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Greg's Tinker Town

1,772 orders since Jan 06, 2019

Ottawa, ON, Canada

Ships from Canada.

Custom Work Available

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Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

5
59 4
46 3
4 2
0 1
0

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Average Ratings

Product: (4.93)

Documentation: (4.59)

Shipping: (4.72)

Communication: (4.85)

All Reviews

JoaquĂ­n Yeray | Oct. 10, 2024

The upgrade I needed for my desk

For Megadesk

It works perfectly! It is easy to install and use. It makes my desk much more "smart". Good old times where I needed to play pressing up and down to reach my desired position.

Keith | Sept. 25, 2024

Just what I was looking for

For esptemp8c

I needed to monitor hot water temperatures in a recirculating system, incase air gets in the lines so that I can shut off the pump so it doesn't burn out.
The git hub project had not been updated for the new board design, but Greg quickly answered my message and updated the project with a new yaml.

The `Gikfun DS18B20 Temperature Sensor Waterproof Digital Thermal Probe Sensor for Arduino (Pack of 5pcs) EK1083` sensors from amazon worked great and I did not need to use the resistors.

Franco | Aug. 16, 2024

Great solution to turning an old desk into a smart desk

For Megadesk

Had the IKEA desk and wanted something that had automatic lift and memory. this is a great solution and without having to shell out $800 for a brand new desk and having to dispose of the old one.

Experience installing:

Delivery was a bit slow, so if that's gonna be a factor for you make sure you pay a bit extra for shipping

Opening the case:

- Ok, I've seen and read a lot of reviews on this topic so here is my method: Identify one of the corners away from the buttons and drill to small holes in the back so that you can stick a flat head screw driver in the newly created hole. Once you pop one side off you should be able to make your way around, if needed make another hole in the opposite corner (away from the buttons!). took 5 minutes and didnt have to struggle with trying to pry it open, its gonna be hidden anyway.

Installing

once it was open, you just stick it in and attach the wires. be careful of teh ribbon cable (look at the sellers YT page and it has a very helpful video on instal).

The only thing I will say about the product is that the wire that it comes with is a bit shorter then the original, wish it was a bit longer but it should reach with no issues.

Nice product! highly recommend.

Christopher | May 11, 2024

Megadesk works perfectly

For Megadesk

I've had these IKEA desks for many years, and it's always been a little bit frustrating to try to put them in consistent positions. I stumbled across a mention of Megadesk in a post on Hacker News and it looked like just the thing.

Having installed it on one of my desks, I can't live without it on the other one and just ordered a second unit. The only troublesome part, which isn't the creator's fault, is that it's so hard to open the factory controller's case. I watched the video and I thought I would somehow do a better job with my collection of spudgers and experience cracking things open. Nope, I mangled it and I am convinced there's no other way. I'm not going to be so delicate on the second one since most of the cosmetic damage can't be seen anyway.

Andy | March 18, 2024

Installed quick and easy

For Megadesk

I saw all the videos of people tearing apart the controller, but I actually managed it pretty quickly.
Used a heat gun to warm up the edges and then wedged in a flat head screwdriver. Then just pried my way around the edges.
Just like many, I was worried I had messed something up... forgot to put the "key" back in when I hooked it back up. :)
All aorund, loving it and saved me $1000 on buying a new desk just for memory features!!

Vivian | March 7, 2024

Saved me hundreds of dollars

For Megadesk

I love my Ikea desk, but I've been eyeing other sit/stand desks with memory features. After some googling, I found this solution and pulled the trigger.

Shipping was quick; it arrived in less than a week from Canada to Miami. The installation was a bit hairy. I had to hammer the Ikea control open using some force, like others say, this is the hardest part. Installing the ribbon cable made me a bit nervous because the cable didn't go all the way through. I said a prayer, closed the hatch, and put the controller back on. When I heard those 4 beeps, I was ecstatic!

The setting instructions were clear. I did have to get used to the short delay when pressing the buttons, but I read somewhere that it was intentional to allow the controller to recognize if it was a configured press or just a normal press, so I can live with that.

Overall, I'm very happy with this product! It saved me from having to buy a new desk!

Henrique | Feb. 16, 2024

Just works

For Megadesk

Works as advertised
Packaging could be better, specially for intercontinental shipping.
Some pins were slightly bent, assuming due to shipping.
The PCB cable route does not completely align with the casing.
Overall very happy.

Michael | Dec. 1, 2023

Instant replacement received

For Megadesk

Had a problem with my boards, which Greg instantaneously rectified by sending another batch that work great now. Thank you for the great customer service!

Michael | Dec. 1, 2023

Instant replacement received

For Megadesk Companion

Had a problem with my boards, which Greg instantaneously rectified by sending another batch that work great now. Thank you for the great customer service!

