91–100 of 143 posts
At $20, who would by this? Has anyone seen a DYI that's cheap?
I'll replace the battery with a DC transformer and use one for demos.
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.
I'll buy it the moment it lets me program it to suit my needs. It looks incredibly awesome and off the bat I can think of 4 places I'd love to use it (but none of them, unfortunately, have anything to do with heating or cooling).
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.
Edit: I see now that it does indeed have "click" listed in the specs.
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…
Are there alternatives to this? It sadly seems like amazon has no plans to release it internationally anytime soon. I'm looking for a simple button that can just ping a URL in the simplest case. I'm looking at a raspi + button hardware right now but something already packaged with wifi would be a lot easier to use.
Competitors that I've been considering:
* https://www.particle.io/button
* https://flic.io/ (would have to be paired with a nearby Pi)
* http://www.dropletlife.com/ (not yet available)
My best recommendation would be build http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch or go with the Particle option.
At $20, who would by this? Has anyone seen a DYI that's cheap?
I bought a couple as the main value for me is that it's tied directly to AWS Lambda. Yes, I could build an ESP8266, RaspberryPi, or Arduino-based solution, but then it's totally custom. Because my startup is involved in "serverless" computing, it's beneficial for me to say that this button directly calls an AWS Lambda function out of the box. I'll replace the battery with a DC transformer and use one for demos.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, but they decided to weld the contacts of the board to the battery. I'm guessing that they calculated it was cheaper (or more business savvy) to get users to replace the button every X months/years than to make the button in such a way that the battery is user replaceable and also indicates charge level.
It also means they can reasonably assume there aren't 10 year old buttons using an ancient protocol out there to support.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also means they can reasonably assume there aren't 10 year old buttons using an ancient protocol out there to support.
It's a thing with an ID that sends a single event. How much can the protocol evolve?