plottypusInstall

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Notes from the counters

What I measure while building plottypus: where Apple Silicon reports power, when it stops, and how to check it on your own Mac.

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  1. Check Mac CPU temperature in the terminal

    Activity Monitor has no CPU temperature or fan speed. plottypus reads SMC and HID sensors in the terminal, no sudo, and shows — when the Mac has none.

  2. Mac CPU watts in the terminal, no sudo

    No live watts in macOS. plottypus prints system and CPU watts without sudo: SMC rails on the M5 Pro, a held IOReport value with its age on other chips.

  3. macOS 27 shows 0.00 W CPU power. Here is why.

    On macOS 27 the IOReport Energy Model counters publish in batches, minutes apart, so per-interval samplers read 0.00 W. Evidence, the fix, and a no-sudo SMC alternative.