Works with TRMNL | Seeed Studio Wiki

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Works with TRMNL | Seeed Studio Wiki

This article describes how to use the epaper panel to work with TRMNL.

https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_7_5_inch_epaper_panel_with_trmnl/

[mhatrey]

I'm facing issues white trying to install the TRMNL firmware:
1/ Easy method does not work. Installing Firmware proceeds, and upon finishing does nothing.
2/ Pre-Built Method: When I download the pre-built file and unzip it, MacOS creates empty folder. Windows states there is nothing to extract
3/ Advanced: After cloning the git and installing the Platform IO, there is no environment "seeed_xiao_esp32c3". None other environment work

Can you please verify if each of these options work

[olawalebotcmd]

reflashed with 1.5.5, still not working screen not refreshing or updating at all. I can connect to the device to configure wifi and get Mac address. but nothing shows on the screen

[mhatrey]

Same thing for me. Flashed with 1.5.5, Could configured the Wifi, but no change in screen. Then after I tried reflashing it, but it appears the ESP32C3 is borked. It would not upload new firmware. Console logs give me errors

Error reading from serial port: Error: Read timeout exceeded

This is on both my Seeed Studio Xiao epaper devices. I tried suggestions from the forums - change of laptop, change of USB wires as well as USB ports. Nothing is working at the moment while uploading new firmware.

[ExposureSetLong]

This is weird, but I let it rest for 2 days and ESP32C3 started uploading the firmware. This time I followed the pre-compiled method and it worked. Got both my Seeed Studio, connected to wifi. It now flashes a screen

Wifi Connected, TRMNL not responding.

I'm already running Terminus (hanami) Server (BYOS/D and not purchased BYOD) . I will continue my troubleshooting on this, but it seems it is getting there.

[olawalebotcmd]

i purchased the BYOD license, due to me not being savvy enough at the moment to do a BYOS without a user friendly tutorial

[mhatrey]

Closing the loop on this Thread. I could successfully deploy TRMNL firmware on the Seeed Studio device using Method 3. The missing pieces were:

• If you purchased BYOD TRMNL license, then you have to make a note of the MAC ID of the Seeed device and add it in TRMNL device dashboard (along with the purchased Device ID from BYOD license)

• If you do not want to purchase BYOD TRMNL license and instead want to BYOS with BYOD, then during the wifi Captive portal, please hit "Customer Server"

[PhyberApex]

FYI I did the self compile and everything worked for me but I am using it with a BYOS not the official server + BYOD.

[PhyberApex]

Oh well they are doing their best I guess. Try to keep the mood light, even though it might be frustrating they are still offering something great here!

[olawalebotcmd]

you are right, and i like what they are doing. will keep buying devices from them! i am sure it will get fixed and i will try to curb my impatience

[limengdu]

@olawalebotcmd Hello, thank you for your support and interest in our products. Are you encountering any issues with the documentation section? I'll do my best to assist you. Regarding your mention about us not providing documentation for "BYOS not the official server + BYOD," let me briefly explain. This content was developed as part of our commercial partnership program with TRMNL, primarily aimed at mutual benefit. From a collaboration perspective, we prefer that users purchasing devices do so through License-based access to the platform. Of course, we don't mind users adopting other methods, such as setting up their own servers, but for this approach we'd recommend referring to TRMNL's official documentation for deployment. We appreciate your understanding.

[mhatrey]

From a collaboration perspective, we prefer that users purchasing devices do so through License-based access to the platform.

Heavy +1 on this. As someone who has tried both the flavors: BYOS w/BYOD, and TRMNL license for BYOD, I wholeheartedly recommend buying BYOD license from TRMNL. The platform they created is amazing and offers much ease of use. Plus I'm always happy to support good developers like this. I bought 2 licenses for my Seeed Studio devices, even though I have a BYOS setup (which will be primarily used for plugins development)

[olawalebotcmd]

@limengdu hello and thank you for the reply .. i am not talking about setting up BYOS servers. i am simple pointing out that at the moment
1, the easy method number 1 to flash the trmnl firmware at https://usetrmnl.com/flash does not work but you present it in the documentation as working , this causes confusion
2, Method 2: Flash Pre-built Firmware, does not work if the current wiki is followed

[Shillingtons]

Has anyone got this to work with 1.5.5 yet?

[limengdu]

Hello, could you please let us know what issues you encountered with Method 2? We will continue to improve the documentation content based on the problems identified.
Currently, it appears that Method 1 doesn't work because TRMNL's flash page is only compatible with their own devices, not Seeed's. We are discussing how to optimize this.

[limengdu]

Great news, TRMNL will soon release version 1.5.6, which will officially support Seeed's devices!

[mhatrey]

Hello, could you please let us know what issues you encountered with Method 2? We will continue to improve the documentation content based on the problems identified. Currently, it appears that Method 1 doesn't work because TRMNL's flash page is only compatible with their own devices, not Seeed's. We are discussing how to optimize this.

For a normal user that runs unzip from GUI, the output is just a folder with hidden files.

If you run unzip command in termnial in macOS you get this error End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive

% ls -lah TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mhatrey staff 738K Jun 3 21:50 TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip
% unzip TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip
Archive: TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip
End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not
a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the
latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
the last disk(s) of this archive.

