XatolosStartup set to brick $800 kids robot is trying to open source it first
Lovable SidekickAmazon Dash buttons have entered the chat.
dual_sport_dork đ§đĄď¸Yeah, but everybody knew those were a stupid fucking idea from the start. I didnât and still donât feel much sympathy for the people who deliberately bought one of those solely for its intended purpose and then got the rug pulled out from under them.
Whatâs the deal with theae buttons?
By âeverybodyâ you mean everybody except Amazon. And I had fun hacking those. They were often on sale for like 2 bucks and they came with a battery that was good for like a thousand presses. You had to start the online setup process but not select any products, listen for the buttonâs msg to Amazon which contained a unique ID. You could then have your own server listen for a âpressedâ signal from that button and do whatever you want. I keep meaning to find out if thereâs still a way to initialize brand new ones.
luminareeThatâs pretty cool! What would you use them for?
I had a couple stuck on walls where I always wished I had put light switches. They toggled lights on and off using ESP-01 microcontrollers. Another one was in my daughterâs bedroom where I had rehung the door to swing the opposite way so she could leave the door partway open without the hall light shining in her face in bed. As the batteries died I replaced them all with buttons run by newer ESP32s⌠if any of that makes sense.
Amazon was effectively giving them away for free for a large portion of their lifespan. Youâd have deals where youâd pay for them and then get a coupon for actually using them equal to the purchase price. I feel like I even remember a few times where the coupon you got worked out to slightly more than you paid for the button. Basically, saying that someone âboughtâ one was usually only partially true.
They did have a few legitimately good uses. Had to have something that needed restocking sporadically but you also didnât think about often and could wait 2-3 days to receive when you realized you were out. A lot of prerequisites there, I used the ones for trash bags and detergent often.
Itâs mostly just a shame the amount of ewaste produced at this point. I still have a box full somewhere in hopes of finding a use case.
Iâm conflicted on the projects like that one right now. Itâs super clever to monitor the network traffic for specific dash buttons trying to reach out, but it also feels super janky and I donât feel like I can justify putting the effort to set that up when it just feels so fragile. Especially with the caveat that if the amazon block you have to setup for it fails then the device just becomes a paperweight.
Genius idea, but Iâm going to hold out for the unlikely possibility of someone figuring out a firmware level hack.
âŚIâm going to hold out for the unlikely possibility of someone figuring out a firmware level hack.
In a device this old with (what is now) crappy battery life? Theyâre already garbage.