Using balenaOS with Nitrogen8M Mini

We are pleased to announce a partnership with Balena and provide support for balenaOS on Nitrogen8M Mini. Use this guide to provision balenaOS on the Nitrogen8M Mini successfully. You can also try one of balena’s starter projects via balenaLabs on GitHub to test your newly provisioned board. Get more information on their website.

Please follow the steps below in order to get up and running with a balenaOS on Nitrogen8M Mini

Make a balenaCloud account

Follow the URL:

https://dashboard.balena-cloud.com/signup

Either signup with Google Single Sign-on, Github, or provide an email address to sign up. 

After signing up, you will be redirected to complete your account creation process. 

Create Application

Once signup is complete, you will be taken to a page where you can create your first application as shown below

After signup up,  "Create application" and select Nitrogen8M Mini SBC as the Default Device Type. The balena team recommends users select Starter as Application Type, as it is fully-featured and the first ten devices are free of charge.

Add Device

After signing up, add a device by clicking "Add device."

 

A window will appear with default selections. We recommend using a Development image so that the serial console will be enabled (Production image has the console disabled).

Download balenaOS image

Click "Download balenaOS" at the bottom of previous screenshot. As a result, the Nitrogen8M Mini Balena BSP will be downloaded:

balena-cloud--nitrogen8mm-2.47.1+rev3-dev-v10.6.27.img.zip

Flash image

Extract the .zip image to generate the .img file and flash to SD Card using balenaEtcher:

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Plug in Ethernet and power on device

Make sure you have a CAT-5 cable connected to the Ethernet port to access the internet.

Verify device shows up on balena Dashboard

After powering on device, it should connect to the to internet. After a few moments, you should see your device in the balenaCloud Dashboard via the following link:

https://dashboard.balena-cloud.com/apps

Verify Post Provisioning state

Click on your app (Test_App) under Applications. After powering on the OS will enter "Post Provisioning" state which means it will flash the internal eMMC with the OS. Once complete, you will see Post Provisioning status:

Note: The name "cool-sea" is an arbitrary name given to the device and can be modified.

Verify flashing to internal eMMC and online status

Now you may power off board, remove the SD card and reapply power. If flashing was successful, after a moment you should see the device online:

Remote controls

Finally, you can now click on the device (cool-sea link under Name field) and remotely reboot, open a console etc:

So there you have it! You are now up and running with a balenaOS on Nitrogen8M Mini.

Try a project using balena and the Nitrogen8M Mini

Now that you’ve successfully loaded balenaOS onto the Nitrogen8M Mini and have created an application on balenaCloud, put the board to the test!

To get more information about balena and its products, you can check out their website.

If you have any issues, please email support@boundarydevices.com