Home Made Raspberry Pi Standing Desk Controller

I mentioned this in a HN post in the past regarding standing desks, mentioning that I'd created an over-engineered standing desk controller (using a Raspberry Pi) over lockdown as as little fun project. Somebody asked about a write-up for it, so here it is

First, that is really neat - thanks for sharing. The fragility of that installation makes me nervous though. Pretty easy to bump it with a knee or catch something on it and pull some wires out! But you've got some great documentation via the article.

I have to ask this most of the time I see an r-pi project: why r-pi instead of ESP8266 for something this simple?

I love the idea of accidentally leaving a shoe (or whatever) underneath the height sensor and being confused about why the desk moves to the wrong height...<p>Clever though!

I’m curious why someone might reach for an RPI for a project like this? The last Pi I was using was consuming something like 8 watts while idle. That’s like $1.50 a month in electricity here in the Bay Area...<p>Many times, an arduino or esp32 would be more than capable with considerably less power usage.

Several years back I was looking for an adjustable desk and was not liking the prices. I ended up buying this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.homedepot.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;Husky-62-in-Adjustable-Height-Work-Bench-Table-HOLT62XDB12&#x2F;301810799" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.homedepot.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;Husky-62-in-Adjustable-Height-Wo...</a>

Clever use of an ultrasonic distance sensor. I think one of those cheap time of flight proximity sensors would work too.

Because sometimes you just need the equivalent of an early Cray to do the job of a few relays...