9 posts authored by “Phil Wilson”

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Recent organisational changes at balena

Balena has been going through a period of change over the past year. The most notable is a change of leadership at the company with Alexandros Marinos stepping down from the role of CEO and moving into an advisory position in the company's board of directors. In his place three of us from the balena team: Chris Crocker-White, Konstaninos Mouzakis and Phil Wilson have stepped up to form the Office…

March 21, 2023 / 3 min

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Blocks: new management functionality and a public roadmap for what's next

Today, our concept for IoT app enablement graduates from a concept to a first-class entity in the balenaCloud dashboard, with plenty of exciting roads still left to travel. It's a long, interesting road for balena Blocks This post is about what you can do with blocks today, why we needed to correct course, and where we are heading with Blocks in the future. Buckle up– here we go! What’s a Block…

March 03, 2022 / 8 min

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balenaLabs Residencies: our quest to improve onboarding at balena

Onboarding is more than learning your new role and meeting teammates. It’s also about managing your own expectations, that of others, and finding a way to get as much context about your new role and company as possible. balenaLabs logo Here's how balena used the feedback and observations of new joiners to try a new way to onboard new teammates and put them on a path toward success. I remember my…

December 02, 2021 / 11 min

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How to make your own balenaBlocks: simple, drop-in edge app functionality

In a previous blog post, we introduced balena Blocks, intelligent, drop-in chunks of app functionality built to handle common tasks. Then we showed off some examples of blocks we have already made (like audio, sensor, and pulse). This post is going to explore the anatomy of a block in more depth, and hopefully inspire more people to make and share their own blocks. balenaBlocks are drop-in bits of…

August 17, 2021 / 8 min

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Introducing balenaBlocks: jumpstart your IoT app development

Our mission at balena is to “reduce friction for fleet owners and unlock the power of physical computing”-- it’s what guides every balenista’s work. However, there’s still complexity to be found in developing applications for your fleet, and we’re on our way toward solving this part of the puzzle. Meet the blocks balenaBlocks are an exploration of what we’ve been working on to reduce the friction…

December 16, 2020 / 11 min

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Build a Scratch server using a Raspberry Pi and balena

Ever wonder what an 8-year-old child would build if you taught them balena? Building their very own Scratch server is at the top of the list. All it took was some encouragement, a Raspberry Pi, and some simple steps. For parents and educators who want to start quickly, our tried-and-true guide steps are available here. Or read on to enjoy the tale of an eight year old boy and his quest to build…

November 19, 2020 / 8 min

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Never lose your stuff again: tracking Bluetooth beacons with a Raspberry Pi

Never lose something important to you again by using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and Raspberry Pi sensors to track your stuff. Are your keys at home or in the office? By following this guide, you’ll soon know. Introduction Contrary to my family’s opinion, I have a terrific memory. I can remember the words and theme tune to almost every 1980’s UK TV advert ever made, for instance. However…

August 18, 2020 / 14 min

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Make a security camera system in 30 minutes or less

Use a single-board computer or spare laptop, a webcam and free software to build your own surveillance system. There are many reasons for wanting security cameras: watching blind spots around your home, keeping a remote eye on your children playing, or finding where the delivery person lobbed your package. In fact, I have all of these reasons and more, so I set out to see how easy it would be for…

August 13, 2020 / 7 min

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Put friends and loved ones on the big screen with this instant video call project

Maybe you know someone who doesn’t know their Hangouts from their Skype, or who doesn’t have any internet connected devices at all, but would love to see you on a video call. How about connecting a TV and webcam to a Raspberry Pi and turning it into a video window you can remotely administer? Let’s go! For some households, having the whole family crowd round a tablet to video call friends or…

April 29, 2020 / 10 min