I have a project that uses a SparkFun Red Board and a Big Easy Driver stepper motor controller. I have heard that there are ways to permanently incorporate the Arduino chip into my project without losing the board. Please let me know what items I need to work such magic. I guess I would need the chip with a bootloader? And then a USB port so I can update the chip in my project? Would I simply attach power and my analog / digital connections to the proper pins on a PCB? Can a similar procedure be followed for the stepper motor controller?
The microcontroller on the RedBoard is soldered in place and removing the chip and reusing it would be quite difficult. You could use something like a [ATmega328 DIP chip that has the bootloader already installed and place that on your own board. That plus a few additional components would replicate an Arduino board on your own board. A [tutorial like this one would show you how to connect everything.