Seeed's IoT Button for Amazon Web Services Brings New Life to the Amazon Dash Button Concept
Designed to replace the since-discontinued Dash Button as the weapon of choice for IoT projects, Seeed's IoT Button ties in to AWS 1-Click.
Amazon's ill-fated "Dash Button" Internet of Things initiative may be no more, but Seeed Studio is looking to bring the concept back with a design of its own: the Seeed IoT Button for Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Launched in 2015 — and initially taken for an early April Fool's joke — the Amazon Dash Button was a single-purpose IoT gadget designed to make re-ordering common goods as simple as possible. Branded with a variety of popular consumer goods, each button could be stuck or hung near where the goods were stored and when a new order was required a single push of the button would trigger replenishment.
The Amazon Dash Button proved relatively unpopular, right through until hackers discovered a means to repurpose them into low-cost low-power wireless IoT buttons for other tasks — courtesy of a power-saving feature which saw the buttons only connect to a local Wi-Fi network when the button is pushed, meaning a simple server-side application looking for a Dash Button connecting to the network could trigger a task of the user's choosing.
With users buying plenty of Dash Buttons but rarely using them to actually order anything from Amazon, the service was short-lived: Despite the launch of a more general-purpose Internet of Things Dash Button, Amazon would shutter the Dash Button service in March 2019 - leaving those who had been using the devices for everything from shutting down their Raspberry Pi to finding their phone, triggering music playback, and even automatically provisioning security certificates bereft of cheap replacement hardware.
There's where Seeed's IoT Button for AWS comes in. Designed as a replacement for Amazon's own Internet of Things Dash Button, the IoT Button for AWS offers integration with the AWS IoT 1-Click platform - including support for the iOS and Android mobile applications. Like the Amazon versions, the button comes with a clip designed for ease of mounting plus an internal battery — though improves on the original design by recognising single, double, and long-press interactions.
Based on a low-power dual-core Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller running at 20MHz and a 200MHz Cortex-M4F for higher-performance tasks, the compact design includes compatibility with 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth 5.0 support, and USB Type-C charging of a 3.6V lithium-ion 18650 battery — which is not, it must be noted, included in the bundle. RGB LEDs are provided for status notifications, there's 4MB of flash memory for storage, and the button is rated to at least 100,000 actuation cycles.
The Seeed IoT Button for AWS is now available to pre-order, priced at $19.90 before volume discounts, from Seeed's store; initial shipments are expected to begin later this week.