Questions
How licences, devices and apps fit together. If yours is not here, ask us — the good ones end up on this page.
Buying and licences
What am I actually buying?
A licence for an app that runs on your own hardware. There is no subscription and no account tier - you buy the app once and it stays yours.
Apps come from this store and install onto a board you own. Nothing runs on our servers, and nothing stops working if you take the board off the network.
Is a licence tied to one device?
Paid apps are licensed per device: one licence runs the app on one board. If you have three boards and want the app on all three, that is three licences.
Free apps are licensed per account instead, so you can install them on every board you own.
Can I move an app to a different board?
Yes. A licence is bound to a device when you install it, and you can release it from that device and bind it to another from My apps.
That is also the answer if a board dies or you replace it - release the licence from the old one and bind it to the new.
Can I try an app before buying it?
Where an app offers a trial, its store page says so and how long the trial runs. The trial installs on one of your devices so you can see it working on your own panel.
One trial per app per account. When it expires the app stops running and the licence you buy afterwards is an ordinary one.
Do I need an account to look around?
No. Browsing the store, reading reviews and looking at the device register need no account at all.
You sign in to buy, to install an app on a device, and to manage the devices on your account.
How do payments work?
Checkout happens on a secure payment page hosted by our payment provider. Card details are handled there and never reach this site.
Once the payment completes, the licence appears in My apps, ready to install on a device.
Devices and flashing
Which boards does this run on?
The ones on the device register, each of which has been brought up and tested on real hardware rather than assumed to work from a datasheet.
Every product page also lists the boards that particular app fits, and says why an unsupported board does not - usually chip, panel size or a missing feature like a speaker.
Does my board's revision matter?
Sometimes, yes. A few boards ship under one name with different hardware inside - display control pins move between revisions, and flash size varies.
Where that is true, the device register says which revision is which and what marking to look for on the board itself. It is worth checking before flashing.
How do I install the firmware?
From the browser, over USB. Plug the board in, pick it on the flash page, and the firmware is written straight from this site - nothing to download and nothing to install first.
This needs a browser with Web Serial support, which today means Chrome or Edge on a desktop. Some boards also need a USB serial driver, and the flash page says which.
What does flashing erase?
Installing firmware replaces the firmware. Apps you have installed live on a separate area of the board's flash and normally survive.
Changing to a build with a different partition layout is the exception, and the flasher tells you when that is the case.
Can I use my own board?
If it is not on the register, it is not supported yet - but the register is how it would get there. Get in touch with the board and we will look at what bringing it up involves.
Apps
How do apps get onto a device?
From My apps. Pick the device, and the app is fetched and installed the next time the board is online.
The board needs to be claimed to your account first, which happens during flashing.
Do apps work without the internet?
Installing an app needs a network connection. After that it depends on the app: something that draws a clock or a photo does not need the network, and something that shows the weather or your task list obviously does.
Each product page says what an app needs.
Some apps ask for a token. Why?
Apps that show data from another service - your tasks, your machine's sensors - need permission to read it, and that permission is a token you create in that service.
Where an app needs one, its product page can send it to the board over the USB cable, so you do not have to type it on a touchscreen.
Reviews and your account
Who can write a review?
Anyone who owns the app, including on a free app or a trial. Reviews say which of those it was, and which board the reviewer ran it on, because that is the most useful thing another buyer can read.
One review per app per person, and you can edit or take yours down at any time.
What happens to a photo I attach to a review?
It is re-encoded before it is stored, which removes the metadata your phone attached - including where the photo was taken.
Every review is read by a person before it appears, so there is a short wait between posting one and seeing it on the page. Editing a published review sends it back to be checked again.
Is the firmware free?
Yes. The firmware framework and board support that the devices run are free. You can flash them from your browser without buying anything.
The store, the apps sold through it and the platform behind them are the commercial part. The What's under the hood section on the home page lists the parts.
Something else?
We would rather answer it than have you guess. Questions about a specific board are usually quickest with its name and what it is doing.
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