First, are there any programmers out there that let you load a hex, choose your USB com port, then flash an arduino that way?
Second, How would I go about making a dumb IDE with
[no code preview of any sort ]
[no functions except choose board and com port as well as the program button]
[make it not look anything like IDE]
I am developing a new board for a project at work and have put a lot of time into my code and don't want people to just steal the code. so to be able to send out updates in a way that I can sell my product and worry free I need one of the two options up top where the user has to just open up and write to the arduino without them having to send the device back to be updated(that's hour our previous model had to be updated) . Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated!
DUDE, THATS PERFECT!! now I dont know if this is asking too much, but is there a way to have this program ran with a bat file that comes with the update we send out that can load the right hex, select the com port and flash for the user? I know thats way dumbed down but it would be awesome!
What the xloader program does is emulate the upload function in the Arduino IDE. They both run a program called avrdude, which does the actual upload to the Arduino.
If you upload a program in the IDE with the verbose settings on (in preferences) you can see the format of the avrdude command. So you could create a batch file with the same command.
Couple of things to watch out for, though. The xloader program ships with a copy of avrdude, so it does not need to know the path to the Arduino IDE (nor needs the IDE to be installed). I guess you could do the same.
Will you know for certain the COM part on the user's machine? If not, there would have to be some interaction so they can select it. In which case you might as well get them to use xloader.
I guess you will know the Arduino processor type and the file name for the hex file, so they could be hard coded into the batch file.