I hacked one of these to power the nightlight in my kid's bedroom (<a href="https://github.com/ecaron/hue-website-nightlights" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ecaron/hue-website-nightlights</a>). The downside is that the button barely lasts for 1000 presses = 90 days (all kids like pushing buttons). And it is heart breaking because its just a AAA battery that they decided to solder in place...<p>I'm excited that this button launched. But $20 is too much for something without a swappable battery. I'll either keep intercepting the ARP packets from the $5 unit or buy <a href="https://www.particle.io/button" rel="nofollow">https://www.particle.io/button</a>.
> The battery should last for approximately 1,000 presses. When the device battery runs out of charge, there is no way to recharge or replace the battery.<p>This limits use cases to infrequent-press applications.
Our Puck (<a href="https://flair.co/products/puck" rel="nofollow">https://flair.co/products/puck</a>) is sorta like this but with a small display. Instead of a generic button its a bit like a generic knob. So far positioned more as a heating and cooling device but I know I am excited to open it up to developers.
I'm glad they accepted that people were already hacking [1] their cheap Dash buttons and decided to roll with it.<p>It's 4 times more expensive than their hackable Dash buttons ($20 vs $5), but apparently more powerful (and secure?) from the get-go.<p>[1] For example, see all the entries: <a href="https://hackaday.com/tag/amazon-dash/" rel="nofollow">https://hackaday.com/tag/amazon-dash/</a>
Just the number of points of failure in this pipeline relegates this to toy status at best.<p>WIFI interruption? Button doesn't work.<p>Internet connection down? Button doesn't work.<p>Bad network congestion? Button doesn't work.<p>Amazon suffering DDOS? Button doesn't work.<p>Battery dies? Button doesn't work.<p>Too many presses? Button doesn't work.<p>Misconfigured server? Button doesn't work.<p>Certificate expiry? Button doesn't work.<p>"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." - Montgomery Scott
FWIW I tried following the instructions with a normal branded dash, and it is clear that the IoT button has a different firmware.<p>Differences:
* Amazon ConfigureMe network uses WPA2 for the IoT button. No encryption for the branded button.
* IoT button has extra fields (according to the documentation) that the branded does not. They are for a certificate, private key, REST endpoint, region, and a checkbox to agree to TOC.
wwwwhaa.... what IS this?<p>> For example, you can click the button to unlock or start a car, open your garage door, call a cab, call your spouse or a customer service representative<p>I'm so confused. So now, to open the garage door, I buy an internet device, and when i click it, it sends a message to a server, charges me 0.02$, runs some kind of "cloud" script that executes some kind of "rules", registers something in a database, and sends a message back to my garage door opener?<p>The future is weird.
"This item, sold by Amazon.com, is currently reserved exclusively for Prime members."<p>So my price just went up from $20 to $120. There goes that.
A lot of complaining about the $0.02/press (no recharge/replace on battery) but all the other buttons I've seen cost significantly more and this feels a little more plug&play. I'll probably wait for it to get cheaper or get a replaceable battery as I don't have a great use case for it at this time but it's at the top of my list if I need something like this.
I know it's not as convenient as buying one of these, but it's really not very hard to make your own button, and it's a very fun project. Here's mine, which is also open source, including the PCB and things:<p><a href="https://www.stavros.io/posts/emergency-food-button/" rel="nofollow">https://www.stavros.io/posts/emergency-food-button/</a>
FWIW, if you don't need hardware, you can turn your phone into such a "button". Apps allow you to add a widget to your home screen and can be configured to make HTTP requests.<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.rmy.android.http_shortcuts" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.rmy.android...</a>
in case anyone is interested I wrote a node.js module a while back to repurpose dash buttons<p>not as elegant as their official IoT button, but it works (and dash buttons are 25% of the price)<p><a href="https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button</a><p>edit: corrected my tired beer math
Are there alternatives to this? It sadly seems like amazon has no plans to release it internationally anytime soon. I'm looking for a simple button that can just ping a URL in the simplest case.<p>I'm looking at a raspi + button hardware right now but something already packaged with wifi would be a lot easier to use.
I really hope they haven't patented this. It doesn't seem hard to compete against it or build your own - an ESP8266 module costs about $6 and makes it super easy to hack your own "IoT button".
It's a $19 button that lasts ~1000 presses and can be used to trigger events on Lambda (which are free for the first million, so no real issue). So what you're getting is a cost of $0.019 per press.<p>Compared to a button on a webapp (which can be pressed from your phone) that, when pressed, goes through API Gateway and then hits up Lambda? At which point you're paying $0.0000035 per press.<p>Decisions, decisions...
Some progress has been made at reverse-engineering the hardware, which is very similar to that found in the Particle Photon. At $20, the Photon is a clear winner over the IoT button. As soon as someone puts the pieces together so we can flash the Dash's firmware, that's when things get interesting.<p><a href="https://community.particle.io/t/amazon-dash-anyone-hacked-it/14303/35" rel="nofollow">https://community.particle.io/t/amazon-dash-anyone-hacked-it...</a>
I wrote a blog post [1] several months ago on how to use these buttons to call Uber. Happy hacking!<p>[1] <a href="https://medium.com/@geoffrey___/summon-uber-with-the-new-amazon-dash-button-876b54385dec#.r01e7f9zt" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@geoffrey___/summon-uber-with-the-new-ama...</a>
Bummer, can't order this from Australia. Really want to get one of these for some testing. Anyone with inside info as to when these will be available outside the USA?
Yup, I was looking for a way to realize this: <a href="http://make-everything-ok.com/" rel="nofollow">http://make-everything-ok.com/</a>