ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ธ.ค. 2018
- During Deep Sleep, microcontrollers consume very low currents, and batteries live longer. Unfortunately is not easy to measure these small currents. Today we will check out two small boxes which promise to make this possible. And we will use the 10’000$ professional Keysight N6705C Power Analyzer to establish the reference.
The first contender is the well known µCurrent Gold which is made by Dave Jones from EEVblog. It is the “mother” of this device category and costs around 80$.
The other is called Current Ranger and is built by Felix Rusu from Low Power Lab. It just entered the market and is an extension of Dave’s concept and costs around 120$.
And we will use an ESP32 to check it out.
Links:
µCurrent Gold: www.eevblog.com/product/ucurr...
Current Ranger: lowpowerlab.com/guide/current...
Keysight N6705C: www.keysight.com/en/pd-274785...
Keysight Partner: www.ccontrols.net
USB isolator: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cePppVMk
Supporting Material and Blog Page: www.sensorsiot.org
Github: www.github.com/sensorsiot
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#LowPower #IOT - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
A simple way to avoid brownout when measuring sleep current is to put a diode across the shunt.
Interesting idea. It is new to me. I have to try it once.
Neat cheat :)
Great idea!
Mike, that's a good suggestion, but what about leakage?
And putting 2 series diodes allows 1.4V max Voltage across the resistor. Inverse parallel diodes gives protection for AC measurements
Super useful & interesting. It is so pleasurable to build things with long battery life & having a convenient way to check if the device is doing what you expect & then quantify the expected run time adds to the pleasure. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome. Without mesurement, it is hard to predict how long it will run. Tests are taking too much time ;-)
WOW! Very nice deep comparison!! esoecially together with the KEysight/Agilent/HP professional LAB Gear!! Thanks to that swiss Distributor for help too!! Its a good demo for us "amateurs" why professional grade gear is so pricy, but sometimes WORTH IT. However as you mentioned, the microcurrent and the more advanced model seem to do the job just fine for a hobby/home lab and still are affordable. actually i did not expect these small devices to be THAT FAST so we can graph them on a scope. Impressive!!! Awesome work @DaveJones ! Awesome Work you other guy ^-^ !! Keep it open and keep on improving! Open Source is the future.
Daves uCurrent Gold helped me a lot during my first steps with the ESP8266 to discover the issues we had at the beginning (sudden resets). And now Felix Current ranger will add a little comfort.
Danke Andreas, nice start of a maker sunday 😁 grabbed a coffee an a croissant to be all set for your informative video.
Sounds cozy. I know that you are not the only doing that. This is why so far I left the publishing time at 8AM CET.
Very nice video, as always! What I especially like, the clear introduction at the beginning (the problem, the topic), and the very nice and easy to follow summary at the end, it's kinda "well framed" video in this way with emphasizing the points after the main part of the video (which is also great, do not misunderstand me, for sure ...).
Thank you for your feedback. Most of my videos should have such a structure. There are only a few exceptions where it makes no sense (e.g. Mailbags)
@@AndreasSpiess Yes, I noticed that for sure, just it's now came into my mind to comment this, surely it applies to the most of the videos of yours ("where it makes sense"), in general too. Great :D
Very interesting. This video answers many of the questions I had when I first saw the "current ranger". Thank you!
You are welcome! BTW We just decided that next spring i will come to your area. This time by the bicycle along the Danube river.
@@AndreasSpiess that sounds like a nice trip! We'll keep in touch.
This video was very interesting and useful to me, just like your other videos. I just wanted to say a big Thank you for all your valuable videos. I appreciate your work.
You are welcome!
Great thank you for covering this and I love turning new things onto you as I know you do the tests with justice! The only problem is now its out of stock and I never picked one up myself lol.
I am sure Felix will restock soon.
Many thanks for the great and refined job man! Fantastic! I've learned a lot from you, sir.
You are welcome!
Thank you! Was waiting for uCurrent Gold to come back in stock. Saw this video and bought Current Ranger.
I hope you will like it.
You do good work my friend. Thank you for your efforts and the education.
You are welcome!
