Hey everyone! 
I’m considering using the balena platform for a project I’m working on and would love some advice from the experienced balena and container specialists here. Here’s a quick overview of what I’m aiming to do:
- The project involves using a Raspberry Pi to control a 3D printing platform via USB connection.
- The Raspberry Pi will be connected to a 7-inch touchscreen display. I want to display a control panel with buttons for actions like start, stop, and more.
- The Raspberry Pi will also be connected to a camera to monitor the printing progress. The app should alert the control app if something goes wrong so the platform can stop.
- In the future, I plan to build a web server (likely on Azure) that allows users to upload new 3D printing job files, which will then be sent to the Raspberry Pi to execute.
My questions are:
- Is it possible to build such a setup with balena?
- How would you structure the components of this architecture? Would you use separate containers for each feature like the “recorder app” and “platform control app”?
- Could you share a possible starter setup to test this?
- how would you build the GUI app? as a web app? or with qtpy?
Thanks in advance for your help! 