Hello,
I have an idea to create a toy based on an arduino. However, using an arduino is expensive in a toy. I am interested to know il it is possible to build arduino in pcb manufacturer for very low cost (few euros) (for 1000 pieces for exemple).
Do you know if it is possible ?
Do know pcb manufacturer in France or in Europe who could do that ?
Thank you in advance
hello
You could contact us (the arduino team) and we could manufacture for you at a cost which will be
lower that you can get from other manufacturers (our manufacturer already makes thousands of arduinos)
remeber that as an open source project , arduino requires you to open up the source and the design for the board....
if you dont want to do so you need to negotiate a commercial license with us...
you can contact me at m.banzi (at) arduino (dot) cc
massimo
Papynoel, for deployment of Arduino projects, it is better if you design a "runtime" version of the Board, which by definition is going to cost less than the Arduino per se. You don't need the full Arduino functionality if you are not doing continuous development in the FINAL toy.
nkcelectronics, What I need is to have 10 digital pins. I don't need the arduion analog pin.
The toy will be always pluged in usb. Maybe a runtime version of the board will be better but I don't tking that it will be very less expesive. (but mabye I'am wrong because I am not an electronic expert).
Do you know where I could find sample of runtime design of the board ? and how much it could cost ?
Why do you need it connected to USB all the time? Is it going to interact with a PC or Mac? The USB logic is used basically for communicating the Arduino board with the host (PC/Mac) during the development phase, but when you deploy your product, you can completely eliminate it and reduce the cost (my guess is that you can reduce it to half) and also reduce the size of the board also to aprox half or less. A basic Arduino runtime needs only the ATMEGA8/168, clock, resistor for the reset pin and a regulated (1.7v - 5v) power (something similar to mini-arduino, but with a less-prototype-like format).
It is because I want to control the toy from the PC.
If you have an other solution that the arduino, it is welcome 
A wireless solution would be the best but I think that a usb version will be less expansive. :-/
There are some new Atmel AVR microcontrollers with USB included in the same chip (AT90USBnnn). I saw the 8K and 16K equivalent models for around the same price as Atmega8 and Atmega168... less components = less cost = less potential HW failures. The bootloader is still needed if you want to distribute future patches to the toy so end-users can upgrade the microcontroller themselves. If you don't need the upgradeability, then you can eliminate the bootloader so your application starts right away, without waiting the 5 second delay of the bootloader.
thank you, that's very interessting. Moreover, it is only 1.45$ / chip. :D. It is less expensive that the microchip PIC. I'm going to try to find sample pcb with this chip.