Your videos are always very much helpful for engineering students as well as faculty staff. Huge respect for you from Pakistan.
Thank you for your kind feedback!
Great indepth review, Andreas. Thanks.
You are welcome!
Excellent review of both capable products!
Thank you!
Thanks for a very informative and thought-provoking video. I was about to buy one of these low-current measuring devices, when I remembered I had an old Keithley 177 Microvolt DMM - built in the '80s, I think) that my father left me. It has a uA current range, and when I downloaded the manual was surprised to find the burden voltage is only .2V on that range. There are some of these available on Ebay, at reasonable prices. Just wanted to point out and alternative. Looking forward to your next video :)
Very good. Was not cheap back then, I assume ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess I'm sure you are right. Looking at the manual again, the burden voltage is actually 0.02V /20mV. They now sell for around 70 euro on ebay, and they are a capable all-round multimeter too.
I love the little floating hand pointer!
:-)
I love the little pointer hands!
:-)
@@AndreasSpiess Yep. The pointer hands are great!
I love the hand as a pointer!
:-)
Very nicely done, extremely useful info. I foresee a uCurrent v 2.0 in the near future
I am not sure if Dave has interest in it. The current one is often sold out.
Andreas Spiess Dave mentioned he’s working on a new uCurrent version on the last episode of the podcast
Great video Andreas - I have bought one. I thought your modification was a good idea so installed it. However I found that touching the two buttons at the same time is difficult: if you touch the mA button and then the nA button it works correctly. However, if you touch the nA and then the mA button it turns Auto on in the nA range - which was the very thing we were trying to avoid! I did confirm that it will switch up to uA if necessary. Maybe your's works differently.
Maybe you can improve it even more. Maybe by adding a small delay? This is the charm of "open source"...
Another "wunderbar" video. Danke schön.
Bitte, gern geschehen!
Great comparison!
Thank you!
Andreas, thanks for the great video. It would have been great to see the switch-over time for the Current Ranger. You pointed out the high value @9:03, and how it can be easily filtered out due to it being so high. However, if I'm trying to measure those fast turn on surges, I would need to know that.
I do not think that the current ranger is the right hoice if you are interested in the transition itself
:D I really like this pointer.
Great tutorial and review! Thanks Andreas!
You are welcome!
Useful video 👍
Thank you!
Andreas, thank you for the comparison
You are welcome!
Thanks Andreas, useful tips as always with your thorough videos.
You are welcome!
Great video, Andreas! Very detailed analysis :)
Thank you!
Absolutely interesting. Nice equipment ! For some strange reason, for which I have no answer yet, I have much affection for expensive (measuring) equipment/devices. Your video makes me drool a little bit....
I also do not own it :-(
@@AndreasSpiess Yeah, I know how you must feel when you have to return it....
At work N6705c is my favourite weapon of choice. It sounds expensive but characterising device current consumption over 2 hour instead of 2weeks makes a huge difference to fault finding. The remote PC Software is worth a demo if you are considering one. Wireless fire alarms with 3year+ battery life is my use. Excellent preview :-)
Because this is a maker channel I do not review professinal equipment. I just used it as a reference to show if our cheap devices are ok to use. The N6705c for sure is a nice device!
@@AndreasSpiess some young makers become professionals. It's good to bridge the gap :-)
I think that Dave gave a very good product for the time (few years ago) an was improved by Felix (great thanks to open source)... So everything evolved from an idea. Maybe in the future, someone will make something even better and open source for all to make!!! Thank you for the video !!!
I completely agree.
Well done, as always very informative😀👍
Thank you!
Hello from Brazil. Great video Andreas. What about those Electric Parameter meters like AC 200uA from AC Ammeter or even the old fashion analog gauge uA meters?
You have to check the same: Burden voltage.
hello andreas. I recently tried to build a ucurrent based on the original schematics, but using cheap opamps (tl072 and ne5532). I learned the hard way that ultra low input offset voltage, high gain bandwidth and ultra low noise are a must for this application. If you try to do the same, cascading the 100x gain in two 10x gain blocks increase the bandwidth by a factor of 10, and you can get a much better slew rate, thus, better peak readings.
