Optimizing energy consumption is essential for embedded systems, particularly for battery-powered devices. Traditional power profiling methods can be cumbersome and inefficient, but the Energy Debugging feature in the OpenEPT Toolset simplifies this process. With precise sampling, synchronized event tracking, and intuitive visualization, OpenEPT offers valuable insights to optimize software execution and extend battery life. This post focuses on a practical use case demonstrating the Energy Debugging feature, while the implementation details are described separately in this blog.

To demonstrate Energy Debugging Functionalities, as it was case in previous testing scenarios, ESP32 platform, which is battery powered, is also used in this scenario. Figure 1 illustrates testing setup.

The ESP32 firmware is designed to connect to a local Wi-Fi network and transmit two types of data chunks: Large (L) and Small (S). Each large chunk is 10KB and sent five times, while small chunks contain only a few bytes and are also sent five times. The system alternates between sending large and small chunks, with a 3-second pause between each switch. Each chunk is assigned a unique ID, included in the corresponding Energy Point (EP) names, which are transmitted before and after data chunk transmission. This allows precise measurement of time and energy consumption for data transmission on a battery-powered ESP32. The Firmware Energy Profiling Library (FEPLib) is used to send Energy Points from ESP32 (DUT) to OpenEPT device. More information about are presented within this blog. Complete code that is run on ESP32 is available here.

This video showcases how the OpenEPT Toolset enables real-time energy consumption monitoring and Energy Point visualization, providing valuable insights for energy debugging of MCU-based platforms.

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