Dash was not an April fools?
No, and it was pretty clear it wasn't at the time tbh.
So clear that amazon did not bother avoiding around april 1st for the product presentation.
Disassembling the Amazon Dash
61–70 of 115 posts
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#62I'm bummed that it's apparently vendor-locked. A configurable Dash would make it applicable to all things Amazon. There are perhaps 100 places in our facility that a '"consumable X needs a refill/attention". We don't need a specific brand, and the brand we use can vary over time as needs and pricing change.
> You will see a list of available options from the product line your Dash Button is associated with. For example, if your Dash Button can be used for Tide detergent, you may see a list of various Tide detergent scents and sizes that you can choose from. Tap the item to select it.[0]
That is disappointing, from the early materials it seemed like the face plate was just branding and you could select anything you wanted. They're probably partnering with the various brands that there are buttons for pay some of the cost of manufacturing the devices. There might be a non brand locked version coming in the future once they've moved past the initial release and rollout. At least I hope so.
[0] http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#63Can anyone comment as to why they'd go for a cortex M3? @120Mhz it seems like overkill for the function of this device. I know it's pretty cheap but it could have made even cheaper with a less capable micro.
The setup process involves some audio processing which requires slightly more than trivial signal processing and also some RAM usage...
Also handling the network stack requires some RAM. The combination of those two requirements and the low cost of the STM32s of that level of capability mean it was probably a sensible choice.
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#64Is it just me that finds the entire concept of the Dash ridiculous? I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? And we need to set it up first. How is that any better than recurring ordering or just opening the website and ordering it? Are we expected to have an entire wall of dashes at our place? I guess we'll need to sort them alphabetically or by color, so we don't waste time searchin…
I especially find the instant delivery order disturbing. Is that even close to necessary in 90% of the use cases? Putting the product in a shopping cart would be more than enough and would allow group shipping.
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people prototyping in the IoT space are using the precertified modules. There's not much more to it: the transmitter is already soldered to a small piece of PCB but has the antenna and necessary tuned discretes on there and ready to go. Doesn't add much to the cost: like BillinghamJ says it's the certification time and cost that's not really worth the trouble if you can just amortize it into the cost of the…
The cost comes from adding another company to the process - the module maker. But sure, at this stage it might not be worth it , maybe later.
Hardly a concern anymore. These are just line items on a bill of materials now:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/450-0103C/450-0103C...
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't look like the ESP8266 has the necessary I/O to do the audio provisioning trick that the Dash is doing with that hybrid module. Provisioning these things can be a hassle sometimes. The TI CC3xxx has a really wacky one. A custom provisioning app transmits the SSID and password of the target network by sending encrypted packets to nobody: the CC3xxx sniffs the length of the encypted packets and picks up the n…
The CC3XXX "SmartConfig" was complete garbage the last time I was evaluating it on a CC3200. It didn't work on 802.11n networks, only b/g. And that was when it worked. I got it only once trying on both an iPhone and Nexus 5, I would hate to have to answer any customers' support questions about using something so flaky. The audio thing does require an app though to do provisioning, which I suppose isn't a problem for…
Totally agree about the SmartConfig. Interesting idea, very convoluted method.
Thankfully most devices I've been working on have a touchscreen to provision the SSID/PW, or we just ask the user to put it in a text file and inject it via a thumb drive. It really doesn't have to be this hard.
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#67One neat thing Amazon are doing with this product, which I hadn't considered as an "internet of things" option, is making each unit of hardware order a single supplier's goods. All the example buttons say "Tide" or "Bounty" or "Gillette" or "Olay" right on the button - all Procter & Gamble. And the other goods pictured [1] are all brand-name goods with fairly big marketing budgets. In the jargon of the grocery indust…
What if the Dash becomes very popular? I believe we'd see an explosion of companies funding dash buttons which would, in my opinion, be a bad thing for the customer. I don't like the idea of locking myself into a brand for the life of the device. I'd like to see a configurable button that orders, say, the cheapest paper towels that have at least a 4-star rating. The suppliers probably wouldn't be happy about the comp…
The point of funding Dash buttons is that they're free for the consumer. You're locked in, only so far as you can't be bothered to throw out the button, or just not push it, or instead push the button provided to you for free from a competing brand.
That said, it's almost impossible to imagine that a future where Dash is successful doesn't contain configurable buttons like the ones you describe - they probably just won't be free.
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#68Can anyone recommend any resources on power management on something like this? My background in electronics is quite basic though I'd love to understand how they managed to build an ARM-based, battery-powered device that is predicted to last for years. I know it's not "always on" but it's fascinating nonetheless and I think building something similar would make for a fun project.
The main loop looks something like this:
Note that the button is hooked up to an interrupt to wake the processor and return from the Sleep() fn.
main()
while true
Sleep();
InitialiseNetworkStack();
SendPacketToAmazon();Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#69Is it just me that finds the entire concept of the Dash ridiculous? I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? And we need to set it up first. How is that any better than recurring ordering or just opening the website and ordering it? Are we expected to have an entire wall of dashes at our place? I guess we'll need to sort them alphabetically or by color, so we don't waste time searchin…
I can't speak for Amazon, but I've cancelled every single recurring order I've ever setup.
I once had coffee on recurring order. Then I went on vacation, and I was always one tin ahead. Then I had a business trip, and I was 2 tins ahead, then I was sick for a week and didn't want to eat anything. it was too much.
I once set up a recurring order on wine, at first I drank a bottle every other day. What fun! but then I just wanted a glass with dinner every now and then. Bottles started piling up, and now I have a good $100 of wine that tastes like vinegar.
Recurring orders suck. If you have a huge house to store things if you aren't on a perfect schedule it might work. For normal people, it's not ideal.
Re: Disassembling the Amazon Dash
#70One neat thing Amazon are doing with this product, which I hadn't considered as an "internet of things" option, is making each unit of hardware order a single supplier's goods. All the example buttons say "Tide" or "Bounty" or "Gillette" or "Olay" right on the button - all Procter & Gamble. And the other goods pictured [1] are all brand-name goods with fairly big marketing budgets. In the jargon of the grocery indust…
What if the Dash becomes very popular? I believe we'd see an explosion of companies funding dash buttons which would, in my opinion, be a bad thing for the customer. I don't like the idea of locking myself into a brand for the life of the device. I'd like to see a configurable button that orders, say, the cheapest paper towels that have at least a 4-star rating. The suppliers probably wouldn't be happy about the comp…
> I don't like the idea of locking myself into a brand for the life of the device.
You're not the target market. Some people exhibit strong brand loyalty for some stuff. In the UK you'll get people saying that baked beans must be Heinz and no other brand.
I tend to agree with you. I want a button I can push to order the cheapest washing detergent. But that gets complicated. Do I mean actual cheapest price at the till, or do I mean cheapest per wash? Does that mean I want to buy a huge 15 litre tub of industrial detergent?
> that have at least a 4-star rating.
Amazon ratings are already sub-optimal. I could imagine a time when all P&G employees have to buy P&G products from Amazon, and have to give high star ratings, in order to help fix the ratings. Perhaps I'm just overly cynical.