I finally picked up an Amazon Dash Button to see how they can be used. Here’s how to interact with one via node.js.

This post has been tested with the JK29LP model – if you have another model that does/doesn’t work let us know in the comments

First, you’ll need to install libpcap to monitor your network for traffic. This is required as the dash button can’t be customised so we just watch for any traffic being sent and trigger our own events when it happens. I’m on OSX so I install libpcap with Homebrew. If you’re on another OS, you’ll need to install it via your package manager.

brew install libpcap

Once this is installed, we need to find the MAC address of the button. This so so that our script knows which device we’re watching for network traffic. The library we’ll be using provides a great little script for this. Install the library and run the script now (it needs sudo as libpcap accesses network devices)

npm install node-dash-button
sudo ./node_modules/node-dash-button/bin/findbutton

It should welcome you with the following message:

Watching for arp & udp requests on your local network, please try to press your dash now
Dash buttons should appear as manufactured by ‘Amazon Technologies Inc.’

Don’t trust it! There’s an issue identifying dash buttons so it’ll always say Manufacturer: unknown. Go ahead and press your dash button now.

You’re expecting to see something like this:

Possible dash hardware address detected: 84:dd:a8:42:1e:0c Manufacturer: unknown Protocol: udp
Possible dash hardware address detected: 84:dd:a8:42:1e:0c Manufacturer: unknown Protocol: arp

You might see lots of arp responses – you’re looking for the address that has both a udp and an arp entry. This is your dash button, so make a note of the MAC address (84:dd:a8:42:1e:0c). Make sure to ctrl+c the script after capturing your MAC address

Now you have everything you need to write some code! Create index.js with the following contents, swapping out the MAC address for your button’s address:

var dash_button = require('node-dash-button');
var dash = dash_button("84:dd:a8:42:1e:0c", null, null, 'udp');
dash.on("detected", function (){
    console.log("Pushed the button!");
});

Run sudo node index.js then press your button – you should see a message logged to the console.

That’s all there is to it! So in summary:

• brew install libpcap
• npm install node-dash-button
• sudo ./node_modules/node-dash-button/bin/findbutton
• Press your dash button
• Make a note of your MAC address
• ctrl+c the findbutton script
• Create index.js using node-dash-button
• sudo node index.js
• Press your dash button

Michael Heap

Michael is a polyglot software engineer, committed to reducing complexity in systems and making them more predictable. Working with a variety of languages and tools, he shares his technical expertise to audiences all around the world at user groups and conferences. You can follow @mheap on Twitter