diff --git a/projects/RPi/options b/projects/RPi/options
index d96d7e40a2..b5a925ea59 100644
--- a/projects/RPi/options
+++ b/projects/RPi/options
@@ -149,3 +149,8 @@
   # Space separated list is supported,
   # e.g. ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS="DRIVER1 DRIVER2"
     ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS="$ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS"
+
+  # set up serial console when building a development image
+    if [ "$DEVEL_VERSION" = "devel" ] ; then
+      EXTRA_CMDLINE="console=ttyAMA0,115200"
+    fi
diff --git a/projects/RPi2/options b/projects/RPi2/options
index 19fb347653..2a67bda569 100644
--- a/projects/RPi2/options
+++ b/projects/RPi2/options
@@ -149,3 +149,8 @@
   # Space separated list is supported,
   # e.g. ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS="DRIVER1 DRIVER2"
     ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS="$ADDITIONAL_DRIVERS"
+
+  # set up serial console when building a development image
+    if [ "$DEVEL_VERSION" = "devel" ] ; then
+      EXTRA_CMDLINE="console=ttyAMA0,115200"
+    fi