I think Dave once made a video about the design of the ucurrent with all the explanations.
th-cam.com/video/i069j6S80OU/w-d-xo.html
It is more this one: th-cam.com/video/g7b5YZENvjY/w-d-xo.html
Great video.
Thank you!
*Casually gets acess to a 10'000$ meter* that was very interresting... Would like to see some more of that....
I only asked and they said yes ;-) Since I have the connection now maybe I can try it another time if I have a need.
Some companies really don't seem to care. Lately I had 3k$ worth of industrial cameras and optics on loan just by asking if I could test them.. I spent a couple hours in their office and got to test the cameras for a few weeks on my own! And they couldn't even sell me one since I didn't have my own company!
very useful comparison and a good timing befor christmas ;)
what would be the influence using a (10nF) capacitor across the power consumption device, supressing the switching peaks?
AsUsual I had a 1000uF cap across the ESP. Otherwise it crashed as usual.
Andreas Spiess 1000μF at 500mA peak should not produce such spikes unless the ESR, ESL plus lead resistance/inductance is too large. But it always is in practice, which is why adding that SMD 100nF very close to the chip pins and another near the bulk cap is standard practice.
You are right. I did not try toe 100nF version. Maybe it would have given similar results with a smaller cap.
One thing I also see from the schematic of the uCurrent Gold is that the "-" side of the input and output are tied together. This can cause problems it you are measuring the current for a circuit that has a ground reference since the oscilloscope will also try to pull the "-" side to its earth reference. It could even blow things out if you tried to measure current in something other than the ground line (Ex: Measuring the current in the "+" side of a wall connected DC power supply).
This is why I mentioned the USB isolator. The oscilloscope ground has to the only ground.
I have been trying to find the microcurrent gold for some time. No Luck. When I saw your video I jumper to LowPower Labs and seen they had a few left and ordered right away. Seems like they are in high demand. Now that the holidays are over I can get back to business. Thanks.
You are welcome. Hope you enjoy it.
very interesting and funny little hand!
Thank you!
very interesting! Daves not gonna be very happy!.. thanks Andreas :)
I hope I was fair to him. There is a pure knock-off available which is just cheaper. Felix at least did improvements. I am also not sure if Dave is interested in selling his product as it seems frequently out of stock...
yeah mate.. you did a good job..showed the pros and cons of them all.. and with Dave being a fellow aussie, im 100% sure he will see the bright side of things and not really give a s#it about Felixs newer model..
@@AndreasSpiess Or Dave can't keep up with demand. As you say, each is useful to different groups of people. each able to afford either a $80, $120 or $10,000 device.
i think @Dave Jones might be quiet impressed by this comparison and review! Its good for everyone that these things are open and improvement can be made anytime anywhere. that is evolution
Maybe Dave takes the challange to further improve the Current Ranger, avoiding the spikes when changing between ranges. That would be cool. :-)
what about the power consumption characteristics of the esp8266? I'm not sure whether I missed the detail or you exclusively talk about the esp32. Thanks for clarification.
I measured the power consumption of the ESP8266 in one of my first videos. Here the ESP was only used to compare the two boxes.
@@AndreasSpiess thx. did you plot it as well, like you did in this video? that's the main reason why i'm asking, the plotted pwr consumption of the esp8266.
Very interesting video, as always!
Is there some emergency hack one can build to measure microAmps with a cheap Oscilloscope? I tried a 10 Ohm shunt, and adjusting the power supply voltage upwards in order to get 3.3V to the microcontroller, but that didn't work either - especially when the device woke up.
You have to follow ohms law as I mentioned. There is no hack around this law and you should have all the theory necessary in the video.
@@AndreasSpiess I was wondering if, using some regular Opamp and some diodes we could maybe build something that at least does 50% of what these 100$ devices do. I just find it very frustrating driving completely blind when fooling around deep sleep power consumption. :-(
Maybe you watch the eevblog video about the design. Then you see what is important and what not and you decide.
