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TRMNL

Self-hosted server that drives our TRMNL e-ink dashboard displays · https://tr.fmm.house

What it's for

TRMNL is the brain behind the little e-ink screens around the house. This is a self-hosted BYOS (Bring Your Own Server) instance, so we control exactly what each display shows — calendar, weather, and custom plugins — instead of relying on the cloud service. You build a rotating "playlist" of screens in the web UI, and each e-ink device pulls its next image from here on a schedule.

Getting in

  • Open: https://tr.fmm.house — on the home Wi-Fi/LAN, or from anywhere with Tailscale connected.
  • Sign in: Log in with your TRMNL server account. New devices register against this server (see Point a device at this server below).

How to use it

The web UI

  • The dashboard lists your devices and the plugins available to add.
  • Each device has a playlist — the ordered set of screens it cycles through.

Add and arrange plugins on a playlist

  • Browse plugins (weather, calendar, and custom ones) and add the ones you want to a device's playlist.
  • Configure a plugin's settings (e.g. which calendar, which location) when you add it.
  • Reorder the playlist to control the rotation, and remove any screen you don't want.
  • Preview renders as the 1-bit e-ink image so you see roughly what the screen will show.

Point a TRMNL device at this server

  • On the device, set its server / API base URL to https://tr.fmm.house (BYOS mode) instead of the default cloud endpoint.
  • The device registers and then starts fetching its playlist screens from here.

Note

A hardware TRMNL device reaches this server over the network — keep it on the home Wi-Fi (or a path that can resolve tr.fmm.house).

Refresh cadence

  • e-ink updates on an interval (the device's refresh rate), not continuously — that's what keeps battery life long.
  • Change how often a device wakes and pulls a new screen in its settings. Longer intervals = fewer updates but more battery.

Tips

Tip

Design for e-ink: high contrast, big text, and simple layouts read best on a 1-bit black-and-white screen.

  • Don't expect instant updates — after you change a playlist, the device shows it on its next refresh, not immediately.
  • Keep the playlist short and useful; a handful of well-chosen screens beats a long rotation you never finish glancing at.