EC-9.7 Power, Debugging and Reliability on a Real Board
You can put a part to sleep and know what is still running, measure its current honestly, stop it on a breakpoint on real hardware, use a watchdog without hiding the fault, and recognise the failures that look like software and are not.
Before:S5-2. Computer Architecture and MicroprocessorsEC-7. Signals and SystemsUnlocks:PE1-4. Embedded C ProgrammingEC-13. Laboratory Practice, in Sequence
This is the topic that separates something that works on a bench from something that runs for a year on a battery. It is placed last in the module because every one of its techniques needs the earlier material, and it is the topic the board practice modules quietly assume when they talk about debugging.
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Sleep modes, and what stays awake
A part has several sleep depths, and each one keeps a different set of peripherals and memories alive. The design question is which source is allowed to wake it and how long waking takes.
NPTEL: Introduction to Embedded System Design (NSUT and IIT Jammu) · CourseMeasuring current draw honestly
Average current decides battery life, and it is dominated by short awake periods rather than the sleeping figure. Measuring it needs an instrument that can follow a current changing by a factor of a thousand.
NPTEL: Introduction to Embedded System Design (NSUT and IIT Jammu) · CourseOn-chip debugging: breakpoints on real hardware
A debug port lets a host stop the processor, read memory and set breakpoints in flash. It is the difference between reasoning about what happened and looking at it, and it costs two pins.
NPTEL: Embedded System Design with ARM (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseWatching a signal you cannot print
Toggling a spare pin at the start and end of a section and watching it on an oscilloscope measures timing without changing it. Printing over a serial line changes the timing you were trying to measure.
NPTEL: Embedded Systems Design (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseThe watchdog, and designing for the reset
A watchdog resets the part if the program stops feeding it. It turns a hang into a restart, and feeding it from a place that runs even when the work has stopped defeats the whole purpose.
NPTEL: Embedded Systems Design (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseBrown-out, decoupling and the failures that look like software
A supply that dips as a motor starts can corrupt memory or restart the part, and the symptom is code that misbehaves at random. Decoupling capacitors and brown-out detection address the cause rather than the symptom.
NPTEL: Microcontrollers and Applications (IIT Kanpur) · Course
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- FreeNPTEL / IIT Kharagpur · CourseNPTEL: Embedded Systems Design (IIT Kharagpur)
- FreeNPTEL / Netaji Subhas University of Technology and IIT Jammu · CourseNPTEL: Introduction to Embedded System Design (NSUT and IIT Jammu)
- FreeNPTEL / IIT Kharagpur · CourseNPTEL: Embedded System Design with ARM (IIT Kharagpur)
- FreeNPTEL / IIT Kanpur · CourseNPTEL: Microcontrollers and Applications (IIT Kanpur)
Links last checked 3 Sept 2026.
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