Scout: The Arduino That Arduino Forgot to Make

I've been building hardware for 19 years. Missile systems, flight sims, medical devices. Last week I looked up what Qualcomm did to Arduino and got angry enough to design a board.

Not internet angry. Engineer angry.

I went through every RP2350 board on the market. Adafruit Metro. SparkFun RedBoard. Pico 2. Not one of them ships with a single onboard sensor. The most common beginner project,  a simple weather station, costs $50+ in breakouts before you see your first data point. On every platform. In 2026.

So I designed Scout in one night. BME280, LIS3DH, VEML7700, DS3231 RTC, SD card slot, and a 30V/2A PWM output — all on board, Uno form factor, $28 retail (possibly higher). 25 complete projects with zero additional hardware.

Every design decision came from scars, not spreadsheets. The dual I2C buses exist because I've watched students debug address conflicts for 45 minutes. The gate conditioning exists because I've popped FETs. The solder-bridge power select exists because I've watched beginners kill boards.

The spec is locked. The BOM is validated at $11.66. I'm bringing on a professional PCB designer now to turn the spec into Gerbers — I can design circuits all day but I want someone who routes RP2350 boards for a living handling the layout. No ego about it. Build what you're good at, hire what you're not.

"Full disclosure: I used Claude as an engineering partner through the design process, market research, spec validation, design review. But the board is mine. Every sensor choice, every circuit decision, every pin assignment came from my head. AI is a tool. The experience that tells you which eight cents to spend on gate conditioning comes from 19 years at a bench."

CERN-OHL-S v2 licensed. OSHWA certification pending. KiCad files on GitHub when layout is done.

Open Source is Love. For real this time.

More updates as layout progresses.