate of 9600. TX is unused. To use this information on the D1 mini, the RX wire is connected as INPUT on
the D1 Mini and configured as SoftwareSerial RX pin.
Pin 1 and 2 are used for 5V power.
I did not check (or forgot) what pin 3 does. But it is not needed to control the desk.