Thinking ahead a fair bit but if I integrate an arduino chip into a product is there a way to keep the code from being copied?
Also, are there fairly cheap places in the US to get production boards made in low volume, preferably ones that have freeware (or an online service) to design the board?
There are lock bits in the chip that you can set offer some levels of protection.
Define "fairly cheap".
I have found using cadsoft.com's eagle to design with, iteadstudio.com for bare boards, and dropshipping all parts to cbas-usa.com in CA to be pretty cost efficient, when I don't assemble myself (due to too many small SMD parts generally). Larger pin-pitch SMD parts and thru hole I do myself.
halfrhovsquared:
Thinking ahead a fair bit but if I integrate an arduino chip into a product is there a way to keep the code from being copied?
Yes. There's "lock bits" bits which disable all memory functions except for "erase chip".
halfrhovsquared:
Also, are there fairly cheap places in the US to get production boards made in low volume, preferably ones that have freeware (or an online service) to design the board?
Lots of them. Try http://oshpark.com/
You can use almost any software to design the PCB. I used one called "fritzing" for mine. It's easy to draw PCBs with it but it
s generally despised around here because it makes horrible schematic diagrams (which you may not need).
Great advice guys, thanks. And Fritzing looks pretty neat, I'll check it out.
Eagle from CADSoft is another popular PCB design tool.
halfrhovsquared:
Thinking ahead a fair bit but if I integrate an arduino chip into a product is there a way to keep the code from being copied?
You certainly can, but it does require a pretty healthy dose of egotism. XD