Jile | Nov. 8, 2023

Very Neat Board

For alarmbuddy

It took a bit to figure out due to the amount of cables to the old board. I have 2 door sensors, 3 motion sensors, and a glass breaking sensor.

Because the new board doesn't provide power to the motion sensors I left the power lines connected to the old board. They used the same cable to connect the old board to power as the sensors and just connected 2 wires to each of the +/- ac inputs. So I was able to move two of them to the Alarm Buddy to be able to power both at the same time. To help with anyone else that might run into the same issue below is my breakdown of the old board and what I did with it.

The setup was super easy, connected to it's wifi, then entered in the details of my home wifi and it showed up right away. Named and labeled the sensors and it was good to go!

AC +, AC -: Originally had 2 wires for + and - on the old board, moved one each to the new board.

AUX +, AUX -: Left connected to the old board, this is how I powered the sensors.

Bell +, Bell -: Disconnected and capped. Assuming it was for an alarm bell somewhere.

Red, Blk, Yel, Grn: Disconnected and capped. This was for the panel at the front door.

Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4, Z5, Z6: Moved over to slots 1-6

Com: 1 for each zone that was put in pairs into 3 com spots on the old panel. Twisted them into 2 groups of 3 and put them in each of the 3.3V sections on the new panel.

Ring A, TIP B: Disconnected and capped. I think this was for the telephone line connection but not sure.

Kirill | Oct. 28, 2023

Works perfectly!

For Megadesk

The controller works perfectly! I just plugged it in, calibrated and set up the desired positions. That's all. Of course I forgot to put back the safety pin and nothing worked initially. I even started panicking a bit, but since I found out that I forgot to put back the safety pin (grey plastic cylinder), everything starts working as it should. Hardest part was to open the original IKEA controller's case (with buttons). Spent around an hour and almost destroy case's edges. But the damaged part of the case faces the surface underneath the table so it doesn't matter at all (you anyway will never see it again). Definitely worth the money! Absolutely love the sounds it makes (bip-bip, bop-bop :)

About the shipping. I initially ordered shipment to Cyprus with tracking, but unfortunately this option is not actually available for Cyprus. So, I reorder the regular shipment without tracking. I placed the order on 9th September and it was available for collection in Cyprus Post on 13th October (took a little bit over a month). Just in case, I also payed customs tax (7.47 euro) when I collected the order from the post office (common thing for Cyprus).

Shane | Sept. 2, 2023

Had some issues, but Greg's customer service is fantastic

For Megadesk

My first board seemed to be DOA. I reached out to Greg, he asked a little about what was going on, and when it was clear I had an issue that we weren't going to be able to troubleshoot he shipped a new board out ASAP (and it arrived faster than the original order). The new board is installed and working wonderfully. Very happy with my purchase!

Sergej | May 28, 2023

Made Bekant great again

For Megadesk

Bekant has one problem - no presets, but Megadesk fixes the problem. It also has serial support, so can be extended by tinkerers as a hobby project. For example, I can control mine with an iphone (homekit), voice (Siri) or local network. Now I love my desk, and it's fun to use ("hey Siri, table up").

The only con is that the original Bekant enclosure can be a real pain to open in order to replace the board. But I didn't have to open mine, as I control it via serial.

David | March 28, 2023

Great to bring new life to an old desk

For Megadesk

I started looking for a new desk with memory function but this was exactly what I needed. I didn't do the best job to pry the case open but installation was easy (just remember to put in the pin when testing it) and since it is mounted under the table you can't really see the scrapes anyway.

Ramon | Feb. 16, 2023

Excellent product, bought 2 of them, fast shipping

For Megadesk

Within a few days it arrived in the Netherlands, well packed.
Opening the Bekant took some force, used a dremel to get a start.
Once open, installation was a breeze.

Made a mistake with the second one I forgot to put in a piece of plastic, causing the interface to believer there was no safety pal inserted.
But that was all my vault.
The two of them works great, I highly recommend this

Can't wait to find the time and hook it up to Home Assistant (will need to read upon first how to get it done)
Not because I need it, but because it can! :-)

Kevin | April 30, 2022

The addon that makes my Bekant complete

For Megadesk

The memory function is really a crucial missing feature of the original Bekant desk.
I can only imagine that IKEA has not implemented it for safety reasons.
However, plenty of other manufacturers have this feature.

Luckily there is megadesk providing me with that feature.

Shipping to Germany would have been 7 days or less without the easter holidays.

The tricky part was opening the control unit.
I drilled the corners as others suggested. But I still had to apply quite some force to crack the other welding spots.

