TRMNL has native devices and DIY/ BYOD devices.
Native devices are sold on our store, while DIY / BYOD devices are made from components found elsewhere.
Third party products like Raspberry Pi, Kobo Readers, Kindle, and Android tablet have something in common -- they can render a TRMNL dashboard, either from our web application or an open source BYOS server client.
Here are some things to know as you set up a BYOD device, accessible from the Device settings > Model picker.
Official Models
To support a device natively, we need a handful of attributes about its hardware. These are used as parameters inside the screen generation engine to ensure a perfect fit that leverages the best resolution and other capabilities.
For example, here's our Kindle 6th Gen Paperwhite adapter:
{
id: 5,
keyname: 'amazon_kindle_paperwhite_6th_gen',
name: 'Amazon Kindle PW 6th Gen',
width: 1024,
height: 768,
colour_depth: 8,
colours: 256,
scale_factor: 1,
rotate: 90,
offset_x: 0,
offset_y: 0,
format: 'png',
device_type: :kindle
}
View all existing model specifications via the public Models API, or browse a non-exhaustive list of quickstart guides (+ try it free) at trmnl.com/byod.
Custom Models
If you don't see a compatible dropdown option for your hardware, there are a couple options:
Send us a live chat or email [email protected] and we'll add it to the official models dropdown picker.
Use the custom model builder. This means you don't have to wait for our team, but you may need to experiment with dimensions, color depth, and other parameters described previously.
BYOD device support is a labor of love
We're committed to open sourcing as much of our platform as we can. Learn more about this commitment here, and see a summary of our ecosystem here.
Supporting a growing library of 3rd party hardware has its challenges, and we ask that the community help us stay efficient + productive by:
posting Issues on the various GitHub repos
joining our developer-only Discord > #byod / #byos channels
volunteering to test out your used hardware on new builds
In exchange we offer community recognition, complimentary TRMNL devices, and other perks.