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I'm developing an industrial project and my programming knowledge is limited to arduino.

I'm planning to use either Atmega328 or STM32F103C8T6 chip in my pcb and to program it using arduino IDE. My plan is just to use Arduino IDE to create sketches and programming the chip after burning arduino bootloader.

Is this concept viable for industrial environments? Are there any problems/challenges using this method?

4 Answers 4

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You don't talk about Arduino hardware. Your concern is the Arduino IDE.

Which is a lawyer's licensing topic. Might depend on the libraries you plan to use. And whether you want to hide the fact you're using (selling ?) open source software.

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I don't think there are any major problems with your proposal. The chips themselves will have documented limitations (specifications) that you would need to be aware of. I think you would find that most manufacturers of washing machines, toasters, TVs etc. do not also manufacture processor chips, so they too would be relying on commercially-available chips such as the ones you mentioned.

This brings us to the IDE. It is basically a "wrapper" around a C++ compiler which is available for anyone to use in any project. The Arduino libraries themselves may have licensing you would need to be aware of, the same as if you used a library not associated with the Arduino.

See this page: Licensing for products based on Arduino:

Note:

  • You can freely use Arduino hardware and software for your personal purposes, or within your company or organization, with no restrictions. The rules described in this document apply only when you distribute products based on Arduino to third parties or you make them public in any form.
  • If you comply with the open-source licenses of Arduino, you can distribute your software/hardware products for free or commercially. This document provides a summary of such rules for your convenience and does not waive the need to get professional legal advice.

I am not a lawyer, and if you are worried about the legal aspects I suggest you get legal advice. However I doubt that a small-scale project would warrant anyone getting their lawyers involved. For one thing, it would be hard to prove that the 0s and 1s on your chip were produced using the Arduino IDE, or any of its libraries.

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The chips should work fine, however it depends on how things are assembled, what parts are used, ambient temperature, cooling and electronic protection. For reference here is what I use: Hobby: 0°C to 50°C Commercial: 0 ° to 70 °C. Industrial: −40 ° to 85 °C. Military: −55 ° to 125 °C. Automotive: -40°C to 175°C, location dependent. Without a complete set of specifications, schematic, and component information I cannot give you a yes or no answer.

At this point you should realize it will not be a slam dunk simple project.

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Industrial environments can be hostile to electronics that aren't "hardened" against the potential hazards. There is no one answer to this without knowing the specific environment. Will it be controlling heavy electrical machinery (even if not switching the power). You'll need to know more about the intended environment to know whether and how you can harden your electronics to it.

But if nothing else, Arduino is terrific for prototyping things that, once the concept is proven, might then have to be re-built to a higher standard for production use.

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    If the project is also going to have a commercial aspect to it you may also want to look at some of the licensing models applicable to Arduino projects.
    – 6v6gt
    Aug 5 at 18:39

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