if TRMNL is too expensive, get a cheaper 3rd party option then:

1. flash our* OSS firmware (https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-firmware) 2. spin up an OSS server client (https://docs.trmnl.com/go/diy/byos#implementations) 3. install the Home Assistant plugin (https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-home-assistant)

no need to write any code or give TRMNL a penny, while still benefiting from a few years of deep dev in this area.

* i'm on the team

Oh nice, I didn't know the firmware and server were open source. I've seen your products on youtube videos but only seen TRMNL as a hardware product with built-in software. Knowing you can flash a cheaper display and run your own server changes things. I'll check out the firmware repo, thanks for pointing that out.

we can only estimate token <> cost in our cloud agent, but we also OSS'd the skills and in those cases the cost is ~$0 (part of one's LLM subscription): https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-agent-skills

the agent also has a model switcher, and the estimate you quoted is based on Haiku when we launched.

i founded TRMNL and didn't try AI myself until ~2 months ago. i'd rather shut down down and open source everything (per our Unbrickable Pledge) than become "just another AI company."

the AI Agent exists to empower less technical folks to turn their vision into reality, and we're proud of what's possible with it. meanwhile our top community developers continue to hand craft beautiful, useful plugins for everyone to install, LLM free.

I appreciate the effort and I think this is a great way to engage a broader audience. This level of software complexity is perfect for non technical users to vibe code.

ShipHero doesn't even have an SLA, not too concerned.

thanks for reading, updating the post now to explain we use the Superpowers skill and spend 90% of our effort on specs / tests. measure thrice, cut once.

sure, also I have it look for bugs, problems with database indexes (missing or should be/ should not be unique). reviews for code quality, srp, complexity, etc. also reviewing deployment and infra. and what happens when the db goes down. and find 10 problems that can happen after deployment and how to detect and manage.

takes notes thanks again.

i’m a happy Together Letters user, in an Atlanta founder group. didn’t realize until this post that there are thousands of us, well played.

awesome work! the original Kindle project definitely has quirks, so we now offer a KOReader option as well. https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader/

you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL, either our closed source web app or free to an open source server.

https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-kindle https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader

glad to hear this. we made a couple more power savings improvements this week, publishing something on the blog about it ~tmrw.

OP's Timeframe looks rad, but yes on the pricy side. check out trmnl .com for smaller / less expensive options and self hosted options. (disclaimer: i'm on the team)

Yo Ryan! I get your emails! I was just reading this thinking “man he should’ve tried TRMNL”

I love my original one and am planning to get a model X when budget permits

I’m a big fan of TRMNL! The big difference with the Boox device is real-time updates, which make the smart home status information much more useful.

thanks for the support and i hear you. a few folks pointed their Boox at TRMNL[1], and we’re finally in the smart home arena now with free 5 min refresh rate for Home Assistant. aiming for JIT refresh by summer.

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/s/ZSLF7u5pm8

bought trmnl & have been sorely disappointed with the transparency regarding self-hosted options & the availability of functionality. Was led to believe Hanami BYOS was identical to the hosted server. have opened a ticket, have had others voice the same sentiment. I appreciate the effort, but lament the reality of TRMNL & the marketing.

you can import ~700 plugins from core to Terminus (Hanami build) or the Laravel build in 1 click. maybe you came on board before that was a reality. we and the community have been rapidly developing multiple self hosted servers with all kinds of features and in different frameworks for comfort. in no marketing materials have we ever claimed that OSS clients were the same as the main web app. in fact that’s why we offer a BYOD license for the web app only. we’ve invested hundreds of thousands into open source so that people can get the TRMNL experience without paying us a penny.

That's just a perpetual license to use their hosted server. You are free to use your own self hosted server for free.

They should really clean up the phrasing because it sound so sketch, like they're locking device features for money, turns people off easily.

what do you think it should be called? for ~$15 optional one time bucks people get 24/7 access to the entire engineering team, me, prioritized feature dev, and can earn monthly payouts from our Creator Fund. we don’t charge a subscription, obviously i’m partial but this model has serves us well. and most of the developer edition fee goes right back to the community via bounties, perks, etc.

Developer Access or something like that, and put part of your comment in there. I would remove the word Unlock entirely, it implies you’re locking code, as opposed to providing a service.

we call it Developer Edition, i think this is functionality the same. https://trmnl.com/blog/developer-edition

I think you’re mixing that up with the byod key, this is a different thing.