Add support for Arduino, M5Stack, Expressif, ESP32

Feature Requests
1

Noting that balenaCloud is to develop, deploy, manage, and scale fleets of IoT devices. I think there could be space to widen the management platform below Linux to support devices such as those from M5Stack and other microcontrollers using ESP32. This takes in a wide manufacturing base from the likes of Waveshare electronics (actually I’d like their RP2040 range supported too).

Thinking about blocks. The platform currently supports C++ and Python. This parallels well with Arduino and MicroPython. Coral have their Dev Board, which is supported by Balena already, and they are about to release their Dev Board Micro with Arduino support, again parallels.

What I’m imagining is Balena support packs that could be flashed from Arduino (using OEM libraries) to connect devices and then manage them from the cloud. SensiML do something similar in terms of packs.

As an example M5Stack can be flashed from Arduino or OTA. Plugging these HW component and SW element blocks together could make one hell of a combo with balenaCloud. It also opens up a massive sensor ecosystem.

2

This support pack approach could be extended to Pico-based boards too.

3

Even support for ESP32 or similar satellite systems that connect locally on-site to a device running the full balenaOS Stack. Though i suppose this could be implemented as an app/block

4

Chris Crocker-White: In this scenario what would functionality would you want to see balenaCloud offering? I ask as a lot of the functionality today is centred around running containers on Linux, so what are the key parts that would be of value if that was gone?