@@AndreasSpiess Will do! Thanks for the tip!
th-cam.com/video/g7b5YZENvjY/w-d-xo.html
Very informative, thank you Andreas.
You are welcome!
It would have been really nice to see also how much _energy_ do the current spikes consume, i.e., what kind of a regulator / power source / capacitor setup you must have at minimum. And the same measurements for ESP8266 too.
You could integrate the area below the curve. But because the quality (ESD) of the cap is important I would just connect one and measure.
Yet another great video. Any chance of posting the stl for the box, either on thingiverse or your github repo?
Done (www.thingiverse.com/thing:3271227 )
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you very much. I've printed it out and it fits nicely. Much better than the hack job I did with an xacto knife on the supplied box :-)
okay, finally i get it.
thanks
You are welcome!
Keysight very nice. Are you saling the second one?
Maybe. But usually, shipping cost is very high.
i guess the switching current spike was a disadvantage. Any idea what was the peak value for that current ?
That was no current, it was only a (wrong) voltage shown on the oscilloscope.
thank you
You are welcome!
love you :)
:-)
They are both great devices in their own right. Due to the price I made my own version of the uCurrent back when it came out. Same schematic, but it's the size of the two switches side by side and half the price :) Maybe I'll have some time to make the Current Ranger too, seems amazing.
Both are open source, so it should be no problem.
Good video.
Thank you!
If you need to measure low currents (
I had the ST one on order, but the supplier refused to sell it to private persons. But then I saw the limitation of the 50 mA which is not enough if you work with BLE or Wi-Fi. Now I purchased another device which is more expensive. But might be interesting for some of my viewers (Otii).
@@AndreasSpiess We use nordic power profiler NRF6707 which has 70mA range, intended to be used with nordic BLE devices
Hello Andreas. I remember you mentioned a special board or PCB for extreme low energy consumption with deep sleep with a ESP8266 or ESP32. But i do not remember where you mentioned this. Can you give me a hint where can I find it?
It is called Trigboard
Thanks Andreas for interesting review. I have both devices and to me the CurrentRanger is so much better measuring sleeping current. Could you please also share your box for the CurrentRanger? Thank you
It is already on Thingiverse. The link is in the comments below.
Thank you, found it @@AndreasSpiess
That pointy white finger prop reminds me of japanese prOn
:-)
uCurrent seems to be on backorder everywhere right now. How did you get yours?
By waiting a long time ;-) From a dealer in the UK which does not exist anymore. But this is about 2 years ago
Thank you. This is what i was looking for
:-)
Andreas I’m curious what you think about the EspoTek Labrador. I’m thinking about buying it but not sure 🤔
The risk to buy one is not very big. But I assume the case and test leads needed for sure will double the price. Just the board is probably not how I would like it.
what I wonder that the bandwidth of current amplifier is lower than current switching frequency of ESP32/8266, so both current ranger or uA current gold do not sampling current fast enough.
Both are analog devices and do not sample. But they have a low pass filter.
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you Andreas.
I use the Otii device from Quoitech. Very happy with it. Not as cheap as the alternatives in the video, but still good value at $500 compared to a Keysight.
Thank you for the tip. A colleague has also one. Maybe I will be able to get one on my table?
I find it surprising that nobody has made a transimpedance amplifier version of the µCurrent. Close to zero burden. Add a couple of FETs and you can drop the noise much further and improve the response.
Maybe you do one? I am in to show it to my viewers...
@@AndreasSpiess That could be a bit tricky right now, I'm part of a medium-term commercial project which uses TransImp Amps for low current sensing, so designing anything vaguely commercial would be frowned upon to say the least. Maybe a demo circuit - the circuit is relatively simple, but you do need to be careful with PCB layout as they can be very prone to oscillation at higher gains / bandwidths.
So, I presume it is not possible to use a clamp multimeter to measure such a low current, is that correct?
Yes
It is always possible to use it. But it would read zero. So Sorin is right. These meters are very good for big currents.
Geiles Video🤗☝️🙏🙏🙏
Was hat denn Dave zu deiner Kritik gemeint?? 🤔🤔🤔
Lg aus Kärnten
Ich kenne Dave nur so wie du von TH-cam...
