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AWS IoT Button

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Re: AWS IoT Button

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what? So, we are basically moving from this which could last decades to stuff which stops working after 1000 presses? And people say we are not moving to planned obculence ( sorry, don't know the English word for it)

It sort of makes sense for the dash button's original purpose. You probably wouldn't order stuff like paper towels / toilet paper / dish soap more than once a week or so (less for for most people), so 1000 presses would last you over 19 years. Using the exact same hardware for a general purpose remote control seems like a mistake - an extremely limited product at best, an unnecessary source of ewaste at worst. A modi…

> so 1000 presses would last you over 19 years

I've been wondering about that. They say you can use it to control lights/netflix. If you don't want 10s delay it has to do wakeups every 30s or so depending on the wifi setup to stay connected to the network. And wifi transmission is quite power expensive. If it does that, I wouldn't give it more than a year (maybe more like a few months). If it doesn't, the latency must be terrible.

Re: AWS IoT Button

#72
Better Alternatives ( from comments and searching on google):

Amazon Dash button 5 $ - for shopping on amazon, hacks found for ifttt integration ( integrated with buying on amazon) : http://www.amazon.com/b?node=10667898011

https://www.particle.io/button 20 $ , integrated with ifttt

Product: ESP8266 => DIY 7$ IFTTT ( https://www.hackster.io/noelportugal/esp8266-ifttt-easy-butt... , https://hackaday.io/project/5673-esp8266-dash-button , http://www.instructables.com/id/Emergency-Button/ , https://github.com/sam1am/IFTTTButton)

Re: AWS IoT Button

#73
post #24

I hacked one of these to power the nightlight in my kid's bedroom ( https://github.com/ecaron/hue-website-nightlights ). 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... I'm excited that this button launched. But $20 is too much for something without a swappable batte…

From the Amazon official page ( https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/ ): How long will the battery last? 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. How can you sell a button that has only 1000 presses in it for $20 with a straight face? Looks like overcomplicated, overpriced garbage to me.

I guess the original design was to order things infrequently, and if you ordered a new detergent every 10 weeks that's fine.

Re: AWS IoT Button

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> none of their services are any good Care to back that statement up? :) (no argument on the environmentally subpar approach to the button)

Well, it's a subjective statement as it is my opinion. But for me as a Swede: * The closest retail in Amazon is in GB or Germany, orders takes weeks to reach me which is a mystery since I've ordered stuff from Germany before and they usual deliver within a week. * Closest AWS datacenter is in Ireland, latency is high for nordic countries. * Their documentation is very confusing, you can read all about their web servi…

Isn't there an AWS Amsterdam datacenter which would be better latency?

Re: AWS IoT Button

#75
post #24

I hacked one of these to power the nightlight in my kid's bedroom ( https://github.com/ecaron/hue-website-nightlights ). 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... I'm excited that this button launched. But $20 is too much for something without a swappable batte…

From the Amazon official page ( https://aws.amazon.com/iot/button/ ): How long will the battery last? 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. How can you sell a button that has only 1000 presses in it for $20 with a straight face? Looks like overcomplicated, overpriced garbage to me.

Just cancelled my order based on this.

Re: AWS IoT Button

#76

Our Puck ( https://flair.co/products/puck ) 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.

This looks fantastic!

> So far positioned more as a heating and cooling device

Indeed, the website and esp. the pre-ordering process lets one think it's really dedicated to that use...

Why not have another page with a more general positioning, this could be used for anything!

Re: AWS IoT Button

#78
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sort of makes sense for the dash button's original purpose. You probably wouldn't order stuff like paper towels / toilet paper / dish soap more than once a week or so (less for for most people), so 1000 presses would last you over 19 years. Using the exact same hardware for a general purpose remote control seems like a mistake - an extremely limited product at best, an unnecessary source of ewaste at worst. A modi…

> so 1000 presses would last you over 19 years I've been wondering about that. They say you can use it to control lights/netflix. If you don't want 10s delay it has to do wakeups every 30s or so depending on the wifi setup to stay connected to the network. And wifi transmission is quite power expensive. If it does that, I wouldn't give it more than a year (maybe more like a few months). If it doesn't, the latency mus…

An ESP8266 can go from deep sleep to publishing a request in less than three seconds. The expensive operations are the DHCP request and the DNS query, but that can be cached for hours, often even days.

Re: AWS IoT Button

#79
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's a subjective statement as it is my opinion. But for me as a Swede: * The closest retail in Amazon is in GB or Germany, orders takes weeks to reach me which is a mystery since I've ordered stuff from Germany before and they usual deliver within a week. * Closest AWS datacenter is in Ireland, latency is high for nordic countries. * Their documentation is very confusing, you can read all about their web servi…

Isn't there an AWS Amsterdam datacenter which would be better latency?

Frankfurt, but latency doesn't always correlate directly with physical distance.

Re: AWS IoT Button

#80

Better Alternatives ( from comments and searching on google): Amazon Dash button 5 $ - for shopping on amazon, hacks found for ifttt integration ( integrated with buying on amazon) : http://www.amazon.com/b?node=10667898011 https://www.particle.io/button 20 $ , integrated with ifttt Product: ESP8266 => DIY 7$ IFTTT ( https://www.hackster.io/noelportugal/esp8266-ifttt-easy-butt... , https://hackaday.io/project/5673-es…

also for 20$ You can buy a basic android phone with infinitely many more buttons & use cases
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