Ok, Arduino is a good technology but is it used professionally? Is the quality good enough to be used for professional purposes?
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1Quite a few 3d printers have the circuitry of an Arduino and a special motor/heater driver shield combined to form their main circuit board.– Chris StrattonMay 28, 2014 at 20:09
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3 Answers
In theory, an Arduino board could be used in some low-end professional products (i.e. where the performance and memory limitations aren't an issue). The build quality of the official boards is certainly good enough. The only issue they would potentially have is making suitably robust connections -- i.e. anything plugged into a female header would have the potential to get shaken loose.
In practice though, using an Arduino board would only make sense for extremely small-scale projects, where only a few units will be produced, and where there will be a minimum of external circuitry.
A commercial project would normally have a custom circuit board designed. That allows them to economise on space and features, eliminating unnecessary costs. Even if it only saves a small amount per board, it can make a big difference if you're doing mass-production.
With that said, a professional product could certainly use an AVR microcontroller or similar at its heart (much like the Arduino boards). Atmel was producing chips long before Arduino was around, and their products are well known and widely used. The choice really depends on the needs of the individual project.
answered May 28, 2014 at 11:54
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5We are doing this right now, and it's more than a few cents difference. Our prototype (Arduino, sensors, wiring) costs about $45. Our boards will cost about $5 and could be cheaper if we make a lot of them.– JasmineMay 28, 2014 at 16:58
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1@Jasmine - Thanks for sharing some real values. I've clarified my wording so it's hopefully better now. May 28, 2014 at 19:31
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3Just to be totally clear... that's the retail cost of Arduino boards and breakout boards, along with prototyping tools like breadboards and wires. The $5 is a hard price point to hit, and most of that is the Atmel chip, but that's our estimate for wholesale cost of our boards. The product itself needs a case and some documentation as well as packaging, so don't forget to add that in.– JasmineMay 28, 2014 at 20:04
Yes, you can also use an Arduino for professional usage. The Arduino is actually just a prototyping device and easy to use for people at home/school. I suppose there might be products on the market which were developed using an Arduino. But the most important thing is the Atmel MCU inside the Arduino which can be used for anything. But, if you wanna know if the ATmega328P-PU which is used in the Arduino Uno is a common MCU used by professionals? The answer would be no. Everything has to be smaller and better so it'll be more likely to find the same MCU like the Arduino Leonardo, Mega etc etc.
Examples where professionals might use an Arduino for as base (The end product will only contain the MCU of the Arduino):
- Kid toys like an Simon Says Game, Line following toy cars etc etc.
- Small industrial products like an automated tape dispenser.
- AVR programmers.
- Card readers.
Yes, I work for an engineering design house and we use Arduino frequently to prototype ideas for clients. It significantly speeds up the time to get a proof-of-concept device in the hands of the client and their potential investors.
We have found though that there is significant work to get from an Arduino-based prototype to a commercially-ready product. Essentially you have to start again and design a completely custom printed circuit board, which is a relatively expensive exercise.
We are now developing a platform that is compatible with the Arduino IDE, but uses surface-mount modules rather than the Arduino shield system, allowing it to be manufactured in an automated surface-mount facility. Check it out if you are interested at duinopro.cc. We are in development stages at the moment, but already have hardware and are mainly working on our website, and designing new modules.
