How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#51

Post by dschep » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

acutelyobtuse wrote: post #8

willhinsa wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what I plan on using mine for. It makes logging actions so much faster. I would love to just have a smartwatch with a set of about 12 or so buttons that correspond to a specific action, but that will take time to happen, if at all.

A Pebble with Tasker could get you there (HTTP POST) or one of the integrations. Even IFTTT or DO. You could probably also even go with the Magic Form app described in the OP's article. Making it context aware is possible too (e.g. in the bathroom or at work) with some thinking of Wifi routers or if you wanted NFC tags, iBeacons.

No need for Tasker: http://apps.getpebble.com/en_US/application/55123f98e28a6598...

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#52

Post by oliwary » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #48

radnor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Flic button did just that, except it uses bluetooth instead of wireless. https://flic.io/ The extra usability and generic-ness means it'll cost you $35 vs $5 for a branded WiFi button.

It looks like that button isn't standalone, and needs a phone nearby to work. I just want something with that form factor that makes a POST request to a URL of my choice, that's it.

How about the bttn? https://bt.tn/ I think it does what you want and has wifi or mobile data.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#53

Post by ctdonath » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:08 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #45

ctdonath wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would work best as a watch "complication". Pulling phone out, turning on, finding app, tapping activity button takes too long; much easier/suitable to turn wrist, tap icon (adjacent to clock), tap activity. Good idea, if implemented with zero friction.

That's a cool idea. Pebble doesn't have a touchscreen, though. You could program one of the shortcuts (long-press one of the 3 right-side buttons) to open the list or even activate a specific activity directly. Assuming such an app ever launches!

Quite doable on Apple Watch. Enjoying my timer, exercise monitor, and calendar "complications" on the Watch face - very little UI friction.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#54

Post by antman » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

I use eps8266 for my IoT. Can't get any easier or cheaper than that. http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#55

Post by jon-wood » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #28

I am really curious to eventually learn the mentality (and financial status) of people who use these buttons for real with Amazon.

If I could get one in the UK for nappies or wet wipes I'd buy in a heartbeat, the major factors for it working there would be that I have no choice as to whether I buy more, and it never being a good time to stop and order more the usual way.

If I'm fishing nappies out of the box and notice we're running low I'm almost certainly mid change, or preparing to go out, and I'll probably forget when do I get the chance.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#56

Post by joezydeco » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:11 PM UTC

benkuykendall wrote: post #39

Wouldn't the button still call back to Amazon every time you click it? Even if it doesn't purchase anything, I don't need Amazon to know my assorted button-clicking habits.

I would think Amazon could easily close the "button press orders zero items" loophole and then this project would have some things to fix.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#57

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:14 PM UTC

oliwary wrote: post #52

StavrosK wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like that button isn't standalone, and needs a phone nearby to work. I just want something with that form factor that makes a POST request to a URL of my choice, that's it.

How about the bttn? https://bt.tn/ I think it does what you want and has wifi or mobile data.

It's 70 euros, which is an insane amount of money for a button, and it's huge :/ The one posted above is small enough to unobtrusively stick on a wall and less than half price this one. Hopefully they'll come out with a standalone mod.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#58

Post by itbeho » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:15 PM UTC

drtse4 wrote: post #18

Something similar could be built easily using an ESP8266, but a single AA battery would not be enough. Looking at this guide[1] it looks like new sw can already be flashed on it, but other than using the uart or some gpio, i don't see attempts at using the wifi interface. [1] https://learn.adafruit.com/dash-hacking-bare-metal-stm32-pro...

Lots of info here: http://www.esp8266.com

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#59

Post by 0x0 » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:19 PM UTC

benkuykendall wrote: post #39

Wouldn't the button still call back to Amazon every time you click it? Even if it doesn't purchase anything, I don't need Amazon to know my assorted button-clicking habits.

You could probably set up a mishmash of dnsmasq and iptables to route everything including dns lookups to a custom daemon on your local network to prevent leaking clicks to the internet.

Re: How I Hacked Amazon’s $5 WiFi Button

#60

Post by got2surf » Mon, Aug 17, 2015, 9:21 PM UTC

akerl_ wrote: post #20

Anybody know if the MAC address in buttons of the same type is the same? I know it'd be terrible network practice and terrible standards-wise and just generally terrible, just figured I'd double-check before buying a crate of Tide buttons and discovering they all report the same MAC

It looks like the demo video has at least two different buttons so it seems like they have different MAC addresses