Hi, I have a couple of questions about current range setting.
How can I set current range with pyjoulescope_driver?
I guess it’s given by --set, but I don’t know parameter. --help doesn’t give such detailed info.
(Where can I find info/document for all --set parameters?)
Is it possible to configure current range in runtime depending on GPIO state with pyjoulescope_driver?
Our device uses current ~70mA at peak and ~30uA at power down state (we’ll reduced it to < 10uA).
And auto current range doesn’t seem accurate enough for the power down state so that we need to change it to 180uA (eventually to 18uA).
First, you can list all parameters and values using
python -m pyjoulescope_driver info --open restore *
Add the “-v” option to also list the metadata, which includes the value options.
So, if you want to record at with the “18 mA” current range, you would do:
python -m pyjoulescope_driver record --set "s/i/range/select=18 mA" --set "s/i/range/mode=manual" out.jls
I supposed you could do something on the host, but the delay getting the GPI value through the JS220 over USB to the host and then sending the command to the JS220 would be MUCH longer than the autoranging delay to downrange from 10 A to 18 µA. It’s quite fast:
Let’s compute the charge offset error due to downsampling. Here is what I measure for downrange switching times in this case (consider as typical, not guaranteed):
Range
Duration
Error (µA)
Error (nC)
180 mA
25 µs
150
3.75
18 mA
68 µs
15
1.00
1.8 mA
118 µs
1.5
0.18
180 µA
2018 µs
0.15
0.30
Note that Error (nC) = Duration * Error (µA).
So the total error due to downranging from 180 mA to 18 µA is the sum of the Error (nC) volume, which is 5.23 nC. To compute the full error for a nonzero value, you can add ±0.25% of the actual value times the total downsampling duration of 2229 µs.
You can use this information to compute the percentage error for your application. Let’s say your device draws 70 mA for 100 µs, which is 70e-3 * 100e-6 = 7 µC. Your device then shuts down to 0 A. So, the error contributed by the JS220’s downranging is 5.23e-9 / 7e-6 * 100 = 0.075%. Seems pretty good to me
I wondered if it’s possible to configure joulescope to switch current range depending on gpio state before start capturing. It sounds not.
But is it possible for host to change current range after starting capture in the first place?
Why do you think it is not accurate enough?
I see noisier wave at device’s power down state when using current range=auto and the noise was reduced when using low current range setting (=180 uA).
The python -m pyjoulescope_driver info --open restore info * should work, but you do need to be up-to-date:
pip3 install -U pyjoulescope_driver
Yes, the command for the JS110 is different:
python -m pyjoulescope_driver record --set "s/i/range/select=18 mA" out.jls
Yes, the host can change the current range parameters at any time, even during a capture. However, I would be VERY careful with setting manual current ranges as the JS110 and JS220 autoranging is designed to reach the best possible range. It is very easy to clip your signal by setting a manual current range.
It looks like you have turned off the min/max display on the waveform widget. You should have these on when using manual current ranging to ensure that you are not saturating. I suspect the reason that the Joulescope JS110 is not downranging is because the system has frequent activity above the current range threshold. If you set a manual range below this level, then you are clipping actual data.
You can see what autoranging is doing, if you want. Turn on the current_range = r channel in the waveform widget. The Joulescope UI 1.0 alpha now labels the current ranges on the y-axis and has a much nicer min/max display by default.
