Is ardruino acceptable in a commercial project?

Question

Electronics

Interested in the opinion of experienced electronics engineers. Here we have a promising idea for two, as it seems to us. There is a working prototype. It is assembled on the basis of ardruino mega and compatible components: BT and GSM shields.
a) Even if we pack everything in a beautiful case (printed on a 3d printer), what about scaling?
b) Is it acceptable to use ardruino , even in small-scale production, in a commercial project?
c) When is it worth thinking about the development / production of a separate board (at what turnover)?
d) How costly is this enterprise (development and production) in our case?

Answer 1

a) Not to be.
b) As a prototype - quite acceptable. In any production, no.
c) Immediately. But I would not do it on Arduino initially.
d) Without at least a textual description of the task, it is difficult to estimate the cost.

Answer 2

Well, why do you need an arduino with such a set of components?
You build a system from the main board and two shields, which are a stupid substrate for a ready-made commercial module (BT and GSM modules). At the same time, the shields are connected by huge connectors, where half of the connections didn’t fit you.
If you want to mass production - make a printed circuit board on which all components will be optimally placed - you will win on the dimensions and quality of the device.
Arduino is for prototypes, not for commerce. It has no protection from electromagnetic, mechanical, vibration, or atmospheric influences. This is only from an engineering point of view.
From a programmer's point of view, there are too many performance and stability losses if pure C is avoided.
So we checked that the idea is working and the modules all work - well done, now design a normal device.

Answer 3

I don't agree with the previous speakers. Have you taken apart 3d printers? Wanhao duplicator 4 or 5 for example. Quietly built on arduino. The fifth one generally uses the native Arduino board without modifications. And industrial printers are based on mini-itx motherboards. Also mauvais ton? Already the industry standard. Pros - excellent maintainability even with short circuits on loops. Pulled out and replaced. If you don't like C programs - flash assembly code into Arduino.
If you make devices for the chemical, oil and gas industries, for military implementations, of course, arduino will not work. For household and amateur appliances - quite. No development costs - immediately into production and immediately receive money.

Answer 4

Here is such an article https://habrahabr.ru/company/apps4all/blog/209158/
Tell me, would you buy a regular tablet or something like that?
Here is the same

Answer 5

I will summarize. Arduino was originally created for prototyping, like any debug board. But the heart and brain of any debug board will always be a microcontroller, microprocessor or FPGA. Arduino allows you to connect ready-made modules at no cost in order to bring any device to a working state. After that, they usually begin to design a separate board with a given functionality for a specific task.

Answer 6

a) A beautiful case and a 3D printer are incompatible concepts. And for a small circulation, a real approach is to look for a ready-made case and design a board for it.
b) For irresponsible products - completely. But then you will have a lot of hemorrhoids. Unstable quality of shields, it is not clear who and where makes them. If you make the boards yourself, the quality is more predictable.
c) When and if there is more/less stable demand for the product.
d) The main cost of time is firmware. There is an abyss between a working firmware and a high-quality and reliable firmware.