5 ms·

How I made my own Amazon Dash button

47 points by stelabouras 11y ago

kjhughes 11y ago
Cool project, and in case you've never heard of Amazon Dash (as I hadn't)... Amazon Dash is a button that when pressed will place an order on Amazon via Wi-Fi, controllable by the Amazon App: https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011 https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011
- GabrielF00 11y ago
  Technically, Dash is a different product from Dash Button. The Dash is a barcode scanner/voice device for Amazon's grocery business (Amazon Fresh). You say a product's name or scan its barcode and it adds it to your cart on Amazon Fresh. https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/
suprasanna 11y ago
Here's another person who had a very cool implementation with the actual Amazon Dash button. They messed with it (software only) to track baby data! You could use the same method to track many other things if you got creative. https://medium.com/@edwardbenson/how-i-hacked-amazon-s-5-wifi-button-to-track-baby-data-794214b0bdd8 https://medium.com/@edwardbenson/how-i-hacked-amazon-s-5-wif...
- StavrosK 11y ago
  That's another cool solution, but it's more hackish (since you're doing it at the network level). Too bad the Dash button isn't more hackable, it's a very nice device.
  - hcf 11y ago
    The lithium battery in it is super expensive too, I would be surprised if it cost less than $5 to make.
TamDenholm 11y ago
Someone made a programmable button and it looks extremely nice but its very pricy: https://flic.io/ https://flic.io/ Tempted to order some and have a play.
- StavrosK 11y ago
  My problems with the flic is that it's pricy, I don't know how open it is, and I don't know whether it requires a bluetooth connection with a nearby phone.
zorpner 11y ago
Interestingly, the Dash uses wi-fi controlled by the setup app to be configured with an Android phone, but because the app can't control the wi-fi on an iPhone it uses ultrasonic signals: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201746340 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... You may need to increase your iPhone volume, since Dash Button uses ultrasonic tones to sync with your iPhone during setup.
- philjohn 11y ago
  That's how the Furby Boom is able to interact with the iPad app ... only problem is, I can still hear the damn noises despite being 35!
whoiskevin 11y ago
Wonder when Amazon will just make this easier for everyone. They already have if it just moves out of beta: https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/ https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/
Hortinstein 11y ago
Shameless plug: I wrote a quick and dirty node.js library to re-purpose the amazon branded ones to do anything you want. https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button

47 points by stelabouras 11y ago

Cool project, and in case you've never heard of Amazon Dash (as I hadn't)... Amazon Dash is a button that when pressed will place an order on Amazon via Wi-Fi, controllable by the Amazon App: https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011 https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011

GabrielF00 11y ago
Technically, Dash is a different product from Dash Button. The Dash is a barcode scanner/voice device for Amazon's grocery business (Amazon Fresh). You say a product's name or scan its barcode and it adds it to your cart on Amazon Fresh. https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/

suprasanna 11y ago

Here's another person who had a very cool implementation with the actual Amazon Dash button. They messed with it (software only) to track baby data! You could use the same method to track many other things if you got creative. https://medium.com/@edwardbenson/how-i-hacked-amazon-s-5-wifi-button-to-track-baby-data-794214b0bdd8 https://medium.com/@edwardbenson/how-i-hacked-amazon-s-5-wif...

StavrosK 11y ago
That's another cool solution, but it's more hackish (since you're doing it at the network level). Too bad the Dash button isn't more hackable, it's a very nice device.
- hcf 11y ago
  The lithium battery in it is super expensive too, I would be surprised if it cost less than $5 to make.

TamDenholm 11y ago

Someone made a programmable button and it looks extremely nice but its very pricy: https://flic.io/ https://flic.io/ Tempted to order some and have a play.

StavrosK 11y ago
My problems with the flic is that it's pricy, I don't know how open it is, and I don't know whether it requires a bluetooth connection with a nearby phone.

zorpner 11y ago

Interestingly, the Dash uses wi-fi controlled by the setup app to be configured with an Android phone, but because the app can't control the wi-fi on an iPhone it uses ultrasonic signals: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201746340 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... You may need to increase your iPhone volume, since Dash Button uses ultrasonic tones to sync with your iPhone during setup.

philjohn 11y ago
That's how the Furby Boom is able to interact with the iPad app ... only problem is, I can still hear the damn noises despite being 35!

whoiskevin 11y ago

Wonder when Amazon will just make this easier for everyone. They already have if it just moves out of beta: https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/ https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/

Hortinstein 11y ago

Shameless plug: I wrote a quick and dirty node.js library to re-purpose the amazon branded ones to do anything you want. https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button https://github.com/hortinstein/node-dash-button