Description
This Product allows you to purchase the µCurrent with a set of stackable 4mm leads and the required battery.
The µCurrent turns your multimeter (or oscilloscope) into a powerful and precise current measurement tool, from picoamps to amps.
Utilise the more accurate voltage range of your multimeter to measure precise current. Even expensive precise multimeters can be severely limited on their current ranges by the shunt burden voltage and tolerance.
Measure the standby and sleep current of the latest generation of microcontroller and other digital electronics, energy harvesting devices etc, down to the nanoamp (or even picoamp!) level with superb accuracy.
The µCurrent also works as a precision x100 voltage amplifier.
See Dave’s article originally published in Silicon Chip magazine about this project and explaining burden voltage.
Thousands of the original µCurrent are in use all around the world, and it has quickly become the industry standard low cost tool for low power current measurement in modern low power microcontroller based digital electronics. The µCurrent GOLD is the latest design with greatly improved specs over the original design:
- 0.1% vs 0.5% on the mA range
- 0.05% vs 0.1% on the µA and nA ranges
- 300KHz bandwidth vs 8KHz bandwidth
- +/-1.25A vs +/- 0.3A maximum current (& improved mA range burden voltage)
- Shorting switch (useful when changing ranges, so you don’t break your circuit)
With the extra bandwidth you can now measure fast changing “sleep” modes in microcontrollers. The added shorting mode ensures uninterrupted power to your device under test whilst changing ranges. The µCurrent can rival 5 1/2 digit multimeters in accuracy, it is truly a precision instrument.
MADE IN AUSTRALIA!
Specifications – µCurrent GOLD
3 Current ranges:
+/- 0-1250mA (20µV / mA burden voltage typical) * switch contact resistance plays a role here. 10uV due to the shunt resistor.
+/- 0-1250µA (10µV / uA burden voltage)
+/- 0-1250nA (10µV / nA burden voltage)
Output Voltage Units: 1mV/mA, 1mV/µA, 1mV/nA
NOTE: You simply read your milivolt multimeter range as if it were mA/µA/nA
Resolution (nA range):
100pA (3.5digit meter)
10pA (4.5 digit meter)
1pA (5.5 digit meter)
Accuracy (typical):
<+/-0.05% on µA and nA ranges
<+/-0.1% on mA range.
Output Offset Voltage: <50µV (essentially insignificant on 4.5 digit meter)
Bandwidth:>300KHz (-3dB)
Temperature Drift: <10ppm / degC (µA/nA), <15ppm / degC (mA)
Noise: < -90dBV
THD: < -60dB
Battery: CR2032 Lithium coin cell Battery Life (supplied): >50 hours (battery good LED ensures accurate measurement when LED is on).
