New Industry Products

EEMBC-Approved Power-Monitoring Technology for Energy-Critical Designs

October 24, 2017 by Paul Shepard

STMicroelectronics' STM32 Power Shield enables developers to check the power consumption of their embedded designs accurately, using the same hardware chosen by EEMBC™ as the new reference platform for the IoTConnect and ULPMark™ (Energy Monitor V2.0) benchmarking frameworks.

Compatible with STM32 Nucleo development boards, the STM32 Power Shield (X-NUCLEO-LPM01A) 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.

When used with EEMBC IoTConnect and/or ULPMark, the STM32 Power Shield offers an extended GUI for direct benchmark measurements and energy display. The measurement range, from 100nA to 50mA, is ideal for testing small devices that face stringent power limits, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) endpoints.

With the companion graphical PC application STM32CubeMonitor-Power (STM32CUBEMON-PWR), the STM32 Power Shield gives detailed insights that would otherwise require an oscilloscope or other 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, priced $70.00, and ships with STM32CUBEMON-PWR included.

X-NUCLEO-LPM01A

The X-NUCLEO-LPM01A is a 1.8V to 3.3V programmable power supply source with advanced power consumption measurement capability.

It performs consumption averaging (static measurement up to 200mA) as well as real-time analysis (dynamic measurement up to 50mA with 100kHz bandwidth).

The X-NUCLEO-LPM01A operates either in standalone mode (using its LCD, joystick and button to display static measurements), or in controlled mode connected to host PC via USB (using the STM32CubeMonitor-Power software tool with its comprehensive graphical user interface).

It can be used to supply and measure the consumption of STM32 Nucleo-32, Nucleo-64 or Nucleo-144 boards, using Arduino connectors. Alternatively, it allows to supply and measure the consumption of any target connected by wires via the basic connector.

Key Features:

  • STM32L496VGT6 microcontroller featuring Arm® Cortex® -M4 core at 80 MHz / 100 DMIPS and three 12-bit ADC at 5 Msps
  • Programmable voltage source from 1.8V to 3.3V
  • Static current measurement from 1nA to 200mA
  • Dynamic measurements:
    • 100 kHz bandwidth, 3.2 Msps sampling rate
    • Current from 100 nA to 50 mA
    • Power measurement from 180 nW to 165 mW
    • Energy measurement computation by power measurement time integration
    • Execution of EEMBC ULPMark™ tests
  • Mode standalone:
    • Monochrome LCD, 2 lines of 16 characters with backlight
    • 4-direction joystick with selection button
    • Enter and Reset push-buttons
  • Mode controlled:
    • Connection to a PC through USB FS micro-B receptacle
    • Command line (virtual COM port) or
    • STM32CubeMonitor-Power PC tool.
  • 4 status LEDs
  • Target board connectors:
    • Arduino™ Uno and Nano connectors
    • Basic connector (white): 4 wires
  • Flexible input power-supply options:
    • USB micro-B (VBUS)
    • External power connector (7 V to 10 V)
    • Arduino Uno and Nano connectors (pin 5 V)