USB Current Sensor

Do you want to be able to measure what current your board is drawing in real time? Maybe it is a board that draws short bursts of current? Or maybe you want to investigate what in-rush current your board draws? If so, this is the product for you!

The TI INA290 is an ultra-precise current sense amplifier that can measure voltage drops across shunt resistors over a wide common-mode range. The INA290A1 on our board has a gain of 20 Volts per Volt and we measure the current using a 0.05 Ohm shunt resistor. Together these produce an output of 1 Volt per Amp. If your board is drawing 100mA, you will see an output of 100mV. The maximum current it can measure is 2 Amps and we've included a 2A resettable fuse for added protection.

We've provided both 0.1" breakout pads and Gator pads, to make it easy to connect up your multimeter or oscilloscope. Feed power in via the USB-C socket, and provide power to your board via the USB-A socket. A pair of USB 2.0 A to C Cables will allow you to connect the input to your USB port or power supply and the output to your board. You might find our BNC to Alligator Cable useful for connecting to your oscilloscope. Our Banana to Alligator Coax Cable is perfect for connecting your multimeter.

We do not plan to regularly produce SparkX products so get them while they’re hot!

Experimental Product: SparkX products are rapidly produced to bring you the most cutting edge technology as it becomes available. These products are tested but come with no guarantees. Live technical support is not available for SparkX products. Head on over to our forum for support or to ask a question.
  • INA290A1 Ultra-Precise Current Sense Amplifier
    • Operating supply range (VS): 2.7 V to 20 V
    • Common-mode input range: VS to +120 V
    • Gain: 20V/V
    • Gain error: ±0.1% (maximum)
    • Offset voltage: ±12 μV (maximum)
    • High bandwidth: 1.1 MHz
    • Slew rate: 2 V/μs
    • Quiescent current: 370 μA
    • Operating temperature range: -40 °C to +125 °C
  • 0.05 Ohm Sense Resistor
    • 0.2W maximum
  • Current sensing range: 2A maximum
  • Voltage drop at 2A: 0.1V

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