How to Stress Test Your Raspberry Pi and Keep an Eye on Temperature

A simple way to stress test and monitor your Raspberry Pi is to use a Python script. This script will: Start a stress test. Monitor CPU temperature and clock speed. Log the results to a file. 1. Start a stress test 2. Monitor CPU temperature and clock speed 3. Log the results to a file.

4.Creating the Python Script:

1. Open the terminal and create a new Python script file using nano:

sudo nano stress_test.py

2. Paste the following code into the file:

import subprocess
import time
from datetime import datetime
import os

# Credit: @Techiga

def get_vcgencmd_output(command):
    result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True, capture_output=True, text=True)
    return result.stdout.strip()

def get_temperature():
    output = get_vcgencmd_output("vcgencmd measure_temp")
    return output.split('=')[1].split('\'')[0]

def get_clock_speed():
    output = get_vcgencmd_output("vcgencmd measure_clock arm")
    return int(output.split('=')[1]) // 1000000

def get_throttled():
    output = get_vcgencmd_output("vcgencmd get_throttled")
    return output.split('=')[1]

def main():
    start_time = time.time()
    # Get the current time and format it
    current_time = datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
    readable_time = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    
    # Define the directory path
    base_path = os.path.expanduser("~/")  # Set base_path to the user's home directory
    
    # Define the filename
    filename = f"{base_path}Temp_Test_{current_time}.txt"
    
    # Start the stress test
    stress_process = subprocess.Popen(["stress", "--cpu", "4"])

    # Wait for a few seconds before printing the header
    time.sleep(0.3)  # Adjust the duration as needed
    
    with open(filename, "a+") as fb:
        # Write header to file
        header = "Elapsed Time (s)  Temperature (°C)  Clock Speed (MHz)  Throttled\n"
        fb.write(f"Date and Time: {readable_time}\n")
        fb.write(header)

        # Print and write header to console for clarity
        print(header, end='')
        
        try:
            while True:
                elapsed_time = time.time() - start_time
                temp = get_temperature()
                clock = get_clock_speed()
                throttled = get_throttled()

                # Format the data string with padding for alignment
                data_string = f"{elapsed_time:>10.0f}, {temp:>16}, {clock:>15}, {throttled:>14}\n"
                print(data_string, end='')
                fb.write(data_string)
                time.sleep(1)
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            print("Stopping...")
        finally:
            stress_process.terminate()
            stress_process.wait()
            print("Stress test stopped.")
            print(f"Data saved to {filename}")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()



3. Save the file by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and Enter.