Bugs and Reviews

We have released a new GUI which features better calibration accuracy, options for user to select the compression strength, smaller buffer sizes and better stability in long runs on slow PCs. It has some minor bug fixes for Sigrok Export feature. Please download the GUI to get the best features from the power profiler. Any feature request or bugs report is welcome.

Most of the devices made for the IOT space specify their sleep currents. This is the most important specification which determines the life of the batteries, as most of the time the system remains in the sleep state. It is common for the overall system current to be well under 10uA, considering multiple ICs on the system. However, practical measurements often seem to be higher than this and can cause faster battery drain. Many of the ICs have internal timers and these can wake-up sporadically even while in sleep mode. Most of the DC-DC converters draw narrow spikes of current while supplying low currents. IO leakage can contribute to higher power drains, if the voltage levels are not kept in the correct logic family levels. All of these can contribute to significant battery life degradation. Since these spiky currents cannot be caught in a multimeter, there is no easy way to measure them. That is where the IOT Power Profiler tool shows it strength. It can measure narrow and high current spikes, even when the target system is in sleep mode (consuming few uA). By observing the nature of the current spikes, one may be able to debug the cause of this current and come up with fixes to solve them.

It has been observed by some customers that on slow PCs, the Windows OS terminates the GUI after running for few seconds. This could be caused by the following 1. CPU is loaded very high and the threads on the GUI cannot get enough time. Kill other applications and re-try. The IOT Power Profiler uses up to 30% CPU on a Core i3 @ 2.3GHz. 2. Not enough priority : Before starting the acquisition, change the priority of the IOT Power Profiler software to HIGH. 3. Do not minimize the application : Running minimized causes the OS not to assign high priority to the GUI. This can cause the application to crash due to limited CPU time. 4. Slow PC and Disk : The GUI is tested to work reliably on a PC with Core i3 running at 2.3GHz with 8GB RAM and a 160GB SSD drive. A slower system can cause problems with the real-time capture requirements of the GUI and cause it to be unstable. Please ensure that the PC used requires the minimum requirements as stated in the user-guide. 5. Anti-Malware : Some anti-malware software can detect a false alarm on the IOT Power Profiler GUI thereby terminating it. Disable Anti Malware and rerun, or add the IOT Power Profiler to the exceptions list in the anti malware program if it allows for a list.