Service for the StandDesk raising and lowering via the Raspberry Pi
This project is based off of the hard work by timwasson (https://github.com/timwasson/standdesk-service) and has been updated to work with some updated utilities since some packages with NPM have become defunct. I will be posting some more detailed information soon to show exactly how to get yours to be functional.
Work in progress for automating and configuring a StandDesk with scheduling of days, hours, standing time, sitting time, and hard-wired up/down buttons as well as a distance sensor.
Works independently or in conjunction with the StandDesk Chrome extension.
View it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS-JJ-VIoWI
Currently, this project is working for myself and a co-worker on a RaspberryPi 2 running (as of May 2019). Node.js version 8. This has proven to be important since some of the modules are outdated which doesn't allow for a newer version of Node to be used. This has been tested to work with Debian Buster as of 8/2019.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
sudo apt-get install wiringpi
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install npm
npm -v
sudo node -v
git clone https://github.com/ukypayne/standdesk-service.git
After you have installed everything, you should be able to launch the project.
cd /standdesk-service/
sudo node index.js
If this has run successfully, you should see a similar output.
sudo node index.js
grabbed configuration | 8 | 35 | ["1","2","3","4","5"]
Example app listening at http://:::3000
1 | 15 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1543
Time Remaining: 00:34:59 | Distance: 72.98103448275862 | Currently: sit | Paused: false
1 | 15 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1543
Time Remaining: 00:34:58 | Distance: 73.844 | Currently: sit | Paused: false
1 | 15 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1543
Time Remaining: 00:34:57 | Distance: 72.98103448275862 | Currently: sit | Paused: false
1 | 15 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1543
Time Remaining: 00:34:56 | Distance: 74.69348275862069 | Currently: sit | Paused: false
You can navigate to the webpage by going to xx.x.x.x:3000.
From here you can adjust the config by changing any of the settings and pressing "Update Settings".
You can also trigger the desk to move Up or Down by clicking the large Green/Red buttons.
Currently the Pause/unpause buttons do not work.
There are a few different pages you can have to trigger different settings. You can pull all the information by navigating to the following pages. I was not the original author of this program so I do not know much of how any of this works, other than that it was built in the original program. I have used the pause and unpause pages on my computer so that when I login, my desk unpauses the timer (since I am at my desk), and when my computer is locked because I walk away, it pauses the timer so the desk won't move without me being there.
| Address | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| x.x.x.x:3000/ | Shows GUI of web controls | |
| x.x.x.x:3000/status | Lists all information from the app. | {"timeRemain":2100,"distance":73.85479310344827,"paused":false} |
| x.x.x.x:3000/up | Triggers simulation of the "up" command (Green Button) | {"sitStand":"stand"} |
| x.x.x.x:3000/down | Triggers simulation of the "down" command (Red Button) | {"sitStand":"stand"} |
| x.x.x.x:3000/pause | Triggers the timer to pause | {"paused":"yes"} |
| x.x.x.x:3000/unpause | Triggers the timer to resume | {"paused":"no"} |
To have the standdesk program run as a service on boot, follow the instructions below.
- Open a terminal prompt:
cd /etc/systemd/system/
- Create a new file by typing:
sudo nano standdesk.service
- Copy-paste the information below into the text file you are making and then save by pressing ctrl-X and confirming that you would like to save changes.
[Unit]
Description=Standdesk Service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sudo /usr/local/bin/node /home/pi/standdesk-service/
Restart=always
User=root
# Note Debian/Ubuntu uses 'nogroup', RHEL/Fedora uses 'nobody'
Environment=PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/standdesk-service/
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
- Give permissions to the service file
sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/standdesk.service
- Test that the service will run by running:
sudo systemctl start standdesk.service
- Check that the service is actually running:
sudo systemctl status standdesk.service
It should output something like:
standdesk.service - Standdesk
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/standdesk.service; enabled; vendor preset
Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-08-05 16:04:03 EDT; 13s ago
Main PID: 4355 (sudo)
Tasks: 11 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/standdesk.service
tq4355 /usr/bin/sudo /usr/local/bin/node /home/pi/standdesk-s
mq4363 /usr/local/bin/node /home/pi/standdesk-service-master/
Aug 05 16:04:12 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: 1 | 16 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1604
Aug 05 16:04:12 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: Time Remaining: 00:34:53 | Distance: 72.9945 |
Aug 05 16:04:13 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: 1 | 16 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1604
Aug 05 16:04:13 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: Time Remaining: 00:34:52 | Distance: 74.228344
Aug 05 16:04:14 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: 1 | 16 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1604
Aug 05 16:04:14 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: Time Remaining: 00:34:51 | Distance: 73.416551
Aug 05 16:04:15 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: 1 | 16 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1604
Aug 05 16:04:15 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: Time Remaining: 00:34:50 | Distance: 73.833224
Aug 05 16:04:16 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: 1 | 16 | 2 | 755 | 1652 | 1604
Aug 05 16:04:16 Bi-Pi sudo[4355]: Time Remaining: 00:34:49 | Distance: 73.841293
lines 1-19/19 (END)
Press Ctrl + C to exit.