Megadesk works fine for me but there are two things that deteriorate the very good impression (thus 4/5 stars):
- The desk isn't as responsive compared to the original control unit. You have to keep pressing the controls for a little while until the desk starts moving.
- I have the impression that the step size for height adjustment is bigger compared to the original controller. It's still fine enough but something you wonder when first experiencing.
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Response from Greg's Tinker Town | May 1, 2022
Hi Kevin! Thanks for the kind words.

The delay is indeed there as the firmware has to provide some sort of delay to know if you are going to release the button and use the memory function, or hold it to manually move the desk.

It is configurable in the firmware, but the firmware I flash contains a sort of "middle of the road" value that I use.

Michael | April 3, 2022

Simple but very effective!!

For alarmbuddy

I wanted something to replace the 35 year old alarm system in my house with. Not so much for the alarms, but to get alerts to Home Assistant when doors or windows are opened in my house.

I purchased on 2022-03-24 and received on NJ, USA on 2022-04-02

In a single afternoon I was able to solder on the included caps, mount the PCB in a printed enclosure, flash it with ESPHome, and get it integrated with Home Assistant. I powered the PCB off of my alarm system's included 19VAC power supply and wired up my inputs without the EOL resistors that used to be used.

There are a few things I needed to figure out from the source. If you need to do the same, make sure you check which version PCB you get. (mine was v3, but latest in the repo was v5.)

- Mounting holes are 71 mm x 49 mm
- Negative on the caps are on the right side.
- The programming port is FTDI standard with GND closest to the bottom.
- DTR pin (5th from bottom) is connected to GPIO0 in case you need to short to GND to flash firmware.

Greg's YAML file for ESPhome works perfectly. Just dropped in my SSID and password and it flashed and appeared in Home Assistant. My house only has 4 zones, but I've already added a few other sensors to some of the unused pins, so I appreciate the versatility of this PCB.

Jimmy | March 15, 2022

It Works really well

For Megadesk

It took 3 Weeks to Receive with mail letter shipping. I recommend the tracking option. I installed it in 5 min after Watching the video.

I forgot to turn off the Power. It was making 3 continuos bip sound. Everything came back to normal after the Power reset.

I puchased that for my wife. I Made her Day.

Martin | Feb. 8, 2022

Works like a charm.

For Megadesk

During the installation, the opening of the plastic button housing of the IKEA desk is arguably a bit tricky, but the instruction videos on youtube really do help a lot.

Patrick | Dec. 13, 2021

Awesome!

For Megadesk

I recently bought the Megadesk because I was too cheap to get the more expensiv table that has build in height storage.
Shipping was considerably fast to Germany and about a week. Product looks well made and parts fit well in the case.

Opening the Controller though was a bit of a pain even with the help of the how to.
I ended up ripping of some parts at the back to pry it open. The lid or plate I'd rather call it is really thick, about 2-3 mm and you need to scorch pretty deep around the controller (not the front where the buttons are!) to get good leverage.

So far the controller does everything pretty well although I sometime struggle to get him to recognize my commands to raise/lower to desired stored position (might be only me with too fast/slow tapping of buttons).

Andreas | Nov. 23, 2021

A normal desk became a beautiful Megadesk!

For Megadesk

With the instruction video, it was very easy to install the board. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and it just works!

Alexey | Nov. 21, 2021

Works as intended

For Megadesk

It was kind of hard to open the plastic box to swap internals but it took me 10 minutes, also damaged the plastic box while opening but that doesn't matter and Ikeas fault :)

Delivery to Russia was 40 days.

Lars | Oct. 4, 2021

Great product and awesome customer service

For Megadesk

I purchased the module, because I was just to lazy to use my desk. Therefore I bought the module. The first one got lost while shipping. But Greg easily replaced it and sent me another one. Thanks Greg! đź‘Ť. It arrived after 7 business days in Germany.
The module it self works flawlessly. Opening the original IKEA module was a bit time consuming - drilling two holes in the backplate helps.

Thanks for this great invention Greg!
Avatar
Response from Greg's Tinker Town | Oct. 5, 2021
Thanks Lars! Tracked shipping is indeed a much faster and safer option these days. Glad you are enjoying it!

J.W. | Sept. 5, 2021

This is controller that should be delivered by default

For Megadesk

This replacement controller for my desk makes me using its again for its purpose: working at different heights. With the Megadesk, changing the height is simply a matter of a couple of clicks. No longer fiddling with the buttons to get to the "right" height!
The documentation is good, and easy to follow. I already had taken a look inside the desk controller before, so I didn't need to open up the housing anymore. I was surprised that the controller includes a replacement cable as well, making the installation really simple. Some additional attention in the documentation for the alignment of the cabling would be a nice addition; you now need to take a good look at the supplied photos, but a couple of lines in the documentation would be helpful.

In all, this is truly a great replacement and actually the controller that the desk should have had from the beginning.

