Amazon IoT programmable button on sale. For programmers, sorta

AWS IoT Button - Limited Release Programmable Dash Button

Just ordered 2…that’s so awesome, thanks telling us about it!

Like Echo, not available in the UK :cry:

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Have they changed the design on this so that you can replace the battery?

In the original dash buttons, which usually sell for five dollars, The battery is literally soldered in place. Amazon expects those to last 1 to 2 years, because when used as designed just for home inventory replenishment, they are likely to only be used once or twice a month.

If instead the button were actually used for IOT like scene initiation or arming a security system, it would likely be used a dozen times a week or more, and battery life might be only six months or even less. that’s one of the main reasons the dash buttons haven’t been more popular in IOT. They’re a fun initial project, but not really a cost-effective practical device especially now that there are a number of alternatives with replaceable batteries available.

But of course the cost/benefit ratio would change a lot if the battery is now replaceable. :sunglasses:

BTW, The coolest thing about this new release isn’t the button itself, it’s the fact that they are letting you program it to your own AWS developer account. That wasn’t something you could previously do by hacking a Dash button. So the real value in this one is in the cloud support, especially as a quick and easy prototype for an eventual different device.

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And they are currently unavailable…

What makes this different than just buying a minimote? Am I missing something?

Very different. This is not going to just connect directly to smart things. First of all, this is a Wi-Fi based device. But most importantly what happens when you press this device is that a message is sent to the Amazon Web services cloud. You then capture that message with programming you write in the AWS cloud and you have that do something. So you have to be registered as an Amazon developer to do anything with this.

With a minimote, when you press the button a message is sent directly to the smartthings hub. you can set up a response to that message by using a built-in SmartThings feature like smartlighting. Or you can capture it with a smartapp.

So the minimote has a direct integration with SmartThings and you don’t need to do any programming to use it, although you can.

The Amazon IOT button has a direct integration with AWS (Amazon Web services) via Wi-Fi to the Internet. You can then write your own programming to in some way send that information to smart things, and you would need to write a smart app to do something with it then.

The main purpose of this Amazon device is to give people who are interested in programming using the Amazon services a quick prototype device to play around with. For that purpose, it’s actually pretty cool. The relevance to smartthings is not as clear.

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Thank you…

OOS so quickly.

Got mine, put them to use. They are similar to a remote, but work on wifi anywhere (not just near your hub).

They differentiate 3 types of presses…single, double, and long (1.5 sec). They have a permanent battery. To configure their Wifi you hold the button for 5 seconds, then get on the buttons private Wifi and change the configuration with your computer/tablet/phone by visiting a webpage. It does a local scan of available SSID’s you pick one, put in the password and away you go! (Initial setup takes you through a few more bits of fill-in information, but you don’t need to change the extra information when you move the button to a new network.)

They are simple to set up, but not simple with smart things. You need a smartApp to be listening for a web hit, and then the smartApp needs to do what you want.

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These are back in stock for Prime members. Get them while they exist!

They must be handknitting them, as my old boss used to say. :wink:

In stock on August 16, 2016.

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Yup just ordered mine. Interested to see how this goes. The custom smart app and trying to link it to SmartThings might not be necessary if they offer connecting it to the Alexa service?? Everything I would want to control with this button is already linked to my Echo.

Either way I’m excited for a new project.

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These are on sale again! And in stock.

Gone again already:

In stock on August 23, 2016.

I got mine last week (ordered May 22).

So I’m not a developer, but has anyone seen this newish Amazon programmable Dash button? I know people have hacked the other ones, but is this something that could be used with SmartThings in some way?

https://www.amazon.com/AWS-IoT-Button-Limited-Programmable/dp/B01C7WE5WM/ref=pd_sim_60_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41tcclc7AVL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL160_SR160%2C160&psc=1&refRID=HTG1YEH6HKXA8J3RDASF#Ask

I’ve done it. It’s a wifi button you can put on any wifi network, as long as it has internet access…you can have it activate something on your smartthings network. You do need to have something that can listen on the web and take action, like an Ask Alexa / Home smart app. (You don’t use the Amazon voice part, just the smartthings interface on the web part) Its complicated to set up, but it works reliably.

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That’s what this thread is about. Lol

Yea I get that. They merged my topic into this one before I knew it existed.

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Ok, I didn’t realize. I was a bit confused.