Hi, new guy here! If I were to develop a product using arduino, then make it standalone would that be a problem with regards to the arduino licence, I have tried to find out but can't seem to find a definitive answer.
I am not a programmer by any strech so arduino seems to be the ideal solution as it seems quite simple to develop even for a donut like me. What I would like to do is develop using the arduino then make a custom board with just the coded atmega, is that ok or not? I am thinking it is not ok from what I have read because of the libraries, bootloader etc, but is there another way to do it, like converting the program to another format or something?
I apologise if this all sounds vague and naive but I am really new to this kind of thing, I would welcome any suggestions if there are any other ways to program a microcontroller in a simplistic way.
I have looked at pic's but I do not think there are any quick and easy programming front ends for those.
The product I am thinking of making is a kind of midi controller.
My understanding is that you are free to make and use the board designs as you wish, including commercial use.
The core software is licensed under the LGPL and there are a few minor obligations attached to that, see this thread for a discussion: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1232672092
As a "small business", I do not think I would hesitate to sell a (closed source) product based on an Arduino core and the Arduino libraries, in spite of it being slightly contrary to the terms of the LGPL. It is clear (to me) that the intent of the Arduino community is not to prevent such products (though if you get into the third-party libraries, you might want to check with their individual authors.) And it seems likely that the worst that would happen is that I'd have to jump through some technical hoops to release re-linkable versions of my object files to requesting customers.
But I'm NOT a small business, OR a lawyer. The "messiness" of LGPL as applied to statically linked embedded binaries has NOT been well tested in court (or even in public discussion) (this I know thanks to "Open Source Training" at the Big Company I work at), so it will end up being a judgment call that YOU have to make.
Or you could release an "open source" product, in which case you're free and clear, legally speaking.
Thanks guys, I am a long way off from a finished product yet and did not want to get stuck in only to find out that it was not possible.
I think I will try to do it without using any 3rd party libraries, but I would probably make it open source anyway, provided it is straightforeward to do so.
I will try to do it without using any 3rd party libraries
You don't have to AVOID 3rd party libraries, you just have to be careful about reading their individual license arrangements. For instance, since I'm particularly sensitive to the whole "LGPL vs Embedded" issue, I've been sticking a BSD license (which has fewer restrictions) on the libraries that I've "published."
I am also interested in developing a small (commercial) hardware interface based on the Arduino platform. My aim would be to use an off the shelf pre-made populated Arduino PCB from one of the many online shops and use the standard Arduino programing language.
My additional hardware would be a seperate PCB and connected by cables ot the off-the-shelf arduino platform, but share the same enclosure. My firmware would be written myself and compiled from the the standard libraries.
I have searched for hours but can find no definitive answer on where I would stand. What would I need to acknowledge, ? what level of hardware? and software? would I need to disclose?.
It is very confusing with GPL, LGPL and Creative commons mentioned across the site. :o
I would be most grateful if one of the founding Arduino hardware/software developers could state what they would expect to be disclosed form such a project and I would know whether to proceed with a solution based around the Arduino.
If you incorporate an off-the-shelf Arduino board in a larger product, there's no obligation to disclose anything about that product. If you link against the Arduino libraries, you don't need to open-source your code (although technically the LGPL requires that you make compiled object files available if anyone asks for them).