I recently heard that Dave is working on a µCurrent re-design, wonder if this video had something to do with it.
I do not know. We will see...
Hi Andreas, could you please also share the source code you used to run the ESP32 for this test. I would like to try a compartion between ESP32 and ESP8266, but probably my oscilloscope is not good enough...
I sent you a response on Patreon.
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you verry much for your continus support!
You should point out that the N6705C is just a power module chassis and the real work is being performed by a module. Was the N6781A doing the work in the chassis?
I did not ask how it was configured inside
@@AndreasSpiess I've demoed the N6705 before and it looks like the N6781A was used. Keysight has seven additional power modules in the SMU category. The module alone is $6100 usd. Nice job on the micro-current comparison. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the clarification.
So why not just turn up the voltage source a bit to compensate for the loss through the series resistor?
And what happens with the voltage if the processor starts to sleep?
Uhhh... it gets a rude awakening...?
what if i made my own power supply that allows me to connect my multi meter to meshure an internal shunt that is before the voltage refrence point
Try it.
i already started also the basic idea is that there will be a resistor in seties before the outpout and feedback but after the capacitors where ist shuld be possible to hook up aa multi-meter (or osciloscope) and there is going to be a switch to switch op the internal resistor to put in your own (the mesurement resistor is independent from the resistor ised for over currnet proteection)
So the N6705c is also a function generator?
I do not think so. It offers patterns to test devices with high power. A function Generator has a different purpose and usually much higher frequencies.
What about an active IV converter with an opamp to achieve virtually zero series resistance and a high signal output?
I do not know what a IV converter is. But both boxes have 2 op-amps built in. If you accept ohms law I fear there is no way to go with zero ohm.
@@AndreasSpiess In an active IV converter, an amplifier is used to cancel out the voltage drop across the shunt. Start by understanding that the inverting opamp configuration is basically an active IV converter with a series resistor, then figure out what it does if there is no input resistor.
Maybe you try it? I never saw it.
@@AndreasSpiess I think he is referring to the so called feedback ammeter, as descibed here www.ni.com/tutorial/5448/en/ or in Keithley app note 1671 download.tek.com/document/LowCurtMsmntsAppNote.pdf . The problem with this approach is that the opamp output has to sink the measured current, so it is only suitable for currents up to a few milliamps. You could use a power opamp that can sink more current, but those don't have the required low input offset and zero drift.
Wondering if there was any improvement on the last 2 years, or is there an alternative, the $130 dollars for currentRanger is a bit much for a hobby.
I never looked into it because I have now more than enough devices ;-)
Very nice Video. Thank you.
Do you know where i can get the Current Ranger in Europe?
I wish you've made this video afew month ago because then I wouldnt buy the µCurrent Gold then.
It is a good product, just a little less comfortable.
I really inspired a lot from your videos... keep growing... lots of love from india
Thank you!
Is uCurrent used to sense High side current or just Low side?
If I remember right: These meters measure on the low side. But you should see it in the diagram.
Surely one could build or buy a power supply with a separate sense line. Just connect the sense line after the current adapter.
You are right. But it has to be pretty fast for the peaks ;-)
Andreas Spiess Guessing linear rather than SMPS then.
I do not know how they do it.
You could just buy one. A sense line is pretty common on the better power supplies.
Thank you Andreas!
It would be great if you make a video comparing the power consumption in deep sleep mode of ESP32, 8266 and 8285. So we could learn how much and how long each microcontroller is consuming at boot, wifi on, wifi off, deep sleep, wake up, and so on..
Bye 😉
Some of this work was already done (for the 8266). The ESP32 is not very different. I might do it for the ESP32 in relation with my MicroPython tests.
I just wrote a pretty long in-depth blog post series that looks at deep sleep and automatic light sleep on the esp8266 and the esp32 in detail: blog.voneicken.com/projects/low-power-wifi-intro/ The bottom line is that the esp32 is better unless you're only wake up sporadically from deep-sleep and are using an open access point (which you probably shouldn't...).
Thank you for the link. I will study it!
