doov:
Awesome! Thanks for the info. Is there any pin that goes high/low to indicate that avrdude and the arduino finished programming and everything is good (besides the sketch running)? I'd like to use that to enable a bluetooth modem which sits on the uart. If it's enabled during programming then it screws with avrdude (presumably because it's driving the tx line at the same time that avrdude is trying to drive the same line.). Thanks!
No there is not. There is a upload completed message printed on the IDE status line if there are no errors. If you have an extra I/O pin you could just use one to light a led in the setup part of the sketch to signal that the sketch has started, and analog input pins can be used as extra digital pins if pin counts get short.
Lefty