Measure GNSS power consumption without a digital meter

31 May 2023 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Engineers developing IoT products, or wearables with embedded positioning modules, work hard to improve the design of devices. Besides bringing more accuracy to the table, size, form, adaptability, and battery consumption are aspects that are considered. Power consumption of a GNSS module is closely related to enhancing positioning accuracy; basically, more accuracy usually translates into more power consumption.

Each device consumes energy at different rates depending on capabilities and characteristics. Firmware engineers use various strategies to optimise power consumption. They change firmware settings to make the most out of the device and reduce it to a minimum.

Using a digital meter to measure power consumption, however, is time-consuming. For starters, engineers need access to such a device, find the correct cable adaptors, and connect it correctly. Secondly, they can measure only a single voltage value over a shunt resistor at a time. Finally, they must convert the measured voltage into a current consumption value.

However, as technology evolves, an evaluation kit is currently the easiest way to analyse key performance indicators, including power consumption.

The EVK-M101 is the evaluation kit of u-blox M10. It can measure the current consumption of the M10 chip and connected components like the oscillator, flash memory, and low-noise amplifier. In real time, the GNSS evaluation software u-center 2 can also display the current consumption through the chip and connected components from the EVK-M101. The platform calculates the power automatically as it measures voltages simultaneously – all of this without the support of a digital meter.

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