A Nordic power trace changes when logging is enabled: how can debugging stay useful?

Treat logging as part of the measured workload. Formatting, buffer handling and a running serial peripheral can consume time and keep resources active. Record whether output is synchronous, deferred or disabled, and compare otherwise identical builds.

For a timing event, a short GPIO marker may perturb the system less than printing a full message, although it still has a cost. For state history, use a bounded compact event buffer and retrieve it after the measurement window. Include timestamps from an appropriate retained clock.

Reproduce the failure with the smallest instrumentation that still reveals it, then confirm the fix with normal logging settings. Keep separate results for debugging and production builds. A lower current reading after removing logs does not by itself prove that the original wakeup bug was fixed.