News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:How to Debug Your Battery by Animats on Sunday July 28, 2024 @03:47AM (#41091833)
That tool is for someone who needs to maximize battery life for a small device.

For higher powered DC loads, there are Hall effect sensors. These usually come as plastic-enclosed devices with a hole in them, through which you route one of the high-current wires. They need some DC power, usually 5V or so, and you get a voltage out proportional to the current. They sense the magnetic field from the wire, without requiring a direct connection, which is good when you're measuring high current, high voltage, or both. Some have a split ring so you can install the sensor around an existing wire without cutting it.

For AC, there are current transformers, which install the same way, and put out a small current in a fixed ratio to the current in the wire being sensed.

The hand-held version is a clamp-around AC/DC current meter, a common tool.

These are all standard, modestly priced items.

Re:How to Debug Your Battery by tomtranter on Sunday July 28, 2024 @12:34PM (#41094231)
I used Hall effect sensors for a project and found they needed a fair bit of calibration. Shunt resistors also did the job with fewer problems but this was a 16p2s module.
Re:How to Debug Your Battery by Animats on Sunday July 28, 2024 @05:12PM (#41096007)
> I used Hall effect sensors for a project and found they needed a fair bit of calibration.

From AliExpress?

Re:How to Debug Your Battery by exmadscientist on Monday July 29, 2024 @12:05PM (#41101475)
Hall sensors have a lot of issues. If you can handle the power dissipation in the resistor, a shunt plus a fancy zero-drift difference amplifier is almost always going to be superior.

Hall sensors win for very high currents, high bandwidths, and when isolation or noninvasive measurement is required.

Re:How to Debug Your Battery by Animats on Saturday August 03, 2024 @06:21AM (#41145728)
Technically, yes. That's how most meters work. But now you have high current, high voltage, and isolation issues in your sensing device. So you need more testing and approvals.