Tech

Controlling a standing desk with a Raspberry Pi and Alexa

Control your standing desk with a Raspberry Pi

Working long hours in the same position is not recommended by experts in ergonomics and postural hygiene. And yet, most of us end up falling into this and we not only spend many hours sitting, but also in a position that may not be the most correct for our back, shoulders, neck, etc.

Hence, in recent years the use of desks adjustable in height or standing desk has become so popular. In the first place, because prices have dropped a lot and in the second, because solutions of all kinds can be found capable of adapting to the needs of each one. So it’s a little easier to change your posture every so often.

The only problem is that now you have to have, like everything that involves a change in habits, willpower to take advantage of these advantages. And of course, that according to each one is easier or more complicated to achieve. If you are in the group of people who find it difficult to remember what could or should change posture from time to time while working, this sure interests you.

Thanks to the use of a Raspberry Pi, you can program the automatic change of position or rather the height of your desk to work standing or sitting. The only thing you will have to do is a bit of technological DIY as this user did and define at what time you will do it in one or another position.

So, for example, you could establish a sitting and standing time in the morning or make a change from time to time. Here you decide, David Kong decided to use intervals of between 45 and 60 minutes to change positions recurrently and automated all that thanks to the use of a Raspberry Pi But W.

To achieve this, he connected the control of his table to the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi Zero W. As it had programmable buttons, he only had to configure the heights, memorize them and then see what was the correct combination to activate the pulsation after soldering them and executing a script. Python on the Raspberry.

Logically this is not something applicable to each and every one of the months of this type, it would be necessary to look at the particular case of each one, but if you have a minimum of electronics idea it may be easy for you to transfer the idea to your own situation .

Alexa, let’s work standing up

Interesting to use a Raspberry Pi to change the height of a standing desk? Well now, one more step with the integration of Alexa. Although here you will already need somewhat more advanced knowledge to achieve it.

Here Robin Reiter managed to hack into an Ikea sit-and-stand desk in order to control it via voice commands from Alexto. A somewhat more complex task, for the desktop itself and because executing a script is not the same as having to implement a voice command.

However, the result is frankly striking and it is likely that if you are daring, have an IKEA desk or similar, you will be encouraged to do something similar to these two ways of modifying the use of this type of solutions to work both at home and at home. office.

Of course, you could always avoid complications and look for one of the standing desks that already offer voice control and could be automated through the use of routines. It is true that there are not many, but options like the VertDesk v3 could be a good option. Although there are many other very good desks to work standing and sitting.

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