life after teensy

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sparkylabs

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So I've not even started using teensy yet but my plan ultimately is to move to it as my main MCU. But onbiously should i ever make a serious project with it is it possible to use just the main chip in a project and program it ? I see from the schematic that there is a second ARM MCU on the board, what does this do ? for context I am looking at the 3.6.
 
The general path to production from teensy is:
Ball o'wire prototype
ProtoPCB of choice prototype
custom PCB with Teensy fitted
Small run custom PCB with Teensy actually in hands of users
Modify custom PCB to have teensy parts fitted directly - buy bootloader chip from PJRC (and making sure your fab uses them and not blanks)
Remove on PCB bootloader chip and either use a proper programmer or make a 'bootloader stick' that plugs into some form of plug in your product to load

Lots of ways to tweak the path, but that's how various people have done it. Most unfortunately under NDA of one sort or another but there is a Teensy 3.2 reference design around. Critical part here is the timeline on Paul getting bootloader ICs into the store, since not only does he sell the BGA versions he also normally sells the larger ones that you have half a chance hand soldering and what you really want for that mid point when you want to prove the design without needing to get a pick and place machine.

Unsure what your background is so sorry if this is already known, but if the plan is a product don't underestimate the advantages of sticking at 'teensy soldered to custom board' for a bit until demand is in the 100s. Means higher cost per unit, but dev costs are much lower and changes and improvements are easy. And as soon as you get to that final step you also need to come up with your own firmware update method.
 
I see, well at least a planned path exists. It's actually the 3.2 I was going to use :confused: I see the arduino plugin goes via a hex file so presumably I can take that hex file and program it with the intended programmer.
 
I've been selling a product with a Teensy fully soldered into the PCB, and recently sold my 300th unit. I've been wanting to switch over to using the MKL04 chips and have the Teensy designed into my board, but after calculating the costs, it does not make much financial sense for me to do so. Buying a Teensy and soldering it directly would be much cheaper and less risk of having to debug any faulty builds.

There is one drawback for me about using a Teensy, is the "fear" that customers would think this: Oh its just a Teensy in a box.

If Paul could create a production-ready Teensy where I can just solder it directly without having to use pins, that would be the best.
 
I wouldn't worry about the whole board bdeing in there. It's you processor module, something the ignorant and not so ignorant won't have a problem with. I did look at the teensy when it arrived and think that I would not mind putting the whole thing into a project as is. Of course I'd expect to get volume units a bit cheaper than the individual price.
 
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