STMicroelectronics’ STM32 Power Shield lets developers accurately monitor and check the power consumption of their embedded designs. Compatible with the company’s family of STM32 Nucleo development boards, the device dynamically monitors the current under various operating conditions. It has a built-in display that allows current to be read directly and eliminates the need to use a multimeter.

The monitor takes advantage of the same hardware that was chosen by EEMBC as the new reference platform for the IoTConnect and ULPMark (Energy Monitor V2.0) benchmarking frameworks. When used with those standards, the Power Shield offers an extended GUI for direct benchmark measurements and energy display. The measurement range, from 100 nA to 50 mA, is suited for testing small devices that face stringent power limits, such as IoT endpoints.

When combined with graphical STM32 CubeMonitor-Power application, the shield gives detailed insights that would otherwise require an oscilloscope or other potentially expensive test gear. Among the user-friendly features of this multi-OS tool, which can run in various desktop environments, energy profiling gives engineers valuable information to help optimize power consumption.

The STM32 Power Shield X-NUCLEO-LPM01A is available now for $70, and it ships with the graphical application.

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