Raspberry Pi: Read CPU temperature

Since the Raspberry Pi 3 is on the market, you also have to deal with the issue of CPU temperature again. This is because previous models did not reach a critical temperature even under constant load or overclocking, which is no longer guaranteed with the Raspberry Pi 3.

Reading out the CPU temperature

With the predecessors of the Raspberry Pi, neither passive nor active cooling was necessary, as critical temperatures could not be reached there.

1. You need to know what the temperature of your Raspberry Pi is, as high temperatures significantly reduce the lifetime of your CPU, i.e. your processor.
2. To read out the temperature as conveniently as possible, resort to the Pi Control tool. This allows you to read out the temperature, the voltage and also the clock speed.
3. To do this, enter the command "vcgencmd measure_temp" into the web interface of your Raspberry Pi. In response to this command, you will receive the current temperature of your CPU.
4. Make sure that the temperature is always below 90 degrees, because from then damage to your CPU will occur. From about 95 degrees, you must expect that the CPU consumes or burns out.

Take precautions

With the Pi Control, you can not only display the temperature historically, but also set up a temperature warning. Especially when working intensively, you may neglect to read it and risk damage to your device. Therefore, it is recommended to set up a temperature warning.