Sebastian | May 25, 2021

It's great once you get the dang glued ikea control box open

For Megadesk

So this really is a game changer (or better a table changer) for me. I use the "standing" height much more since this great board made everything so automatic. Super awesome. But boy was opening the glued box for it a hassle. Like: I had to really "break" it apart - and yes, its still usable / attachable. Important -
its not the Megadesks fault. But be prepared to do some break-open damage and plastic carnage to it to get it to the point where you can switch the boards. And watch both videos. After that, in the end its just click - click - click - screws back on - works. And thats awesome. Ikea should hire that boards creator and let him make the real deal for everyone.

Søren | April 27, 2021

Great product

For Megadesk

Very happy with the megadesk. A little challeging to break Opel the original Bekant controller casing but installation of the megadesk was painless

Miloslav | March 8, 2021

Finally at home and working

For Megadesk

Shipping took 4 weeks to Czech Republic and Instalation was in plug&play way as advertised. I made a external switching of buttons by external relays to integrate it into my smarthhome. Now every mornig I have default possition of my desk and that is really priceless!

Megadesk solved my thoughts to tune up Ikea desk. Thank you!

Glenn | March 6, 2021

Worked as advertised

For Megadesk

Took some tinkering... finally figured out to calibrate with the original one, install the new one, plug it in, unplug for 30 seconds, change the mode to work with my desk, unplug it for 30 seconds, then it worked!

Wim | Feb. 10, 2021

Great deskhack!

For Megadesk

Shipping to Belgium took a bit longer than expected (yay covid) but was up and running 30 minutes after opening the package. The included cable seems short at first but you probably already put the controls near one of the motors anyway, so plenty of length to do the job!

Documentation on installation is superb but opening the plastic case of the controller was a bit of a challenge. I used a thin-bladed knife to score around the edges but I don't think that helped much. Used a thicker blade with a good wedge to break away the lid from the body near the safety key hole so I could get a flat screwdriver in there and pry it open all around. Messed up the outer shell a bit but hey, it's under the desk, who looks there, anyways?

Stephen | Dec. 10, 2020

Brings your Bekant up to par with other motorized desks

For Megadesk

Works well on my Fall 2020 Ikea Bekant desk. Needed to put the controller into "variant" mode for it to work. Docs could have been slightly clearer on what that is exactly. Once I did that, everything worked as expected. The hardest part is definitely getting the enclosure open, at least for me. I'm used to quite involved disassembly, but typically where things are screwed together. You need to wedge a stiff screwdriver or equivalent at around a 45-degree angle near one of the "safer" edges as shown in the video, and then pry. If you don't get deep enough, prying really only separates and warps the outer wall, from my experience.

Enrico | Nov. 28, 2020

The missing piece for the now perfect sit/stand desk!!

For Megadesk

After owning a 63” Bekant desk (sit only) for about 3 years decided to get the sit/stand frame about 2 weeks ago. Immediately loved it but found myself keeping a tape measure on my desk to measure the height every time I changed from sit to stand and viceversa so started looking online for memory controls and found the Megadesk. Ordered it immediately on Nov 20th and got it today, Nov 28th. Like every body mentioned the tricky part was to pry open the controller but thanks to this thread tips and Greg’s video, mine came back without any mayor damage. Installation took less than 5 mins. Now the non easy part was getting it to work. My frame was built on Sep 2020 so very recently. It took me several times to get Megadesk to switch to the Variant firmware. After many attempts, I figured that you have to press 16 times the UP button very fast, after that everything worked as designed. Tape measure is back in the drawer and now I love my Bekant desk even more. Thanks Greg for making such an amazing device the Really Works!!

BTW, USPS messed up with my Megadesk delivery sending the package to the wrong USPS sorting unit so I had to drive this morning 45 mins to get it but it was worthy of the 34 miles one way drive!!!

David | Nov. 22, 2020

Great product!!!

For Megadesk

Easy to install, just read ALL the instructions, they are very clear about two types of motors in the Bekant desk. Just be patient taking the old controller apart, I used a small mechanical screwdriver to work my way around the whole controller casing, then it came apart.

Charles | Nov. 18, 2020

The missing piece!

For Megadesk

This overcomes the one shortfall of the Bekant desk. The hardest part is opening the original case. I had to destroy more than I thought I would like to get it open. Once it's open, the installation is super simple, and getting it working w/ my larger Bekant (firmware setting w/ 16 presses of the up button, and holding the button) desk was a snap.
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Response from Greg's Tinker Town | Nov. 18, 2020
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it Charles! I've just posted a new video with some tips on opening the case that hopefully are useful for future customers. It is indeed the hardest part :)

Tim | Nov. 4, 2020

Superb

For Megadesk

Ikea should bundle with Greg's controller đź‘Ť

Trickiest part was prying open the controller box, but be patient and follow others' advice.
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