The IKEA Kortlinje is a digital clock that costs around 20 dollars, featuring a hygrometer and thermometer. It’s another cheap appliance, you might think, were it not that the display is a white LED matrix. Best of all, with three VK1640 LED controllers, it has hacking potential. You’re in at the ground floor if you hack one of these, but so far we’ve seen a post from the RevSpace hackerspace in the Netherlands, and the first glimmerings of a firmware on GitHub from [VIPnytt].
We have one on the bench here, and cracking it open we find the three LED drivers, an unidentified microcontroller with a 32.768 kHz watch crystal, and a mystery chip nobody’s yet identified that may either be some kind of I2C multiplexer or have something to do with those sensors. Neither has any markings, so no help there. The hackability comes in the relative ease of desoldering the microcontroller and substituting your own. In which case with access to I2C and the LED drivers, you can make it do your bidding.
This thing is part of a rich tradition of hacking IKEA products. Perhaps one of our favorites is the use of bowls from the Swedish furniture giant to make a telescope mount.
Microcontroller for the clock part of it.
Sigh. IKEA is only a couple of km from me, unfortunately that clock isn’t even in my country.
This was exciting until I realized it wasn’t available nearby me either. Hopefully it’s just a matter of waiting for certifications.
Surprisingly it is available at IKEA Australia for $40 AUD.
mm, but it’s not a white matrix. To my eyes, the yellow/orange display we are shown here looks meh in a red case, while the white in the article is much more impressive.
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/kortlinje-alarm-clock-with-hygro-thermometer-red-20620462/
I’ll pass.
You can always replace the case with something 3d printed.
In that case, it makes more sense buying the MAX7219 LED matrix modules and attaching an ESP32. They are way cheaper and the LEDs come in different colours.
I got an NTP sync’d clock from Amazon for like $30. I wish companies would start selling clocks with wifi and NTP sync. So much more reliable than WWVB up here in the Norteast US.
I couldn’t find a projector clock that did everything I wanted with time synchronization. I ended up just making a WWVB hotspot on my nightstand that uses a GPS to run a stratum 1 NTP server. As a bonus, I can also switch to JJY at alternating hours to make my JDM NTP hardware work as well.
Going to the Dutch RevSpace page I found the link to a Chinese data sheet. Googling the part number led me to Titan Microelectronics TM1640 which has identical diagrams.
https://dl.icdst.org/pdfs/files3/1a3723ca081e8824039eb846c3e42050.pdf
(Unfortunately the clock is not [yet?] available in the UK).
The hunt is the second best part.
It seems like it is not available in EU as it is only listed on the IKEA websites for Sweden and Turky. The hardware analyse github talks about a CdS photoresistor for ambient light sensing. Maybe that’s the culprit? Not RoHS conform? But they could have used a simple Si photodiode instead…
The photosensor is in 3mm LED form. I have not seen CdS sensors in that format yet.
CdS sensors are banned by RoHS and it is plain impossible that IKEA sells products that contain non-RoHS electronics in 2006
That’s 20 years ago, you reckon they might try selling them now?
It’s a Dutch revspace, and it’s available at Ikea in Holland
https://www.ikea.com/nl/nl/p/kortlinje-wekker-met-hygro-thermometer-rood-90620468/
Uh, Sweden isn’t in the EU anymore? Since when?
I think the hardware teardown was done by someone more proficient in programming than electronics. Its very clearly NOT a CdS-photoresistor.
It’s literally labeled “CDS” on the PCB silkscreen though. For anyone actually following the teardown or modding the hardware, matching what is physically printed on the board makes the wiring a lot easier to follow than debating component chemistry.
I wonder if IKEA is now going for the “my first 3D printed project” look?
Anyway, very cool IDEA that it already has been reverse engineered so that we now all can modify it to our hearts content. I must visit that Swedish furniture giant some day soon.
After assembling a daybed for relatives bought from IKEA I will NEVER purchase anything from IKEA, I never seen such poor quality kits as what ikea sells, total garbage, some bits missing from the hardware bag, poor quality MDF was starting to crumble right out of the box, and they paid sever hundred dollars for that crap
Yeah, IKEA has really pushed the envelope in the “barely strong enogh to hold itself together” wood product. AFAICT, it’s loosely glued chips inside two thin layers of veneer, covered with vinyl.
Bought a couple of Billy bookcases recently (to form the insides of a bigger project) and thought the same, they have their own type of chipboard that’s more porous and the writing with it was explaining how great it is that they’ve changed the skin from veneer to paper. Paper!
Ikea does have a range of products, from really cheap stuff to decent stuff. So you need to pay attention to which you’re getting.
Looks like a fantastic hacking platform. I can imagine it integrating really nicely (and very easily) with home assistant via the esphome project.
IKEA Penang, Malaysia have it. Lucky! But the matrix..yep..orange colour mehh..prefer white colour..will buy anyway