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<p>I've been using a TI XDS110 (about $110) that has an
"EnergyTrace" feature that can run standalone within TI's
Eclipse-based Code Composer Studio. This allows measuring supply
current to a target with programmable voltage. It will supply up
to 100mA at 1.8 to 3.6 volts. The accuracy is +/-2% or +/-500nA at
less than 25mA and 5% from 25 to 100mA and I have an "extender"
add-on (another couple hundred $) that stretches the current range
up to (from memory) 800mA. The CCS IDE in this setting is just a
huge Java GUI glop for enabling the XDS110 and slurping roughly 2k
samples per second into a .csv file (and yes, it holds these bad
boy sample collections in memory until the run is complete and
this would be a major issue for monitoring for long periods of
time if you don't happen to have 128 gigabytes of RAM in your
computer). The XDS110 is only about $110 and has been extremely
effective for what I've been doing, but I need something that
measures an arbitrary power source with an arbitrary target.<br>
</p>
<p>There's a Kickstarter that's going live on the 19th offering a
device called <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.joulescope.com/">Joulescope</a> that is
passive: it measures whatever voltage and current is going to a
target. It covers nine orders of magnitude from -1 to 15 volts and
-1 to 3A with 1.5nA resolution and 250kHz bandwidth. The software
and front panel connector design is open source. For an in depth
description of this by the creator here's an <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.embedded.fm/episodes/278">interview</a> on
embedded.fm.<br>
</p>
<p>My question is whether another TriEmbed person would like to
share one of these with me. We can get one of the "earlybird"
first production units for $400 so that would be $200 each. If
you're interested in this, please email me direct (pete at soper
dot us). I'm outside Apex and a long hike from everywhere, so this
wouldn't be like sharing a lawnmower with a neighbor, but I'm not
in a low power-centric business, so I wouldn't be in a position to
use this thing for weeks or even months at a time (but I wish I
had it today!). The production schedule is early June. The guy
involved seems to have done his homework: there doesn't appear to
be any development at all left for him to do, just the production
so it appears to be relatively low risk, but of course you can
never tell. So if you're seriously interested, let me know.<br>
</p>
Thanks,<br>
Pete
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