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Balena Installation

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Alex Markessinis edited this page Apr 18, 2019 · 4 revisions

Before you begin:

  • Install the Pi into it's case
  • Install the probe you've chosen, this is the GPIO Pinout configuration that I used: GPIO Pinout
  • Install balenaEtacher on the computer you'll use to flash the SD card
  • Ensure that you have created an account at Balena.io
  • Ensure you have the balina-cli installed

Balena Installation

Create the Application

Start by creating a new application on your Balena dashboard. I'll be calling mine PiProbes. Select Raspberry Pi 3 for the device type. Leave the project type as Starter.

Enable the 1-Wire interface

Enable the 1-Wire interface for your whole fleet by adding RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_dtoverlay = w1-gpio to your fleet configuration.

Create a Device Image and Flash it

Create a device image by clicking the + Add Device button within your application. Select either Development or Production for the image type. I'll be using Production. Enable wireless if desired and enter your Wifi credentials. Then download the image.

GIF credit

After the image has downloaded, open balenaEtcher, select the image zip file, ensure the right disk is selected, and finally then flash it.

GIF credit

Once the image has flashed, insert the SD card into your Pi and turn it on. You'll see it populate in the devices section of your dashboard.

Deploy the project

Authorize the balena-cli with your account. You only need to do this the first time you use the belena-cli.

Clone this repo to your machine, enter that directory and checkout to the latest tag. Then deploy piProbe to your application, in my example the application name is PiProbes.

git clone https://github.com/MelonSmasher/piProbe.git && cd piProbe;
git checkout $(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`);
balena deploy PiProbes;

Configure your Application

From the Balena console configure your fleet service variables (not device service variables). Add the following variables:

Fleet Service Variables

Service Name Required Default Value Valid Values Description
piProbe INFLUXDB_HOST Yes "" STRING The ip or hostname of your InfluxDB server
piProbe INFLUXDB_PORT No 8086 INT The port InfluxDB is listening on
piProbe INFLUXDB_USER No "" STRING The InfluxDB user used to authenticate
piProbe INFLUXDB_PASSWORD No "" STRING The InfluxDB user password
piProbe INFLUXDB_DB Yes False STRING The db name where the measurements will be stored
piProbe INFLUXDB_INTERVAL No 10 INT The interval to measure data and write to InfluxDB
piProbe INFLUXDB_SSL No False STRING: Yes/No Should the client use ssl to connect to InfluxDB?
piProbe INFLUXDB_SSL_VERIFY No False STRING: Yes/No Should the client verify ssl to certs on InfluxDB?
piProbe GPIO_PIN No 4 INT The GPIO 1-Wire pin
piProbe GPIO_SENSOR Yes "" STRING: DHT11/DHT22/AM2302 The sensor model

Next navigate back to your devices, select your Pi, and click on Service Variables. From here you'll fill out the INFLUXDB_LOCATION_TAG for this device. This lets you know where the device is physically located when you query the database. The value can be any string.

Device Service Variables

Service Name Required Default Value Valid Values Description
piProbe INFLUXDB_LOCATION_TAG Yes "" STRING where is this probe? living room, the moon, Winterfel? Fill this out so you know where the probe is.

After Filling out the variables, the piProbe service will restart automatically on your device and it will begin reporting to your InfluxDB server!

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