The IKEA Kortlinje is a $20 digital clock with a hygrometer, thermometer, and a white LED matrix driven by three VK1640 LED controllers. That controller count is what makes it interesting: desolder the stock microcontroller, wire in your own, and you have I2C access to the full display. RevSpace hackerspace in the Netherlands documented the teardown first, and developer VIPnytt has already posted early custom firmware to GitHub.
Inside the unit sit two unidentified chips with no markings: one microcontroller paired with a 32.768 kHz watch crystal, and one mystery IC that is either an I2C multiplexer or tied to the onboard sensors. Nobody has identified them yet. That open question, and the specific substitution technique for the MCU, is reason enough to read the original thread and the GitHub repo in full.
The Kortlinje joins a long line of IKEA hardware that hackers have repurposed, including IKEA bowls rebuilt into telescope mounts. This one is early. The firmware is skeletal, the mystery chip is unresolved, and the person who maps it completely will own the definitive reference for this platform.
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