Hey everyone, I'm creating a laptop cooler for my product design class and I'm currently prototyping with Picaxe (Used it for over a year now). My teacher said if it were a real product I'd have to use a different microcontroller as Picaxe is trademarked. I want my product to be completely mine so I'm just wondering are all microcontrollers trademarked? Would I have to create my own microcontoller to use it in my product? Or can the microcontrollers be used commercially as long as you write your own code for it? I've been looking at PIC programmers from Maplin but I'm unsure if once I'd programmed it I'd be able to use it in my product due to trademarks.

Thanks everyone

Sam

 

I don't see why you couldn't use a PICAXE in a real product. I'm sure they would be happy to sell you as many as you wanted and it's unlikely there is any condition like that in any user agreement. You can ask on the PICAXE forum if you want.
Using a PIC instead would be cheaper so it would make sense to switch if you were going to sell a large amount of the product.
On a side note, the PIC programmers most people would recommend are the PICKIT2 or PICKIT3. I don't think Maplin sell them, but you can get them from Rapid Electronics or other places.

 

In a real world product. A Picaxe controller would never have been used. Because it is way to expensive. But OK for school project by all means. And here we come to the term intellectual property. The Picaxe company will never own the code you put into the Picaxe. That is your work. But the Picaxe company own the code that let you write a Picaxe program. And transfer it into the Picaxe chip. That is their intellectual property. So if you want to use the Picaxe concept you have to purchase chips from them. It is the same as you write some code using Microsoft C++. If you want to sell a system using the code from this compiler. You will also need to purchase some Windows OS that enables you to run your your C++ code. So in this case I will say your teacher is wrong as you describe it. You own the code you put into the Picaxe, and always will.

 

You could design you prototype with PICAXE, and when all hardware is working, switch it with a PIC, and write the code in C or assembler,

See this page http://www.picaxe.com/What-is-PICAXE/PICAXE-Chip-Labels/. Here you have the PICAXE with the PIC uC datasheet.

 

dear friend, I'm new for this forum, please let me know how to add my question here as new one,
seem its very simple question ,but please help me,

 

dear friend, I'm new for this forum, please let me know how to add my question here as new one,
seem its very simple question ,but please help me,

In the front page: Select your forum -> Click on "new thread", high up on the left side, and start asking...

 

ohh,, thank you my friend

 

That something is trademarked does not mean you cannot use it in a commercial product: most every component I can think of offhand is trademarked! Of course they can be used commercial products.


What you cannot do is call your product by a trademarked name. You can say it includes a pickax and note it is a trademarked name of company X, you cannot say your product IS a pickax.

 

Thanks for all these answers guys. I think I'm going to design the product with a Picaxe 18m2 then advance to a different PIC chip. For a prototype I'm pretty sure Picaxe will work perfectly. It's probably going to take time to learn so I'm going to buy the pickit 2 (watched some interesting reviews on the EEVblog on Youtube) and take my time learning.
Thankyou for your replies and input, really appreciate it. I'll probably be back in a few days asking for help with the Pickit knowing me.

Sam

 

If you can afford it get the PICKIT3. The PICKIT2 do not support all flash based PICs like PICKIT3 do. This is newest PICKIT2 support list. http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en027813
The PICAXE-18M2 is based on a PIC16F819. And that is supported by the PICKIT2 programmer

 

Check the licence! Picaxe can be used for commercial products even if you program the bootloader yourself! I would not bother since the cost of a picaxe is exactly the same as the basic microchip without the bootloader! Whoever said they were expensive is just wrong.

Your teacher is wrong but the mistake is understandable. You cannot do the same with Arduino for example. (Different license).

 

Welcome to AAC! The post you replied to was from 2012 and long ago resolved...