11 March 2021 / Last updated: 11 Mar 2021
balena monthly roundup - March 2021
Hello, dear readers!
This month we launched Offline Updates: update balenafied devices that are in areas where internet connectivity is limited. By popular demand, we also put together a guide on how to set up Datadog’s IoT Agent with balenaCloud to monitor fleet metrics.
As always, we have a number of community spotlights, new apps on balenaHub, and are looking for new teammates to join balena! Read on for more details.
News from balenaHQ
You can now update your balena devices offline
If your devices have limited connectivity by design, we have created a way for you to update your devices offline, while retaining its identity, apps and configurations.
How to monitor your IoT fleet with Datadog and balenaCloud
Do you want to gather and monitor IoT device metrics in real time? Datadog has the answer with their newest monitoring agent built for IoT and edge devices.
Charlie's Tips N Tricks
Every month, Charlie the CLI unicorn gives us a useful product builder tip. This month, we’ll take a look at the
balena-idle utility.Call
balena-idle in your scripts and it’ll keep the container idling:
This is helpful when debugging or if you execute a command that exits immediately! There are options to change to message or interval between each message (
-m and -i).Projects of the month
What’s new on balenaHub this month?
Here’s a round up of all these new projects for you to check out:
- Netstatus - Internet speed & offline status monitor
- Jenkins - Build a Jenkins image with Python 3.7 and OpenJRE11 pre-installed
- Octoprint - Remotely control your 3D printer with Octoprint and balena
- Helium - Deploys a Helium Hotspot (European and US versions available)
Head over to balenaHub to check these new apps out.
Community projects of the month
Train your Raspberry Pi to identify objects
Check out this article on Tom's hardware this month to learn how to use machine learning to teach your Raspberry Pi to identify other objects, including Pis!
Technology to save the planet
This month we were joined on the IoT Happy Hour by a balena user who builds open, accessible and affordable technology for conservation projects, check out the episode featuring footage from their turtle cams!
We talk to the team at Helium!
Check out our latest IoT Happy Hour episode where we invited the team from Helium to teach you to create a hotspot using balena and the new LoRaWAN network that Helium’s community is creating.
Job openings
We’re looking for a number of roles for our growing team. Could any of these fit you?
Check them out or introduce yourself to us via open call. We’d love to get to know you better.
Hang out with us
Join us for IoT Happy Hour
We’re postponing our physical events to practice safe social distancing and keep our team safe and healthy. Instead, meet with us virtually during our weekly IoT Happy Hour!
Every Friday at 16:00 UTC, join our live stream to see IoT project builds, discuss hardware and software, talk shop, answer community questions, and more. All of our previous episodes are available on our YouTube channel, too.
by Team balenaThe global group of product builders that brings you balena