diff --git a/frontend/src/__tests__/pi-uart-wire.test.ts b/frontend/src/__tests__/pi-uart-wire.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..02dadf61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/__tests__/pi-uart-wire.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/**
+ * A Raspberry Pi header pad wired to an Arduino serial pin must be seen
+ * as a UART link.
+ *
+ * The pads are LABELLED 'GPIO14' / 'GPIO15' — that is what the board art
+ * shows and what every example wire uses. `normalizePinName` only accepted
+ * physical pin numbers for the Pi, so parseInt('GPIO14') was NaN, the pin
+ * classified as nothing, and Interconnect never built the route: a Pi
+ * sending commands to an Arduino was talking into the void.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { classifyPin, isUartWire } from '../utils/boardProtocols';
+
+describe('Raspberry Pi UART pins', () => {
+  it('classifies the BCM-named header pads', () => {
+    expect(classifyPin('raspberry-pi-3', 'GPIO14')).toEqual({ kind: 'uart-tx', uart: 0 });
+    expect(classifyPin('raspberry-pi-3', 'GPIO15')).toEqual({ kind: 'uart-rx', uart: 0 });
+    // Physical numbering keeps working (pin 8 = BCM14, pin 10 = BCM15).
+    expect(classifyPin('raspberry-pi-3', '8')).toEqual({ kind: 'uart-tx', uart: 0 });
+    expect(classifyPin('raspberry-pi-3', '10')).toEqual({ kind: 'uart-rx', uart: 0 });
+  });
+
+  it('recognises the Pi <-> Arduino cross-board wires', () => {
+    expect(isUartWire('raspberry-pi-3', 'GPIO14', 'arduino-uno', '0')).toBeTruthy();
+    expect(isUartWire('arduino-uno', '1', 'raspberry-pi-3', 'GPIO15')).toBeTruthy();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/frontend/src/simulation/Interconnect.ts b/frontend/src/simulation/Interconnect.ts
index 34e658ef..dff5e313 100644
--- a/frontend/src/simulation/Interconnect.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/simulation/Interconnect.ts
@@ -182,12 +182,44 @@ function pushPinState(boardId: string, pin: number, state: boolean): void {
   }
 }
 
+// ── Serial seam for boards driven from outside the sim/bridge pair ───────
+//
+// A QEMU-Linux board can also run its Python in the tab (no WebSocket, no
+// bridge object). Such a board still has UART wires on the canvas, so it
+// needs both directions of the routing: a sink to receive bytes, and a way
+// to announce the ones it sends. Both are plain callbacks — nothing here
+// knows what is on the other end.
+const serialSinks = new Map<string, (ch: string, uart: number) => void>();
+
+/** Receive UART bytes addressed to this board. Returns an unregister fn. */
+export function registerSerialSink(
+  boardId: string,
+  sink: (ch: string, uart: number) => void,
+): () => void {
+  serialSinks.set(boardId, sink);
+  return () => {
+    if (serialSinks.get(boardId) === sink) serialSinks.delete(boardId);
+  };
+}
+
+/** Announce a UART byte this board just transmitted, so the wires route it. */
+export function feedBoardSerialOut(boardId: string, ch: string, uart = 0): void {
+  const subs = boards.get(boardId)?.serialFanout.get(uart);
+  if (subs) for (const cb of subs) cb(ch);
+}
+
 /** Push a UART byte into the receiving board's UART RX. */
 function pushSerialByte(boardId: string, ch: string, uart: number): void {
   if (!runtime) return;
   const entry = boards.get(boardId);
   if (!entry) return;
 
+  const sink = serialSinks.get(boardId);
+  if (sink) {
+    sink(ch, uart);
+    return;
+  }
+
   if (isBrowserSim(entry.kind)) {
     const sim = runtime.getBoardSimulator(boardId);
     // RP2040Simulator doesn't yet expose feedUart per-UART — fall back
diff --git a/frontend/src/utils/boardProtocols.ts b/frontend/src/utils/boardProtocols.ts
index 4d3b68e0..4624219b 100644
--- a/frontend/src/utils/boardProtocols.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/utils/boardProtocols.ts
@@ -191,6 +191,13 @@ function normalizePinName(boardKind: string, pinName: string): string | null {
     boardKind.startsWith('raspberry-pi-4') ||
     boardKind.startsWith('raspberry-pi-5')
   ) {
+    // The header pads are LABELLED 'GPIO14' (that is what the board art
+    // and every example wire use); only physical numbers were accepted
+    // here, so parseInt('GPIO14') was NaN and the pin classified as
+    // nothing at all — a Pi TX wired to an Arduino RX was never seen as a
+    // UART link, and the two boards could not talk.
+    const bcm = trimmed.match(/^(?:GPIO|BCM)(\d+)$/);
+    if (bcm) return bcm[1];
     const phys = parseInt(trimmed, 10);
     if (!isNaN(phys)) {
       const bcm = PI3_PHYSICAL_TO_BCM[phys];