Amazon Dash button to control a Tesla

[Chrisizzle]

This guy reprogrammed an Amazon Dash button to set his preferred temp in the car. Certainly not a useful tip for most but, kinda almost interesting.

Amazon dash button automation silliness. - YouTube

 

[Cyclone]

I may have to consider implementing this. It could come in very handy for different functions. Combine the Phillips Hue bulb and you can even automate a "check" for when the car is charging!

 

[AnOutsider]

I'd rather code mine to unlock and start the car for the times my wife goes out to the garage then yells back into the house for me to unlock the car.

 

[Mercury]

This guy reprogrammed an Amazon Dash button to set his preferred temp in the car. Certainly not a useful tip for most but, kinda almost interesting.

Amazon dash button automation silliness. - YouTube

That guy is me, by the way. Kinda freaky how much traffic it's getting for just stringing together a couple of interesting tech pieces. If only I could make the button make ludicrous parts appear at my service center...

 

[dhanson865]

That guy is me, by the way. Kinda freaky how much traffic it's getting for just stringing together a couple of interesting tech pieces. If only I could make the button make ludicrous parts appear at my service center...

My coworker showed this to me. My first response was why bother with a amazon dash button instead of using a phone app?

It is neat to see and I suppose if there was no cost to anyone on the planet to make or transport those things or if you were harvesting buttons someone else was going to throw in the trash it'd be a win/win.

 

[Cyclone]

That guy is me, by the way. Kinda freaky how much traffic it's getting for just stringing together a couple of interesting tech pieces. If only I could make the button make ludicrous parts appear at my service center...

Hmmm. Now I need to go study up on Amazon Dash (never heard of it before), get me one, and then sign up for a free Amazon virtual machine to run the software like you have (no 24/7 machines in this house)!

 

[rsqunit]

@Mercury, can you share all the source code?

Cool hack!!!

 

[Mercury]

My coworker showed this to me. My first response was why bother with a amazon dash button instead of using a phone app?

It is neat to see and I suppose if there was no cost to anyone on the planet to make or transport those things or if you were harvesting buttons someone else was going to throw in the trash it'd be a win/win.

It's mostly for the nerd factor of tinkering, but it's also substantially easier. Pulling out the mobile app requires a fair amount more work than just pressing a button and doesn't notify you when the car's ready. And, if you're running the Android version, you typically have to kill and re-start the mobile app because, well, it's not very good software.

Besides, tinkering with little plastic buttons is just fun.

 

[rjt65]

haha as a fellow IT guy I salute you!! very Kewl IMO....

 

[madhav]

The thought itself to do something like that is amazing. You also implemented it which is pretty cool.

 

[mspohr]

That guy is me, by the way. Kinda freaky how much traffic it's getting for just stringing together a couple of interesting tech pieces. If only I could make the button make ludicrous parts appear at my service center...

Great hack!
I'm a little unclear on how you intercept the communication with Amazon to redirect it to your script (so you don't get bins of baby food every time you turn the car on...). It seems that you build on some other hack... any link to that?

 

[nib_]

From reading another hack, it looks like you don't register the button with a product at Amazon, so it never orders anything. On a local machine, you listen for the button to wake up (ARP request) and take action on that. You aren't really redirecting Amazon, you just listen for the button yourself.

I don't know if I'll hook it to my car, but I just ordered one because there must be some problem it will solve for me. I'm such a nerd.

 

[Andyw2100]

That guy is me, by the way. Kinda freaky how much traffic it's getting for just stringing together a couple of interesting tech pieces. If only I could make the button make ludicrous parts appear at my service center...

That's very cool!

Would you consider writing some sort of program to allow those of us without any programming skills to make use of those as well? Perhaps something that would integrate with Visible Tesla, or as a stand-alone. I'm sure people would pay/make donations/etc.

Anyway, just an idea, because I like the concept, but wouldn't think of messing around with the programming.

 

[Mercury]

From reading another hack, it looks like you don't register the button with a product at Amazon, so it never orders anything. On a local machine, you listen for the button to wake up (ARP request) and take action on that. You aren't really redirecting Amazon, you just listen for the button yourself.


I don't know if I'll hook it to my car, but I just ordered one because there must be some problem it will solve for me. I'm such a nerd.

Yeah, I just listen for the ARP and take action on that. I do have a much cleaner way to do it, though, so I'll probably be posting another goofy video shortly. It' just for the buttons, not so much Tesla-related. You could, of course still automate the car, it'll just be easier than having to have a computer listening for ARPs all the time.

That's very cool!


Would you consider writing some sort of program to allow those of us without any programming skills to make use of those as well? Perhaps something that would integrate with Visible Tesla, or as a stand-alone. I'm sure people would pay/make donations/etc.


Anyway, just an idea, because I like the concept, but wouldn't think of messing around with the programming.

There are actually some decent automation frameworks out there. The space is just kind of starting to mature, with people wanting to stitch together a bunch of different API's without code. Stuff like Octoblu and Zapier might work for you. Since most of the code now is just gluing multiple pieces together, might as well just build all that and let the end user do the gluing.

I'm sure it won't be long before there's a whole bunch of competitors in that space, integrating with Amazon Echo, Apple and Google's backends, etc.

 

[eloder]

That's pretty awesome

I really need to learn how to do that. I want to make a Dash button that'll turn off all my Hue lights and set my Nest to Away mode.

 

[rsqunit]

Would you mind sharing the code?

Very cool hack!

 

[Ingineer]

He did share the code, in the bottom of his youtube description: arpguy.zip - Google Drive

 

[rog]

Yeah, I just listen for the ARP and take action on that. I do have a much cleaner way to do it, though, so I'll probably be posting another goofy video shortly.

I'd be very interested in a simpler method. I am a tinkerer and everything (fully automated home using roughly 60 z-wave devices), but the idea of adding a dedicated Python setup to my system has been holding me back from fiddling with the Dash.

 

[zkmusa]

This is a very interesting implementation. Thanks for sharing!