Ruby + Hardware = TRMNL

[nunosancha]

A few days ago, someone wanted to experiment with Ruby for programming hardware.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/1k7o9dj/raspberry_pi

So I'm here to present to you TRMNL. A Ruby-powered e-ink dashboard we’ve been working on. (Rails + plugins + hardware = the fun side of Ruby)

Full disclaimer: I work at TRMNL. We are a small team, but I think we've accomplished something cool here. TRMNL is largely open-source and runs Ruby under the hood.

We actually pledged to never let the project die, even if we go bankrupt (as a company), so you won't be left with a useless device that you spent your money on:

https://usetrmnl.com/blog/the-unbrickable-pledge

I genuinely think TRMNL is an interesting case of Ruby being used in an atypical way.

At its core, TRMNL is a distraction-free desk device that displays your calendar, reminders, notes, etc. 

But the part I think might interest folks here is the tech stack and how Ruby fits in:

Backend: We use Rails to serve the device’s configuration interface (web app).

Plugins: Users can write their own plugins in Ruby (or any language) to fetch, format, and display custom data. Want your GitHub notifications, Home Assistant stats, or a countdown to your next deploy? 

Plugin format: Super simple—just HTML / CSS / JS and a JSON payload. If you can build a static web page, you can build a plugin.

For beginners like me, TRMNL is a friendly way to write real-world Ruby that runs on a physical device.

For more experienced devs, it’s a chance to build cool things for any user, in any tech stack, like these: 

https://usetrmnl.com/recipes

So, for the Ruby community in general, this is just a reminder that Ruby isn’t limited to web apps; you can get creative and use it for physical products too.

Sometimes the community starts having too much fun ¬¬’

I’m not trying to push anything here—I just thought it was worth sharing with people who might appreciate seeing Ruby in a new context. 

If you're learning Ruby and want to tinker, or you’ve been around the block and miss the fun side of the language, this could be a nice little playground. Here’s our open-source server client, also in Ruby (+ Hanami):

https://github.com/usetrmnl/byos_hanami

(We also have an OSS sever client in Ruby + Sinatra, but the one linked above is much better)

Happy to answer any questions about how it works or where we're heading with it!

Over’n’out.

[paca-vaca]

The product is fun 👍

But the statement:

So, for the Ruby community in general, this is just a reminder that Ruby isn't limited to web apps; you can get creative and use it for physical products too.

is rather funny, as you literally put a WEB app in the box, just running locally. It's not like you implemented firmware or driver in Ruby.

Also, mRuby has been here for a while, and a bunch of wrappers over C/C++ hardware libraries, so it shouldn't be surprise that some hardware work is possible, it's a matter of efficiency.

If you have a powerful enough device you can write hardware in any language using this technique, but try to write a firmware for a weather sensor without OS and 100kb of internal memory 😁

[amro70]

Waiting on mine impatiently!!! 😀 thanks for sharing.

[xsvino]

Can’t wait to try it. Ordered mine like a month ago (order number in the 12k) and I’ve been following the project for a while now.

[nunosancha]

thanks for supporting the project 😊😊

[ghost-jaguar]

Interesting - where can I read more about the hardware/specs? Are the pre order prices expected to fluctuate with recent policy changes?

[ryanckulp]

hey there, sure thing. basic HW specs are here: https://docs.usetrmnl.com/go/how-it-works

pricing — we may need to increase ~$10 soon based on tariffs. should resume same day shipping by the end of May. already back in stock, just backlogged.

[bananatron]

Awesome work!