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TRMNL's site seems to think there is not a cost-savings to build-your-own. They don't appear to include the licensing cost though. From their site:

> Making your own TRMNL from scratch is not an economically rational decision, but rather a labor of love. Our own team learned this the hard fun way while building v1 over 7 months, from Dec 2023 to July 2024.

> Here's what you can expect to spend per component:

> • Battery, $5 (unnecessary if you prefer plugged in)

> • EPD screen, $65 (see the Waveshare 7.5" on Amazon)

> • Microcontroller, $3-50 (depends if you build/solder yourself or leverage a PCB prototyper)

> • Enclosure/case, $3-20 (design + 3D print yourself or use a print farm)

> I could have my own TRMNL for under $80, or, if you factor in my time, around $5,000, which is a bargain

I love the self awareness.

I'm trying to be better about factoring in my time, largely unsuccessfully.

E.g. I just spent $200 of my time trying to trade in an iphone at the apple store (the Apple Store sucks now and has terrible processes). Value of trade in: $200

> $20 “developer edition” license which “unlocks their API”. I expected this upgrade to give me API access so I could retrieve the image that’s displayed of my device, but that’s not actually the case, and you need a $50 “virtual device” license for that.

I cannot find a mention of the developer edition. I own a TRMNL and use the api for free (I assume because I have a device) and then they offer a lifetime $50 license to use their backend with your own device. I think that's fair.

Also, I don't quite understand their back ordering information. I ordered mine and got it less than a week later even though they said it was back ordered.

This is neat--what's the typical refresh rate/update speed for the image service?

Is the API is basically "Push PNG to server, PNG displays on whiteboard?"