To be sure I'm not missing anything here I also ran 7-Zip

 % 7zz x TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip

7-Zip (z) 24.09 (x64) : Copyright (c) 1999-2024 Igor Pavlov : 2024-11-29
 64-bit locale=en_US.UTF-8 Threads:12 OPEN_MAX:256

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 755624 bytes (738 KiB)

Extracting archive: TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip

ERRORS:
Unexpected end of archive

--
Path = TRMNL_XIAO_7.5inch_epaper_panel_1.5.4.zip
Type = zip
ERRORS:
Unexpected end of archive
Physical Size = 755624
Characteristics = Local

    
Would you like to replace the existing file:
  Path:     ./seeed_xiao_esp32c3/.DS_Store
  Size:     6148 bytes (7 KiB)
  Modified: 2025-05-27 22:00:08
with the file from archive:
  Path:     seeed_xiao_esp32c3/.DS_Store
  Size:     6148 bytes (7 KiB)
  Modified: 2025-05-20 02:25:33
? (Y)es / (N)o / (A)lways / (S)kip all / A(u)to rename all / (Q)uit? N

      

Archives with Errors: 1

Open Errors: 1

As stated in the Original/First thread, the zip file seems broken

[olawalebotcmd]

@limengdu in method two and in your wikis in general ,
1, part of the baseline problem is you miss some steps that some of us as non programmers that love your devices do not know to do. You have to let people following the wiki know they have to first install python and then install esptool software for what ever system they are using as the first and second step.
2, your zip links or zip file has issues , it took me multiple try’s and download on mac and pc to just get a working folder with the expected files
3, remove option 1 totally until trmnl gets their firmware working with the seeed devices, it just confuses the issues for people first arriving to the wiki.

thank you for making fun devices

[limengdu]

We have recreated the compressed file, you can try it again

[digitalurban]

Methods one failds and Method 2 does not work on a Mac - the folders are empty?

[mhatrey]

@digitalurban - This is because, the TRMNL flashed seeed studio is making a connection to trmnl.app, but the MAC ID presented by this device is not registered with TRMNL.

a/ If you bought TRMNL BYOD license, add a device in TRMNL device dashboard with the device ID given to you and the MAC ID of the device.

b/ If you want to do BYOS with BYOD, then when you are entering Wifi creds in the captive pop-up during first initialization there is an option to enter details of BYOS server. You need to do that if you didn’t purchased TRMNL license forBYOD license BYOD

[digitalurban]

Got it! that worked thanks - i missed out the Mac address part - now working :)

[olawalebotcmd]

I have a work commitment today, but could do that tomorrow.

Much appreciated and thank you.. you are a hero

[mhatrey]

@olawalebotcmd - Here is a short video tutorial I made. I hope this is helpful!

[olawalebotcmd]

@mhatrey great and thanks very much!

[mukul-k]

Has 1.5.6 been released yet? When trying option 1, I am able to get to the TRMNL wifi selection stage and input my wifi credentials, but the screen never changes. It almost appears the display is some sort of boot loop. I could not get option 2 to work at all and option 3 is a bit over my head. I would prefer to be able to flash with the website, but as I understand it v1.5.6 is what is needed?

[limengdu]

Please pay attention to the announcements and information released by TRMNL.

[mukul-k]

I saw 1.5.6 was released which was supposed to support the XIAO 7.5" display, however after flashing successfully and connecting with my wifi credentials, I still have nothing on the screen. Not sure where to go from here?

[Allen-Kuang]

Option 1, TRMNL team is fixing it. We will let you know when it is done. About option 2, could you kindly provide some pictures or message about why it doesn't work? We will help you to fix that.

[Allen-Kuang]

I tried option 2 and it works. You need to plug your device to your computer first and go into the folder and open terminal. Input commands like the following images(same as our wiki).

[olawalebotcmd]

@Allen-Kuang.. I am trying to point out that option two will not work if
1, python dev is not installed first
2, esp tool is not installed second : https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/esp32/installation.html
A note to make people aware of this would be helpful, 99 percent of error message is because none developers are not aware of this. Thanks for all the help

[hyacin75]

That warning needs to be a LOT further up the article. Came to it too late and the device had already OTA flashed. Is this ewaste now? fml

[hyacin75]

When I do the hold boot, press reset, release reset, release boot, WITHOUT then power cycling - I'm able to select the serial port with no errors, but both the web TRMNL flasher, and my old firmware from Home Assistant just spin their wheels ... HA is "Connecting" never ending, and the TRMNL flasher is "Preparing installation" forever and never moving forward.

I also tried "holding the boot button while selecting the serial port" as I saw somewhere, and that didn't help either.

If this is $100 in ewaste now, this is for sure the last product I'm ever buying from Seeed. Had nothing but headaches and disappointment with a bunch of mmWave sensors I purchased too. :-(

[hyacin75]

Trying "method 2" it doesn't even get to flashing I don't think - after the build it craps out every time with "Error: The program size (1206034 bytes) is greater than the maximum allowed (1048576 bytes)"

[hyacin75]

Building 1.5.6, which the web flasher had flashed successfully before the OTA clobber, I can get around the program size error, but when it tries to flash I get a "Write timeout"

[hyacin75]

k, thankfully was able to resolve by opening the panel up, pulling the ESP32 off the expansion board thing, pressing and holding the boot button directly, and then plugging in the USB - it then flashed normally.

[nfs0619]

Thanks for sharing the details, and we’re glad to hear you were able to get it working. We’ll take your suggestion on the documentation into account for future improvements. If you encounter any further issues, please feel free to reach out to our technical support at [email protected] — they can provide quick and detailed assistance.

[charlestsai1995]

Installed firmware version 1.5.6 which is the only available one on the web flasher. The boot button does not work.

[dsamarin1]

If you are having flashing issues, open the case and remove the XIAO board from its socket, then hold BOOT button and plug into USB. This was the only way I was able to flash the firmware via the web serial trmnl website, something on the carrier board is not allowing usb flash.