I wonder if the EEVblog DMM would do the autoranging...
I do not know
Thanks for this very helpful comparison. I am very interested in These devices. Sometimes I have to measure the current of Homematic components. µA in normal mode (sleeping) and ca. 50mA when sending. This works not too bad with Brymen BM857 (869 would be the better alternative today) in the mA range. µA range of course leads to a reset. It is a 50 000 Count meter for a reasonable price - not too far from 1:100 00. Unfortunately without scope output.
And I have to bridge the meter out when powering up the DUT and filling all the capacitors. Otherwise the expensive Bussmann fuse would be blown.
For me, the oscilloscope output is very important. Up till now, I thought, the max current is around 300 mA. But it seems to be more like 500. Looking at the specs of the ESP it says 250mA, but in the "small print" I saw 50% duty cycle...
When I started with the ESP this oscilloscope output was very important to understand the need for a "beefy" capacitor.
@@AndreasSpiess Yes, but unfortunately most scopes have 8bits which is far away from 1:100 000. So you have to use different scope attenuations for wake and and sleep. These tools will make it easier.
Concerning ESP8266 I startet by using 10µF ceramics and 1000µF NCC in parallel and this works very well.
I am sure a good small cap helps.
You must have got your 6705 at a big discount if it was only $10k!!! Try $35k AUD. It is a nice bit of gear to have on the bench though ;-)
I only briefly searched for the price. So I might be completely wrong. Thank you for the correction!
oh man the current ranger would be great but it doesn't measure negative currents. thats a real set-back. i mean how can you use it to measure motors?
If I remember right it has an option you can select. Maybe you check the manual?
@@AndreasSpiess thanks for your reply man! didnt know that. i will have a look. thank you :)
Interesting. uCurrent Gold should have about 300kHz bandwidth, and should be doing better with peaks. They shouldn't be much smaller than what reference is reading. Unless spikes are shorter than 10ns. I think the main reason are the leads actually.
I think making a uCurrent Gold with third opamp, where it uses a log amplifier, and BNC connector, would help a lot. It is easy to undo the log operation on the osciloscope and end with very good dynamic range. Plus powering from 9V battery would be a plus.
I agree: 9 volts would be much better. However, I do not know the specs of the used op-amps.
@@AndreasSpiess I didn't claim to use the same opamps as they are now. It was a suggestion of a new improved design, so all things can be redesigned if needed.
@@movax20h and obviusly with autorange feature. Also, if you include an isolated usb to output this data for analizing in PC would be incredible xD
@@gonzalofernandeztrastoy1760 if you have log opamp you do not really need autoranging. Usb will only add to noise. Please no. No switching regulators or ground loops. Adding USB data logging would be hard. Just use the oscilloscope. It already has a frontend and high speed adc and storage. Use something with 16 bits and you would be good.
@@movax20h I was thinking to avoid buying a good digital osciloscope (not everyone has one, me for example) and make a current measure device by itself (everyone has a PC). Otii Arc uses an usb connection to PC and I think there is a way to islote this noise from ADC measures
I use a poor mans approach: Low consumption (sleep mode with 1 sec wake-ups) can be easily measured by knowing the overall capacitance of the circuit and measuring the voltage drop during the time. If the inherent capacitance is too small you add 100-1000 uF externally. A simple RC filter can help to average complex consumption waveforms better than the measurements built into most scopes. Just switch between the two supply branches depending on what you are measuring.
Good Idea. Analog sometimes is easier than digital!
Caveat: adding capacitors also introduces leakage currents. The larger the cap. value the smaller the parasitic parallel resistance. I.e. for ceramic caps: 1uF ~ 50MOhm or more, 100uF ~ 0.5MOhm or more. Tantal and Elcos are even worse
www.murata.com/en-us/support/faqs/products/capacitor/mlcc/char/0003
Yippee 😀 my current ranger arrived today 🏴😀
Now you have time for assembling. Merry Christmas!
Andreas Spiess merry Xmas to you Andreas, already assembled with a blue tooth HC 06 on its way🏴😀
Merry Christmas to you, too!
