Intercept RJ45 connector to emulate key events on Standing desk controller (TiMotion TC16)

[Mahko_Mahko]

In the case of the Desky project, it uses both uart on one wire (for one way comms from controller to control panel) and shorts other wires (for control from panel to controller)!

This project might give you some structure for how to get started.

Turn your Desktronic standing desk into a smart desk!

This project could void your warranty or cause safety risks. Proceed at your own risk! I have already gathered some advice and tips from this thread and will share my approach with you. The desks in the thread unfortunately use a different controller and unfortunately I have not found a source on the internet that does this with a Desktronic desk. Table of Contents General Information Physical Structure Reading UART-Messages Thoughts and problems General Information Chip I use a d1mini chip.…

Doing a teardown of both controller and handset and posting photos, measuring voltages on wires on the handset side (probably accessible), pulling out the logic analyser, and setting up a ESPHome uart debug to try to read uart messages on wires are all good places to start.

This post shows how you can physically build a “pass through” type set-up (similar to your idea about the splitter) using an rj45 breakout.

Desky Standing Desk (ESPHome) [Works with Desky, Uplift, Jiecang, Assmann & others]

Option #1: Pass-Through Dongle (Simpler) Update note 2022-07-03: Might be worth looking over Option #2 config as I’ve made some enhancments/refinements there. I’m going to keep refining/editing this post as the main ‘how to’. The majority of credit for the solution so far goes to @ssieb . He generously donated his time and knowledge to decode the UART protocol and write the ESPHome custom component (I don’t know any C++, or much about UART either). He doesn’t have one of these desks. He may…