Amazon Dash button or similar for hospitality use?

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petes117

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#239785 3-Aug-2018 18:16

I've opened an entertainment business in Takapuna, where it would be nice to be able to offer customers food or coffee/booze etc. but I don't have the space nor do I want the hassle.

So what I'm wondering is, since I'm surrounded by cafes and bars here, are the amazon dash buttons programmable so that a customer could push one linked to a neighbouring business and have them run their product over to my premises on demand, for a cut of the revenue?

Is something like that even possible, or am I too far ahead of my time?

gehenna

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#2067657 3-Aug-2018 18:21

Yep you can do a lot with these: https://aws.amazon.com/iotbutton/

gehenna

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#2067662 3-Aug-2018 18:39

Strangely i get a 404 if i follow that link from here, but if I cut/paste it it resolves fine, maybe Amazon doesn't like linking?!

petes117

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#2067684 3-Aug-2018 19:03

Yeah copy/pasting worked. Thanks for that!

Now I just need to find someone to program them for me, and if it works set up some deals with the neighbours

gehenna

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#2067708 3-Aug-2018 19:32

Hit up some AWS people in NZ, they're keen to get this tech out there and into some real world use cases. They might be able to hook you up with some resources to help.

hairy1

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#2067725 3-Aug-2018 19:57

I've got a bunch of Amazon Dash buttons here which I use for Home Assistant. They are setup as door bells. The issue with using standard dash buttons with Home Assistant is that they need to be on the same network (or that is how I run it). The IOT buttons wouldn't have this limitation.

Alternatively you could just get a 433 MHz sniffer such as https://www.nodo-shop.nl/nl/41-rflink-433-mhz

and a bunch of cheap 433 MHz buttons from Aliexpress then configure that to trigger orders from around the neighborhood. This has the advantage of not having to setup a device to connect to the internet but then is range limited.

Cheers, Matt.

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blackjack17

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#2067967 4-Aug-2018 13:26

petes117:

I've opened an entertainment business in Takapuna, where it would be nice to be able to offer customers food or coffee/booze etc. but I don't have the space nor do I want the hassle.

How would that work for licencing?

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timmmay

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#2067983 4-Aug-2018 14:27

gehenna:

Hit up some AWS people in NZ, they're keen to get this tech out there and into some real world use cases. They might be able to hook you up with some resources to help.

In general I find that AWS will invest money where there's a good chance they'll recover it through AWS revenue later. Maybe they'll help if something's super new and cool and they want a real world example.

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Nil Einne

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#2067986 4-Aug-2018 15:00

gehenna:

Strangely i get a 404 if i follow that link from here, but if I cut/paste it it resolves fine, maybe Amazon doesn't like linking?!

Minor aside, but pretty sure the problem is because of the auto referrer system for Amazon links. The referrer string is added which doesn't work on the aws page. If you try the URL with the referrer it doesn't work even from copying and pasting.

petes117

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#2067994 4-Aug-2018 15:34

blackjack17:

petes117:

I've opened an entertainment business in Takapuna, where it would be nice to be able to offer customers food or coffee/booze etc. but I don't have the space nor do I want the hassle.

How would that work for licencing?

My guess is either the place I'm buying it from might need an "off-licence" license, or I would need a "special license" (for supply of alcohol for events). Could be something of a grey area, but I'll cross that bridge soon enough

hairy1

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#2067995 4-Aug-2018 15:34

The problem with the dash buttons is one press per product. You would probably be better off designing some sort of app with push notifications... Design the ecosystem, get businesses to opt in and roll it out to the neighborhood... Then the app would have a menu system for choosing your products...

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petes117

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#2068009 4-Aug-2018 16:17

hairy1:

The problem with the dash buttons is one press per product. You would probably be better off designing some sort of app with push notifications... Design the ecosystem, get businesses to opt in and roll it out to the neighborhood... Then the app would have a menu system for choosing your products...

One-click for one, double click for two, long press for four? Probably too fiddly for use where customers aren't sure how it works. You're right, an iPad app would be the best solution. Is there anything like that which exists already?

hairy1

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#2068010 4-Aug-2018 16:20

Don't know. We had better get in quick!

An app would provide feedback that the order is received....

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petes117

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#2068019 4-Aug-2018 16:36

hairy1: Don't know. We had better get in quick!

An app would provide feedback that the order is received....

Oh boy I'd be all over an app like that if someone made it. Surely there are a lot of other businesses which would be interested in offering additional services on-demand from their neighbours

irongarment

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#2068093 4-Aug-2018 20:04

Lots of ideas here:
https://hackaday.com/?s=amazon+dash

I suppose you could pay Amazon to use their iot service if you like.

Aredwood

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#2068096 4-Aug-2018 20:19

petes117:
blackjack17:

petes117:

I've opened an entertainment business in Takapuna, where it would be nice to be able to offer customers food or coffee/booze etc. but I don't have the space nor do I want the hassle.

How would that work for licencing?

My guess is either the place I'm buying it from might need an "off-licence" license, or I would need a "special license" (for supply of alcohol for events). Could be something of a grey area, but I'll cross that bridge soon enough

Just get an On Licence. Only thing to check is that you can get someone else (neighbouring bar) to do the fulfillment. Guessing that you will be taking payment directly from the customers.

Also makes it easier if you want to start supplying alcohol directly later on.