Low power measurement test equipment - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Hur Haider
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 11:38:57 am
content: Hi,I want to measure the power consumption profile of a handheld instrument for predicting the accurate battery runtime of the device. The current consumption varies from few microamperes to an amp. Keysight(formerly Agilent) has a DC power analyzer solution available that seems to have all the features available. See the link below.http://www.keysight.com/en/pc-1113932/dc-power-analyzer?&cc=PK&lc=engThis solution is quite expensive costing several thousand dollars.Is there any low cost solution available costing few hundred dollars that can be used for measuring the power consumption profile. Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 11:58:17 am
content: sorry - no answer - just subscribing because I'm interested too !

author: nugglix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 12:13:52 pm
content: If I understand correctly you want to log voltage and current for a longer period of time.I'd suggest a DMM that can measure current and voltage at the same time(aka power)and has a decent logging capability.These shouldn't be too expensive and fit well into the "few hundreds of dollars" range.I just did that with a HMC8012, worked well for me.CheersEdit: spelling

author: fcb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 12:48:10 pm
content: Quote from: kripton2035 on August 03, 2015, 11:58:17 am+1

author: Hur Haider
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 01:19:28 pm
content: HMC8012 seems to have accurate measurement capabilities.I was looking for a measuring instrument with a built in power supply so that the voltage drop in the leads and that across the current sense resistor can be compensated and that there is no drop at the DUT end. The measurement in this case would be quite accurate as compared to using a separate multimeter and a power supply.Another point that I was wondering about is that will the multimeter have a high enough sampling rate to capture ~100us pulses of current drawn by the DUT.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 01:26:34 pm
content: Am I correct, you need a Power Analysis solution for the SMPS in your DUT?

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 01:57:15 pm
content: Quote from: tautech on August 03, 2015, 01:26:34 pmThe Siglent SDS2000 series has a advanced Power analysis option, a good overview is in the User manual, P173 on:http://siglentamerica.com/USA_website_2014/Documents/UserManual/SDS2000_UserManual_UM01020-E03A.pdf(9 Mb)Product overview:http://www.siglentamerica.com/pdxx.aspx?id=25&tid=1&T=2Additional requirements: Suitable Current probe and De-skew PCB.http://www.siglentamerica.com/prodcut-fjxx.aspx?fjid=1311&id=25&tid=1&T=2

author: Hur Haider
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 01:58:44 pm
content: I need to measure the power consumption profile of battery powered DUT.

author: Hur Haider
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 02:16:35 pm
content: The Siglent SDS2000 series seems to be quite useful for SMPS power analysis, but that is not for what I need it.

author: eas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2015, 04:47:24 pm
content: Not sure that it will hit your specs, but Keithley hasPSUs designed for testing battery powered equipment. I picked up a used working (but uncalibrated) 2304a for $100, and I've seen a fair number of the 2304s and 2303s go for under $200 on ebay. Salient specs: 100nA resolution/sensitivity and 10uS response times for multiple-orders of magnitude change in load.