- Stop the service by running:
sudo systemctl stop standdesk.service
- Use the enable command to make sure the service starts with the system.
sudo systemctl enable standdesk.service
- Reboot the machine and see if the service ran successfully
sudo reboot now
When the program starts, it will trigger the relays for a split second. This is an easy way to tell if the program is running. You can also navigate to the webpage.
There are a number of hard coded values in the index.js file. Most things are decently easy to find and manipulate if needed, but here is a short list of those values.
- upButtonPress = gpio.export (22
- downButtonPress = gpio.export (17
- sit distance threashold is sitStand = 'sit' (By default this is < 78 cm)
- stand distance threashold is sitStand = 'stand' (By default this is > 88 cm)
- if the sitStand value is not in this window, the desk registers as 'moving'
- function downPress ...... the value of 6900 represents the length to simulate the button press. This is 6.9 seconds.
- function upPress ...... the value of 6900 represents the length to simulate the button press. This is 6.9 seconds.
- The title on the webpage name can be adjusted by changing the value of
"title: 'Billy\'s StandDesk Manager',
message: 'Billy\'s StandDesk Settings'
- Currently, the buttons that load on the IP:3000 webpage have a direct reference to an IP hard coded. You will need to change these to correlate to your IP. Go to the /public/js/ directory and edit js.js and edit all references to 10.164.116.27
$("button#upPress").on("click", function() {
$.ajax("http://10.164.116.27:3000/up"); });
$("button#downPress").on("click", function() {
$.ajax("http://10.164.116.27:3000/down");
$("button#Pause").on("click", function() {
$.ajax("http://10.164.116.27:3000/pause"); });
$("button#unPause").on("click", function() {
$.ajax("http://10.164.116.27:3000/unpause"); });
Hardware includes a RPi 2, a 2 channel Relay board, and a HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor module, and a 1k ohm resistor. I also added a perfboard to make the setup more contained. The Relay board simulates an up and a down button press that connects directly to my standing desk. My desk is made by Steelcase (don't have the exact model) and includes the motor and control circuit with a spare switch connector. I terminated a CAT6 cable into the spare jack and found which wires I needed to simulate the button being pressed for Up & Down.
The RJ45 jack on the side represents the connector that my desk uses to connect to the control module. Pin 1 is the ground for my setup, and pins 4 & 5 are the up/down.
In order to automatically start and stop the desk when I am away, I used Windows task scheduler to run a command when I login and lock the machine to unpause/pause the timer.
Open Task Scheduler and Create Task. Give it a name (This is for Pause). Under the "Triggers" tab, click NEW and then "Begin the task: On workstation lock. Click OK. Under the "Actions" tab, click NEW and then "Action: Start a program" and start "Powershell" with the arguments "Invoke-WebRequest -uri http://10.164.116.27:3000/pause" where the IP address is the IP of your pi.
Now you can do the exact same thing for unpause, but I use Microsoft Remote Desktop rather often and don't want my desk moving when I'm not actually there, and that caused me a few issues. So instead of running the command "Invoke-WebRequest -uri http://10.164.116.27:3000/unpause", I made the argument "C:\StandDeskUnpause.ps1".
You must then create a PS1 file that will have a very basic if statement. So copy past the code below and save it as a PS1 file (I put it in root C:. This command will run quser and check to see if the user is logged in as CONSOLE or RDP-TCP, and if it is CONSOLE, then it will pass along the unpause command. (Again, replace the IP with whatever yours is).
$Users = (quser) -ireplace '\s{2,}',',' | ConvertFrom-CSV ; If ($Users.SESSIONNAME -eq "console"){ Invoke-WebRequest -uri http://10.164.116.27:3000/unpause}
- Configure program to move to a pre-defined height rather than simulate button push for x number of seconds. (IE, Stand is alway 112 cm, Sit is always 70 cm)
- Determine why config hours don't pull proper number of digits. IE, 8:00 am pulls as 80 instead of 800. Work around is used 7:59 or edit config file manually.
- Flip relay status from high to low. This would allow the project to not be started, and the relays not "block" the OEM desk switch from operating.