Just found your channel, but holy fuck this small fake pointing hand trolled me for a second. Great content, thanks!
We do what we can to entertain people ;-) This hand is from my wife, BTW. She was a teacher.
Are the ucurrent gold and current ranger both open source?
I think so.
For home DIY purposes it is cheaper to use TIs ~13$ Launchpad (MSP430FR6989 for example) with their EnergyTrace++ technology. You can disconnect Launchpad part from eZ-FET emulation, connect your circuit and use EnergyTrace tool in CCS to trace current consumption. Also you will have a Launchpad to play with afterwards :D
Thank you for the hint. STM also offer such an energy tracer on their boards. I did not find the maximum current for the TI device. But for the STM it is around 60mA, which is not enough for most of my applications :-(
@@AndreasSpiess TIs is only 100mA unfortunately, but it's enough to check if low power mode is really low power.
That is what I thought.
Casper hand!!
??
@Undefined Lastname: Thanks. I did not know this character. Maybe I watch too much technological stuff ;-)
fun fact the ground of a headphone jacck is basically connected to mains earth
"Good enough for the girls I go out with" - wonderful ;-) Thanks for the interesting video Andreas.
Not from me ;-) You are welcome!
Hi Andreas, nice video! In the video you say milliamperes but on the display it says mV.
In one range it is equivalent. The oscilloscope only shows mV. You see the relation on the case of the ucurrent gold for example.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks!
Great video Andreas! I can't believe I missed this when it came out. I am the creator of Joulescope, on Kickstarter now:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/jetperch/joulescope-precision-dc-energy-analyzer
Joulescope fits between the µCurrent/Current Ranger and the very expensive gear, like the Keysight you showed. Joulescope just works, regardless of the current or switching, so that you can focus on what matters, your project. Hope to see you compare Joulescope at some point in the future!
I plan to test your Joulescope when it arrives. Congratulations to your success on Kickstarter!
Why did u stop putting the #video numbers ??? I loved those.... !!!???
I did not stop. I just add it after about 10 videos. But you are right. I have to catch-up right now ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess and don't forget 'the guy with the Swiss accent' reference either - otherwise us old folk will become bewildered and confused. We don't like change!
@Richard: Did I forget it once? Usually, I use a template for my script to not forget it, even in my high age ;-)
We will see if you get change. We Swiss are very interested in how your behaves in the next time...
I wish you and your wife Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
We bought the Currentranger but unfortunately there are problems that make it useless for measuring current in real cases.
With auto-range active (which is the main reason why you may want to buy it), it starts bouncing between two consecutive ranges when the current has values that fall in between.
This is easily demonstrable by putting a 3V coin cell in series with a resistor of 100 Ohm and a trimmer of 10K for example. When you rotate the trimmer, you easily reach values of the current that produce the bouncing of the currentranger between uA and mA.
Useless as I said. Will contact lowpowerlab to ask for a refund.
This seems to be a software issue. I hope you find a solution.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks a lot Andreas, we've already investigated and couldn't find a solution, seems that after going to the higher range the voltage difference measured by the adc converter is a 0 (12 bit) value , and so the controller jumps to the lower range and the loop restarts. Unfortunately we are in a hurry with a prototype and cannot go further in the investigation, the point is that the product was supposed to take care of these very normal cases out of the box, but it doesn't. We have contacted Lowpowerlab and hope in a reply to the major problem we've found. We hope the problem can be fixed, with this issue the 120$ CurrentRanger is useless, but if it gets fixed it will return to be a nice tool to have in our lab.
Would be interesting to see how Dave Jones's new multimeter compares, which I bought, as he claims that multimeter also has a low burden voltage
You can try to measure the resistance with another multimeter. Then you know. Or maybe it is specified. Anyway, Multimeters show average values which sometimes is sufficient, sometimes not.
The Current Ranger smoked the μCurrent.. I did nok expect that.
It is much younger...
Hey, I am using an Otii Arc by Qoitech Sony Ericsson
I heard about it from a colleague. Maybe I get it once on my bench.
Nice ... but ... but the price!
I know...