Arduino For Commercial Products

Hello, I have been wondering if there are any imposibilities or requirements to make a commercial use of a an arduino code. I have been paid to make a dvelopment with and arduino MEGA2560, and they want to make a dedicated board design, which I would be making. So, if I make the schematic design with the ATmega2560 and burn the bootloader on it so I can use the code I already wrote, I would like to know, is there any inconvenient if they want to sell the board, and make a mass production of it? I really don't know much about these limitations, they are not seen very much in my country. Is it possible to use the code in this manner? or should I make a new development in another environment? I would like to know as much as I can about this.

Can I build a commercial product based on Arduino?Yes, with the following conditions:Physically embedding an Arduino board inside a commercial product does not require you to disclose or open-source any information about its design.Deriving the design of a commercial product from the Eagle files for an Arduino board requires you to release the modified files under the same Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. You may manufacture and sell the resulting product.Using the Arduino core and libraries for the firmware of a commercial product does not require you to release the source code for the firmware. The LGPL does, however, require you to make available object files that allow for the relinking of the firmware against updated versions of the Arduino core and libraries. Any modifications to the core and libraries must be released under the LGPL.The source code for the Arduino environment is covered by the GPL, which requires any modifications to be open-sourced under the same license. It does not prevent the sale of derivative software or its inclusion in commercial products.In all cases, the exact requirements are determined by the applicable license. Additionally, see the previous question for information about the use of the name Arduino

Using the Arduino core and libraries for the firmware of a commercial product does not require you to release the source code for the firmware. The LGPL does, however, require you to make available object files that allow for the relinking of the firmware against updated versions of the Arduino core and libraries. Any modifications to the core and libraries must be released under the LGPL.

Deriving the design of a commercial product from the Eagle files for an Arduino board requires you to release the modified files under the same Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. You may manufacture and sell the resulting product.

The source code for the Arduino environment is covered by the GPL, which requires any modifications to be open-sourced under the same license. It does not prevent the sale of derivative software or its inclusion in commercial products.

There are quite a few reasons that once you are moving to full production you will want to move away from the Arduino board for your actual product (cost, speed, licensing, etc). The platform was never really intended to implement to be used in this way.. (That being said it has been used in a range of open source commercial products like 3D Printers, etc over the years)

A digital device is a device or system that generates and uses digital timing signals operating at greater than 9,000 cycles per second (9 kHz). Many types of electronic equipment and consumer products are digital devices because they contain circuitry using such digital timing signals.

In this in-depth guide you will discover how to build an Arduino prototype, the pros and cons of using an Arduino in a commercial product, and how to design your own custom PCB that can be mass manufactured.

You should now understand that it is possible to use Arduino to develop embedded applications, even commercial ones. It is a viable alternative to using the native development platform of the embedded microcontroller.

An Arduino based design is not always the right option for every product, such as if your product requires a very fast processor, but for a large percentage of new electronic products it is one of the best ways to quickly build a Proof-of-Concept (POC) prototype without spending a fortune.

Hi, I'm John Teel, founder of Predictable Designs. Millions of products, including from Apple, use my microchip designs. I also brought my own product to market. Now my goal is to help entrepreneurs, startups, makers, inventors, and small companies develop and sell new electronic products.

But actually, if I'm going to use the Arduino libraries, what is wrong with using the entire Arduino IDE for a commercial product? What does programming via the Arduino IDE hide (to make it simpler for the users) that makes it "not trusted" for commercial applications? Or is it a myth?

Totally give up the idea that using Arduino lib in a commercial products. Not only because it's in-efficiently, but also because the Thread Safety is not guaranteed. For example, some variables and data-structures (queue) are not protected from ISR context to main context, which may cause data integrity issue or even random Hard Fault. Although the probability is low, you should still give up the idea unless the quality of your products is not important.

It is not free for commercial use unless you post your own object files so someone else can recreate your image. Of course, that is only for the main Arduino libraries. Many people also use libraries from other sources. Telling clients to use Arduino for commercial development is dangerous without a license survey of the relevant subsystems.

Deriving the design of a commercial product from the Eagle files for an Arduino board requires you to release the modified files underthe same Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. You maymanufacture and sell the resulting product.

Using the Arduino core and libraries for the firmware of a commercial product does not require you to release the source code forthe firmware. The LGPL does, however, require you to make availableobject files that allow for the relinking of the firmware againstupdated versions of the Arduino core and libraries. Any modificationsto the core and libraries must be released under the LGPL.

The source code for the Arduino environment is covered by the GPL, which requires any modifications to be open-sourced under the samelicense. It does not prevent the sale of derivative software or itsinclusion in commercial products.

Often times the counter argument you'll hear from "advanced" people is something like "why would you?" and "the arduino is too expensive to use in a commercial product!" or "the arduino is way underpowered for anything worthy of a commercial product!" or the opposite "the arduino is way overkill for something you could do with a 2 dollar chip!" But to all of those people I say "hogwash"... if the arduino works for your project, and you can find customers who will buy it as a product, go for it. Eventually you'll become more advanced, and you may even agree with one or more of those advanced opinions. But until then, go for it.

LOL. You are not a product designer, if anything, you are just a hobbist working on prototypes. Arduino is great for that. it is ok, for most companies, to design a first prof of concept/prototype using an arduino since no user will ever get to see/use it.

Presence or lack of a convenient developer feature is not the definition of a commercially applicable part. In the days before you were likely born, microcontrollers (or at least microprocessors, depending on your age) existed and were implemented in commercial products that lacked those features.I remember not long ago, NO microcontroller had analog inputs for example.

Is there a good blog post somewhere that goes through the details of the various bootloaders on the Arduinos? Including the (possibly) tricky link/locate modification that have to be made.I want to compile a project totally outside of the arduino IDE, but still be able to drop it onto an Arudino board without needing a reflash. Surely someone has done that?

If the FCC decides to crack down on bootloaders, not being able to use arduinos is going to be the least of your concerns. Basically every computer, much less embedded device, has some form of bootloading going on.

PC104 is a form factor commonly used in a variety of products to enable use of SOC and expansion modules specificaly for the form factor. PC104 is a form factor, not a dev board design. That is like saying all SO-DIMMs are dev boards.

Also, internally to our production environment, I have designed 3 test fixtures that run from Propeller based dev boards. So, used in a production environment to test commercial products, but not sold as commercial products.

Arduinos are great for showing a sales and marketing team a product concept so they can show a customer. However, in all consumer, white goods and toys that I have worked on, the push is to squeeze every penny and even 10ths of pennies (in high volume products) out of the cost of the product.

what an arduino is isnt very much. its an mcu and a means for programming it, a crystal, a voltage regulator and a few leds. these things are not hard to spin into your own project/product and many are not even needed depending on the application (for example you can ditch the crystal if you dont need high performance or precise timing, one i did had an on-board smps rather than a linear regulator like arduino usually has).

i use an adruino as a dev board as it was meant to be used. it gets the project up and running enough where i can cut my own boards and build things the way i want them. one of the first things i did after getting my first arduino (a duemilanove), was to buy a bunch of loose atmega328p chips so that i could make a stand alone version of whatever projects i was working on. after all if i use my arduino i cant very well use it to prototype the next project on strip board. and now im soldering those tqfp packages to home made circuit boards. 2b1af7f3a8