Getting Started

This page will guide you through setting up your new Upsy Desky with your home automation system and your standing desk. This will take less than ten minutes.

If you prefer videos over text, this great one from The Bearded Tech Guy will help you get started and provide some inspiration for Home Assistant automations!

Step 1: Connect to Wi-Fi

note

If you have a hidden SSID, you will either need to unhide it, or adopt your Upsy Desky in the ESPHome dashboard then add the fast_connect option to the wifi section of the config YAML. This is unfortunately a limitation with ESPHome.

Use one of the below methods to connect your Upsy Desky to Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth

info

This method is supported for firmware version 1.1.2 and newer. Units shipped starting October 31, 2023 will have this version.

If you are using Home Assistant 2023.11 or newer and have a suitable Bluetooth adapter/proxy set up, you can set up your Upsy Desky via Bluetooth.

It's incredibly easy:

1. Plug the Upsy Desky into your desk's control box or USB-C power.
2. Once powered on, Home Assistant will detect your Upsy Desky and prompt you to connect it to your Wi-Fi network.

If you are having trouble with this method, ensure the following are true:

• You are running Home Assistant 2023.11 or newer.
• Your Upsy Desky is running firmware 1.1.2 or newer, or was shipped after October 31, 2023.
• Your Home Assistant instance has a Bluetooth adapter or proxy set up.
• The control box is providing power to the Upsy Desky, or you are using the USB-C port for power. A red LED inside the enclosure should be lit.

You can also try setting it up manually with this button if it's not auto-detected:

If all else fails, you can try one of the other setup methods.

USB

1. Connect the Upsy Desky to your computer via USB
2. Press the blue connect button below
3. Press "Connect to Wi-Fi"
4. Select your Wi-Fi network and enter your password

The Upsy Desky will be listed as either "CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller" or "Upsy Desky" in the connection list. If you don't see it, make sure you are using a USB data cable (i.e., not power-only), and try installing the driver for the serial chip.

Provisioning via USB only works in browsers which support Web Serial, such as Chrome or Edge. Please provision your Upsy Desky via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi instead.

Captive Portal (Wi-Fi)

TL;DR

Connect to the upsy-desky-XXXXXX network (password: hunter2hunter2), enter Wi-Fi credentials in captive portal prompt.

Plug your Upsy Desky into power, and you should see a Wi-Fi network starting with upsy-desky nearby. Connect to it with your phone or laptop (the password is hunter2hunter2); the captive portal page should automatically appear but if it doesn't, you can go to http://192.168.4.1 in your browser. If it still doesn't appear, make sure you are connected to the Upsy Desky's network.

Follow the instructions on this page to connect it to your Wi-Fi network.

Step 2: Connect to Home Assistant

TL;DR

Home Assistant will ask to add the device. Do that. You can also rename it if you want.

Once connected to your network, Home Assistant should automatically pick the device up and offer to add it. If it doesn't, make sure it's properly connected to Wi-Fi. Check your router's settings to get its IP and add an ESPHome integration to Home Assistant manually, if you need to.

info

It's recommended you rename it now to something more descriptive so that creating automations is easier, and so that you don't need to go through the hassle of changing entity IDs later.

If you don't use Home Assistant, you can still control your desk from the built-in web UI by navigating to its IP address or hostname in your browser. ESPHome also offers support for several common protocols such as MQTT, so you can use it with any system that supports those. Check the ESPHome documentation for more information on what it supports. (TIL it supports CAN bus? lol)

Step 3: Configure

TL;DR

See Configuration.

Once connected to Home Assistant, you can see the configuration options in the Home Assistant frontend and tailor them to your needs. See Configuration for details on what each option does. You will likely need to change them for your specific desk.

More advanced users (or those familiar with ESPHome) can also check out the advanced guide on customizing the actual ESPHome config yaml to your liking.

Step 4: Connect to Desk

warning

Make sure to use a short, high-quality cable. In my experience, a 2ft 24 AWG CAT6 cable, such as this one from Monoprice, works great.

TL;DR

Plug one RJ45 jack into the control box, and the other into the keypad. Doesn't matter which one is which. Test to see if it works in Home Assistant.

Once your Upsy Desky has been integrated with Home Assistant, you can unplug the USB-C cable — the desk itself will provide power. Connect your Upsy Desky to your desk's control box using an RJ45 cable (it doesn't matter which jack you use), then after a minute or so check Home Assistant to see if you are able to control it properly. At this point you can also optionally connect the stock keypad to the open RJ45 jack on the Upsy Desky so you can use that as well.

If you are having trouble with any of these steps, see Troubleshooting.

Step 5: Print Enclosure (if you need to)

If you didn't opt for an enclosure in your order, see the BYOE page for instructions on how to print and assemble your own.