arduino / arduino/ArduinoCore-API
Add API to advance millis() and micros()
- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
- 306
- Forks
- 150
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
When an AVR MCU sleeps in power-down mode, it's clock stops running. Typically time is being kept using the watchdog timer, or an asynchronous timer2, to allow waking up after a specified time. However, the `millis()` and `micros()` counters are not updated during sleep, meaning that the sketch needs to jump through hoops (manually offsetting these counters, or modifying Arduino's global variables) to make various timing work. The former only works with sketch code, not libraries that rely on both counters, and the latter is obviously very ugly and non-portable.
Ideally, there would be an API that allows modifying the millis() and micros() timers by adding (or perhaps also subtracting?) a specified time from both. Most obvious would be an int32_t specifying the number of microseconds. This allows offsetting the time by about 35 minutes in one call. Alternatively, specifying both millis and micros separately would increase the range, but also complicate the code a bit (needing actual division instead of just bitshifting, I think). In either case, I'd say that both counters are always updated at the same time and stay in sync, not being updated individually.
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Research direction
Start by locating the declarations and implementations of millis() and micros(). Review how both counters are kept in sync, then resolve whether the API should add or subtract a shared int32_t microsecond offset or accept separate millisecond and microsecond values. Done means sleep-related code can advance both timers together without modifying Arduino globals.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- embedded-iot
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100