dash.pl - Perl implementation of Amazon Dash Button detection

I have made a Perl port of the node.js implementation of the Amazon Dash Button detector and I wanted to share it with other who may prefer, like me, to use perl.

The original node.js implementation I used is available there (GitHub).

Here is a copy of the button configuration text to prepare the dash buttons, from the link above:

First Time Dash Button Setup

Follow Amazon's instructions to configure your button to send messages when you push them but not actually order anything. When you get a Dash button, Amazon gives you a list of setup instructions to get going. Just follow this list of instructions, but don’t complete the final step (#3 I think) Do not select a product, just exit the app.

Installing prerequisites

Debian / Ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install libnet-pcap-perl libnet-frame-perl libpcap-dev

RedHat / Fedora

?

If somebody knows what are the prerequisites, please tell me :-)

Configuration of dash.pl

At the beginning of the file dash.pl (which contains everything that is needed), there is a configuration section. This section is filled with an example that is, actually, my setup (with dummy actions). You need to adapt it to your needs.

Change the line which reads:

my $dev = 'eth1';

to match the device on which you want to listen.

Then, below in the script, you can see an array containing 2 structures (hash references). Each structure contains the hardware address (a.k.a. Ethernet address, MAC address) hwaddr, the name (used only for display) and the action to do when the button is pushed.

The first time you only need to configure the device because you don't already know the MAC addresses.

Once done, do this:

$ sudo ./dash.pl

then press your button, wait for 2 ou 3 seconds, and you will see a message saying a button has been detected with its MAC address.

You then just have to fill the structure above with the correct information, and choose the action.

BEWARE: the action is executed by root!!! Keep this in mind. You may need to release priviledges in your script (if you use a script) to be safer.

Using dash.pl

Well... Once you have done all steps above, that's it! Just launch again the script and enjoy!

Installing dash.pl as a systemd service

After configuring dash.pl, you may want to use it as a service to be automatically started as a daemon when your computer is switched on.

Edit the file dash.service to modify the path to the file dash.pl, then use the following command to edit the new service:

$ sudo systemctl edit --force dash.service

In the editor opened by this command, copy / paste the content of your dash.service modified file. Then save the file and quit the editor. Then:

$ sudo systemctl enable dash.service
$ sudo systemctl start dash.service